The QXR Network

There is so little Classical music in commercial radio now that the idea of a Classical network seems at first ludicrous. NPR of course provides a litany of classical programs on it's network. Most of them are run at night, or interspersed between talk programs. The format is all but dead. It's rare stations who totally ignore their ratings like WRTI who opt to run classical in the day to the detriment of their other programming. But 60 years ago it was all different.
WQXR first tried network programming in 1948. It didnt' work out. they might have stayed away from it but in 1950, WFMZ in Allentown, PA approached WQXR with the possibility of rebroadcasting WQXR's programs. Tests were conducted and WFMZ became an "affiliate". I use the term loosely. They received the AM signal of WQXR and re-broadcast. More here.

In 1953 The Rural Radio Network was falling apart and its affiliates looked into becoming a part of this new QXR Network. WBIB New Haven, joined QXR in July of 1950. WQXR eventually absorbed most of the RRN stations. But off air relay has it's problems. If one station goes down, everybody in line behind them loses the feed. Despite technical problems, the network manged to grow. But something was wrong. James Sondheim the Network manager admitted that until 1958 the network didn't even attempt to become profitable. Stations included: WTAG, WFLY, WFFM, WFMZ, WASH, WITH, WFIL, WJTH, WROC, WGR, WNBF, WIOV, WRUN, WSYR, WHDL and many others. By 1960 there were 20 stations on board. This was out of hand. They needed to make some money. In 1962 The New York times sold the network to the Novo Industrial Corporation. Novo president William Romain was very quiet through out the partnership. At the time this was billed as an expansion. The then 36-station network was to expand to 50 within a year and 100 within 2 years. They were to add talk programming, interview shows, and refocus on spot sales. None of those things happened. On October 21st 1963 the network planned to go live coast-to-coast. But the music programming was distributed by tape. Some of the business programs were syndicated over landlines.

But the math was all wrong. Affiliates saw that they weren't making the cash on the network programming that they did on local programming. the network peaked at about 44 stations. By the fall of 1963 the QXR Network was history.

Julie Chase Fuller WTAG

This all came about because of a cookbook. The title of the book is "WTAG's Gossip Bench Cookbook Swap Session Recipes" compiled by Julie Chase. It comes to us without a publishined date but is estimated to be late 1950s. It tells me she was a radio host in the on WTAG-AM and she seemed to have been something like a local Betty Crocker.
I was not even close. See above. In the 1960s she's Julie Chase Fuller. She got married and changed her name, using the then risque hyphen. She was a board member of A.W.R.T. American Women in Radio and TV. She was their president in 1966. We are lucky they were a progressive group. Their vice president, Tomi Jackson, was black and Jet magazine wrote a small blurb on it. If not for that, I'd have almost no collaborating evidence on any of this. AWRT still exists today. The history on their website is pitifully brief.

AWRT was formed in 1951 as successor to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) women's division. NAB voted approval of the new organization, offering complete cooperation and assistance. The following year, more than 280 women gathered to celebrate and approve the structure of the AWRT.

Suddenly I see her as a feminist. AWRT was founded in 1951, making Julie a very early member of the organization. A 1963 Issue of the International Television Almanac list her as a Vice President, so clearly her tenure was at least 3 years and certainly more. This is verified by a matching listing in the Attorneys Trade Association Radio Annual of 1963. The VPs have regions. she has the "E Area" which can only be assumed to be East. That same year, Public Relations Journal notes that Julie authored a pamphlet called "Meet Mike" an instructional for young girls who wanted to become radio commentators. (I'd love to get a copy of that.)
Before all this, Julie was a radio show host. In the 1960s she did a local show in Worcester aimed at housewives and house-making. The show had a little meat on it though. Helen Nelson was a regular guest on WTAG mornings with Julie Chase Fuller, discussing books, authors and literature. Later on I find her listed as the director of women's programs and community services. She is expanding her role. Then there is a big gap. A meaningful gap. Broadcasting Magazine writes her up in 1967, then she's a VP at AWRT.

In 1970 Syracuse University Awards her the The George Arents Pioneer Medal. It is only awarded to Alumni, and is an award for excellence in their field of endeavor. So she is a graduate of Syracuse University and by 1970 was well known for her work. This cannot be for her work at WTAG. This must be related to her tenure at A.W.R.T. She was still with the group in 1971, as I confirm in the Martha Brooks Papers housed at the digital library of U. Maryland.

In 1978 she's off raising money to restore Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA. She must have succeeded because today it continues to exist as the Julie Chase Fuller Endowment Fund for Mechanics Hall. After that I cant find anything. Just a passing note on her death in a book about the Organist Guild of Worcester around 1990.

*Julie's head shot is courtesy of the personal library of Aleta Meadowlark of Omnomicon fame.