Find That Radio Dial (Part 5)

 

This is an interesting Superhet table radio made by Silvertone. They were a Sears & Roebuck company, and are still based in Chicago today. It's a Silvertone model 4769 made in 1937. This particular model could tune both AM and two shortwave bands. The preset buttons are laid out in a ring, like an old phone with the tuner dial in the center. They called it a "Teledial."  [SOURCE]  I did fine a thread where someone tried to restore one. That quirky mechanism appears to be a challenge to disassemble and reassemble, with different pulleys turning clockwise and counterclockwise. [SOURCE] 

This dial has WEEI, WHDH, WORL, WCOP , WNAC, and WAAB; all metro-area Boston stations, so there's little mystery about location. This is set also closely matches an ad in the 1937 Radio Yearbook for the most popular Boston radio stations. (below) It lists WNAC, WEEI, WBZ, WAAB, WHDH, WMEX, WCOP, and WORL in that order. (Of course, that's a list of only local stations. )  But the omission of WMEX and WBZ from the pre-sets is at the least, interesting. Perhaps a reception issue, or just personal taste. These sets usually came from the dealer with some buttons already set for demonstration purposes. Then there were perforated tags the owner might add. This owner may not have bothered. This radio has 4 unlabeled.

Broadcasting Yearbook 1937

 WEEI is a well known Boston station, operating today on 850, but were on 830 kHz from 1929 to 1941, when this radio was new. However, the station today that broadcasts as WEEI broadcast as WHDH from 1929 until 1994; so this is a actually different button on that same dial. That WEEI, a Hubbard station and CBS affiliate, broadcast at 5,000 watts daytime, and 1,000 at night from 590 kHz.  590 in Boston today is WEZE; a religious talker. More here.

 WHDH broadcast from 850 kHz, and was owned by Matheson Radio Co. I know I wrote 830 above but 850 is what's in the Radio yearbook. It broadcast out of the Hotel Touraine from 1933 to at least 1939. The building was on the corner of Boylston St. and Tremont near the Boston Common. Built in 1897, the Jacobethan building even contained a library and in the 1950s, was the HQ of the local Communist party. It is still standing today but was converted to apartments in 1966. 

WORL broadcast from the Myles Standish Hotel. That building is also called Myles Standish Hall, and is located at 610 Beacon St. In 1949, Boston University bought the building and converted it into a dorms. They renovated again in 2018 and re-named it Wituwamat Memorial Hall. 

WCOP broadcast on 1120 from the Copley Plaza Hotel. The station changed calls from WMFH in 1935. Owned by the Massachusetts Broadcasting Corp on paper it was operated by it's founder, Joseph Kirby. He died in 11937 and it was sold by his estate to Arde Bulova. Under NARBA it moved to 1150 kHz in 1941. I think they began broadcasting the Hayloft Jamboree in 1948. Today this is WWDJ still on that frequency but broadcasting religious blather.

WNAC was a member of both NBC-Red and the Yankee network. Their studios were at 21 Brookline ave. But it shared a transmitter site with WAAB in Quincy, MA. A year later Congress began an investigation of "duopoly" stations and John Shepard had to divest. Seems quaint with the crazy monopolies allowed to run wild today. 

 WAAB was both a member of both the Mutual and Colonial networks. It broadcast on 1410 at 500 watts; another occupant of 21 Brookline Ave. It was the home of the Colonial network, which itself carried some Mutual programming. Owner John Shepard operated the Yankee network out of WNAC. Shepard had bought the station in 1931 and changed it's calls from WLEX. Mayflower Broadcasting made an attempt in 1938 to take WAAB from Shepard, but in 1941 he won in a re-hearing with the FCC.

But back to the Silvertone model 4769. It appears to have been popular in the 1930s, or maybe that's survivorship bias. Maybe they're just popular with collectors. A quick web search finds dozens of mostly non-working dust collectors.  

 

This one (above) has WJR, WLW, WKJR, KDKA, WWJ, WJAS, WWSW?, and WKBN? This is a mix of Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Detroit stations. This has to be someone in a rural area of Ohio, but that's hard to narrow down without a local station. 

WABC, WCAP, WBRB, WMCA, WIP, WEAB, WOR, WJZ, and KYW. This one is certainly in New Jersey, receiveing both New York and Philadelphia metro stations. WBRB, being the only local one of the bunch. 
 

 

 

Arnie Woo Woo Ginsburg

As Thom commented yesterday, "Arnie Woo Woo Ginsburg was a radio GOD at WMEX." As often as WMEX has come up in the past I was remiss in my duties to not cover that so I am making amends tonight. Arnie Ginsburg, of the Barons, of Jan & Arnie Arnie did go into radio. After going nowhere as a solo singer in LA Arnie actually became a bit of a legend. In the 1965, September 18th issue of Billboard Ginsburg is listed as the #1 DJ in Boston on WMEX. The Contemporary Music Almanac by Ronald Zalkind claims that he is the first (and possibly only) jock to have a hamburger named after him: the Ginsburger. In other words, he rose to fame as fast as Jan & Dean fell from it.

I'll start with the obvious question. Ginsburg got the nickname "Woo-Woo" when he was hosting the "Night Train"program on 1600 WBOS-AM.  He would use this train whistle sound effect on air and it stuck with him. It wasn't his first radio gig, but it was early in his career. He actually started on 590 WORL-AM, where he was an engineer for announcer Alan Dary.  It was in 1956 that he moved to WBOS. Being the new guy, he got a night shift. Ginsburg obviously made that work for him.

Arnie crossed the street to WMEX in 1960. This was a big deal. He was breaking singles by 1961. Notably "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight" by British skiffle artist Lonnie Donegan. This was the top-40 phase of his career and he was quite literally number one. He was on air 7 days a week... though that 7th show was pre-recorded. More here.

In 1966 he screwed up a bit. He jumped to WRKO-AM and they got smacked with the non-compete clause in his WMEX contract. In his defense this is something that still comes up today.  Basically it's legally dubious for a contract to take away someones right to make a living. [more here] Interestingly, in this case WRKO fought the contract for 18 months and lost. Ginsburg was off air as of May 1967. He got lucky and they moved him into sales. They could have fired his ass.








But in the end, Arnie turned out to be good at that too. He went into a series of desk jobs: In 1970 he became the GM of WBCN, an AOR station. In 1972 GM at WWEL-AM, and part owner of WXKS-AM in 1979.  He did all that while doing a little oldies show back on WMEX-AM on Saturday nights and a weekend shift on WROR. IN 1984 with Pyramid broadcasting he purchased WVJV-TV Channel 66. (some courses incorrectly cite the calls as WDJD.) This was a fascinating experiment that was also a total business failure. They sold the station in 1986.

Arnie "Woo-Woo" Ginsburg retired just a little while after that. He was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2008. He is known to make the trip back into Boston to make guest radio appearances.