WHAV
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| City | Haverhill, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Merrimack Valley Massachusetts & New Hampshire |
| Branding | WHAV |
| Slogan | "Catch the Wave" |
| Frequency | 97.9 MHz |
| First air date | March 16, 1947 |
| Format | Oldies/News |
| Callsign meaning | HAVerhill, Massachusetts |
| Owner | Public Media of New England, Inc. |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www |
WHAV was an AM radio broadcasting station at 1490 kHz from 1947 to 2002. Today, the call letters are associated with a not-for-profit Internet and low-power radio station whose audio is also carried, in part, by a number of public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable television stations. The 1490 frequency now has the calls WCEC.
WHAV's story began during World War II in the offices of The Haverhill Gazette, a daily newspaper serving what was, in the middle of the century, a shoe-manufacturing center 30 miles (48 km) north of Boston. The Gazette, as early as 1944, planned an FM radio station, but had to wait for the end of wartime controls on new construction. John T. Russ announced on April 14, 1945 in the newspaper that "The Gazette long ago recognized the need of a Haverhill radio station and has long been in agreement with your premise that a newspaper is the logical proprietor of a broadcasting service, especially because the dissemination of news is the primary task of both press and radio." He defined WHAV’s mission during the inaugural March 16, 1947 broadcast:
WHAV is going to be your station — a station for the people of Haverhill and the people in our surrounding towns. What concerns you directly, your lives and businesses, your community betterment will always get first priority on the WHAV airwaves.
In its application to the Federal Communications Commission, The Gazette sought authority to construct a 300-foot (91 m) tower on Ayer's Hill, the highest point of land in Haverhill. The station would transmit at a frequency of 46.5 MHz (a frequency then assigned to FM) and use a 1,000 watt Western Electric (AT&T) transmitter. At that time, Western Electric operated a manufacturing facility in the city. Russ predicted the station would cost $30,000 to $50,000, operate eight hours-a-day at the start and employ 11 people. One of the first delays in moving the station forward was a debate over the location of the tower. The Gazette indicated its selection of Ayer’s Hill was second to Silver Hill, a more centrally located city-owned parcel. Mayor Glynn and some alderman were willing to sell or lease the Silver Hill site, but others held out for using the site as a war memorial. J.R. Poppele, chief engineer of WOR, New York, conducted the original survey of sites. The Gazette ultimately bought the Silver Hill site at auction and the FCC conditionally granted the license December 10, 1945. The war memorial, incidentally, was not constructed for another 40 years and was placed at another location. A major blow to the FM project came, however, when the FCC moved FM’s spectrum assignment from the 42–50 MHz band, allocated just before the war, to the 88–106 (later expanded to 108) MHz band. This had the effect of rendering 500,000 receivers obsolete.The Gazette responded by filing an application for a 250-watt AM station. “Mr. Russ said establishment of an AM station for local coverage does not mean the company has abandoned plans for its FM station. It was decided to apply for an AM station when it became apparent facilities were not going to be developed as fast as first believed possible for FM stations. The company plans to operate the AM station in conjunction with (what would now be a 20,000 watt) FM station when the later station is set up.”
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