Rochester, NY had some interesting early radio call letters - WHAM, WSAY and WHEC. While WHAM and WSAY didnt stand for anything, WHEC stood for the Hickson Electric Company. An engineer named Gordon Brown who worked for Hickson would build a mechanical TV in 1927 and be recognized as the first person in Rochester to view a signal. Brown told a Congressional committee in 1952 that he received the broadcast from WGY in Schenectady, NY (about 200 miles away.) Brown would next build and operate 15 watt WNBQ from 1927-1929. By 1936, Brown would receive a license for WSAY on 1210Kc. with 100 watts. (This is said to be Rochesters third station - depending on how one counts.) Eventually the station would be licensed for 5,000 watts on 1370Khz. The station never had a network affiliation and in the 50s adopted a Top 40 format. DJs such as Terry Thomas, Jerry Jack, Bob Bell and Mike Melody had a long run although their voices would change frequently. Bizarrely by the 70s, the AM station had a free-form rock format. What probably mostly supported the station was a nightly broadcast from Rochester of the Family Rosary for Peace which began in 1950. This broadcast was distributed by an unequalized program line to other area stations and would be aired by two that I worked for in the mid-and-late 70s. Brown was notoriously frugal. For much of the stations history, his building looked like a suburban house so he could sell it as one if the station failed. Brown would repeat this when he built WNIA in the Buffalo area (Cheektowaga) in 1956. The pictures from the 60s and 70s show Rondine Junior turntables and spots on 3 reel tapes. Brown reportedly spent most of his time over the years unsuccessfully trying to receive assignment of Rochesters third and last VHF commercial license. In 1980 the station was sold to Lew Dickey Sr. (father of current Cumulus CEO Len Dickey Jr.). Pubcaster WXXI bought the station in 1984 to broadcast local and NPR news and talk programming. BTW The call letters for WHEC radio have changed but the WHEC-TV calls are still used in Rochester. Heres a YouTube video done by WSAY staffer Bob Greene: https://youtube/watch?v=q8u_FHfob9k You can read more about WSAY, including its frequency and power changes over the years, here: fybush/sites/2007/site-071005.html
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 16:10:23 +0000
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