ABSTRACT
The Yankee networkwas one of several regional radio networks from the 1930s into the 1950s that linked stations to share programs and advertising.
Although Boston broadcaster John Shepard III knew little about engineering, he knew enough to hire good people who did understand the technical side of the radio business. In early 1923 he encouraged them to experiment with networking (WNAC linked up briefly with New York’s WEAF). It was not long before WNAC in Boston and WEAN in Providence, Rhode Island, were frequently sharing programming, connected by a telephone line. But Shepard wanted to expand: he had begun paying salaries to talented musicians so they would appear on his stations (early radio was still mainly volunteer, so being able to pay was a major plus in getting the big names to appear), and he felt confident he could offer good programs. When the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) were formed in 1926-27, Shepard was convinced that a local network which emphasized New England news, sports, and music would be well received. He called it the Yankee network, and by early in 1930 he had begun signing up a number of stations in New England. The first affiliates were WLBZ in Bangor, Maine; WNBH in New Bedford, Massachusetts; and WORC in Worcester, Massachusetts. In August 1932, Broadcasting magazine published a tribute to Shepard, noting that he now had eight affiliates, with number nine soon to go on the air. In 1939,
Shepard would put the first experimental FM station in Massachusetts (W1XOJ) on the air, and it too would carry Yankee network programming. By then, the network had its own house orchestra, a music director, staff vocalists, and a large number of talented performers who could offer the affiliates everything from a radio drama to an evening of hit songs. Always innovative, Shepard sometimes ran synagogue services on the Yankee network, as he would also run church services and sermons by well-known priests and ministers.
