Yankee Network

The Yankee Network was an American radio network, based in Boston, Massachusetts, with affiliate radio stations throughout New England. At the height of its influence, the Yankee Network had as many as 24 affiliated radio stations. The network was co-founded by John Shepard III and his brother Robert, in 1929–1930. The beginnings of what became the Yankee Network occurred in the mid-1920s, when John Shepard's Boston station WNAC linked by telephone land lines with Robert Shepard's station in Providence, Rhode Island, WEAN, so that the two stations could share or exchange programming. Those two stations became the first two Yankee Network stations. In 1930, they were joined by the first affiliated radio stations, including WLBZ in Bangor, Maine; WORC in Worcester, Massachusetts; WNBH in New Bedford, Massachusetts; and WICC in Bridgeport, Connecticut. During the 1930s, the network became known for developing its own local and regional news bureau, the Yankee News Service. The Yankee Network and the Yankee News Service operated until February 1967.

The main benefit of joining the Yankee Network was that it offered its affiliates as much as 17 hours of daily programming. Yankee affiliates were provided with access to some of the best-known Boston vocalists and orchestras, as well as nationally-known entertainers who were appearing in Boston or Providence. For example, a concert by opera star Mary Garden was broadcast, as was a concert by the Providence Symphony Orchestra. Dance music was often played by bandleader Joe Rines and his orchestra, or by other popular bandleaders like Dok Eisenbourg. The Yankee Network also had its own 22-piece orchestra, led by Charles R. Hector. Among other popular entertainers heard on the Yankee Network in the early 1930s were pianist, songwriter and bandleader Gus Arnheim, and local favorites "Hum and Strum." The Yankee Network broadcast radio plays, featuring its own drama troupe, made up of members of the WNAC staff, led by announcer Ben Hadfield. In addition to religious services and educational talks, there were also cultural programs, including excerpts from "The Green Pastures," a play starring black actor Richard B. Harrison; and talks by the region's mayors, governors, and other political leaders. For sports fans, they could hear Boston Braves and Boston Red Sox baseball games, announced by Fred Hoey. College football, broadcast live from various schools in the region, was also a popular feature. In addition to providing local and regional programming, the Yankee Network was also affiliated with the Columbia Broadcasting System (later known as CBS), which provided national programs to complement Yankee's New England focus.

By 1931, the network was also offering regular news broadcasts, on the half-hour, making use of reporting by some of Boston's newspapers. But by 1933, the relationship between print and radio had become contentious, with newspapers no longer willing to provide news to radio stations. The so-called "Press-Radio Agreement" limited the number of newscasts radio stations could broadcast to only two a day, and listeners were very upset that they could no longer hear regular news on the air. In early March 1934, John Shepard III organized his own news bureau, the Yankee News Service, to provide his affiliates with regular local and regional news reports. It replaced the newscasts previously provided by reporters from the Boston Herald-Traveler, Boston American, and Boston Daily Record. Shepard hired Richard D. Grant, a former print journalist from the Boston Evening Transcript, to be in charge of the news broadcasts. Editor in chief was Leland Bickford, who co-wrote a book in 1935 about the first year of the Yankee News Service. The Yankee News Service used the slogan "News while it IS News," intended as a jab at the newspapers, which disseminated news at a slower pace than radio. That was also the title of the book about the creation of the news service. In addition, on February 20, 1938, the Yankee Network debuted its own radio weather service, to provide up-to-date weather information to affiliates. The first chief meteorologist of the Yankee Network Weather Service was Salvatore Pagliuca, who had formerly worked at the Blue Hills Observatory and the Mount Washington Observatory.

Throughout the early-to-mid 1930s, the Yankee Network continued to expand, picking up affiliates in such cities as Springfield, Massachusetts; Hartford, Connecticut; and Manchester, New Hampshire. The network also received support from advertisers, who saw it as an effective way to reach an audience that extended throughout New England. In 1935, the Yankee Network centralized its executive offices and studios in a new headquarters, 21 Brookline Avenue in Boston. The move followed a $25,000 renovation of the facilities. Also included in the building were studios and offices of WNAC and WAAB, the network's Boston stations.

One area where the expansion was noticeable was in the news department, which was praised by national magazines like Variety for its coverage of state legislatures, as well as coverage of news-makers throughout New England. There was some early controversy over John Shepard's policy of inserting brief "plugs" (sponsor mentions) into the newscasts, but Shepard defended the practice as necessary in order to support the broadcasts. Gradually, as the network hired more staff and was able to cover stories more extensively, the complaints diminished. By 1939, the Yankee Network was said to be the first regional network to send a full-time reporter, Pete Tully, to Washington, D.C. to cover Congress. The Yankee Network also earned praise for its coverage of natural disasters in New England, such as in April 1936, when heavy rainstorms caused flooding in western Massachusetts, or in September 1938, when a hurricane devastated much of Southern New England. Yankee affiliate WMAS in Springfield was instrumental in keeping the public informed, broadcasting weather reports and news coverage around the clock until the storm had ended; and later, WMAS raised funds for on-going disaster relief in the region.

Despite John Shepard's affiliation of his Yankee Network stations with CBS, he still became involved in the founding of a new network, which came to be known as the Mutual Broadcasting System, and he served on its board of directors. Beginning around 1936, the Yankee Network also started to carry some Mutual programs. Meanwhile, there were some changes in Boston radio that affected the Yankee Network. CBS had begun purchasing stations, in addition to providing network programming. In early 1936, CBS purchased Boston's WEEI, making it necessary for Shepard's WNAC to affiliate with a different network, NBC's Red Network. The change officially took place in late September of that year.

In the late 1930s, Shepard had become interested in frequency modulation (later known as FM). In 1937 a plan was developed envisioning that 90% of New England could be provided with FM programs by building mountaintop stations, consisting of a 50 kilowatt transmitter on Mount Asnebumskit at Paxton, Massachusetts, plus 5 kilowatt stations on Mount Washington in New Hampshire and Mount Mansfield in Vermont. (Later plans dropped the proposed Mount Mansfield station). With the help of the inventor of FM, Major Edwin H. Armstrong, the Yankee Network inaugurated the nation's first FM radio network, beginning with an early January 1940 demonstration of an FM inter-city relay, linking Shepard's experimental FM station W1XOJ in Paxton, Massachusetts, to an FM transmitter at station W1XPW in Meriden, Connecticut (now WHCN), to Armstrong's W2XMN in Alpine, New Jersey, to the parent broadcasting system based in the studios of WEAF in New York. Shepard's FM network officially made its debut in December 1940 when W1XOJ in Paxton was permanently linked with W1XER on Mount Washington. Because of their superior audio quality, the FM stations became known for broadcasting live classical music concerts.

But while John Shepard III was making plans to further expand the Yankee Network's FM properties, there was a major obstacle. The Yankee Network faced a powerful opponent—the Radio Corporation of America (RCA—the majority owner of NBC), which saw FM as a threat to its established AM radio business. RCA was also concerned that Yankee's technique of "networking" their service around New England via inexpensive, off-air FM relays instead of AT&T phone lines, would open the door to many less well-funded groups establishing competition to RCA's established network, NBC. RCA, under general manager David Sarnoff, successfully pressured the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to move the FM radio spectrum from 42–50 MHz to 88–108 MHz in 1945. This required massive hardware retooling at all FM broadcasters. Some affiliates dropped out, forcing the Yankee Network to lease phone lines from AT&T to fill in the holes between stations. The added costs to broadcasters and the obsolescence of all FM radios at the time set back FM broadcasting for a decade or more.