page_title: Yankee Network
section_title: Expansion
hierarchical_section_title: Yankee Network / History / Expansion
caption_attribution_description: Publicity photo of Buster Keaton and WAAB radio show host Ruth Moss. The radio station was part of the Yankee Network, which was on the air from 1930 to 1949.
context_page_description: 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 twenty-four 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 Providence, Rhode Island station 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.
context_section_description: 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). 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, 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, Massachusetts was permanently linked with W1XER, the station on Mt. Washington in New Hampshire. 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—ironically, 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 m
caption: Buster Keaton and WAAB radio host Ruth Moss in an aluminum drive publicity photo for the Yankee Network, 1942.
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