Frequency sharing, face sharing
Another dumb convective question.

The latest item at American Radio History is a 1940 promo booklet from WLLH in Lowell Mass. The station was technically interesting because it had two separate studios and two separate transmitters, in Lowell and Lawrence. Both studios operated as WLLH, and they split the schedule. When a local program originated from the Lowell studio, both transmitters carried it. When a program originated from Lawrence, both transmitters carried it.

Many stations had frequency-sharing arrangements, where two completely separate stations operated at different times of the day on the same frequency. KSAC in Manhattan and WIBW in Topeka shared 580 kc. WIBW took the mornings and evenings, when advertising paid best, and KSAC (educational station at K-State) took the unprofitable afternoons. Nice efficient arrangement.

Very few stations operated like WLLH, because there was no obvious financial advantage.

But the PEOPLE in Lowell are far more interesting than the tech details. Lowell was mainly Italian at that time, and many of the pictured employees have Italian names.

In general Americans were more varied and distinctly ethnic in 1940. Greeks were greeker, Italians were italianer, Jews were jewer, Blacks were darker, Brits were pinker, Scots were more translucent.

But in these pictures EVERYONE looks Italian, even the people with Anglo names.

Question: Are faces permanently shaped by habitual contacts?

It's certainly true with Okies and Injuns. Okies of hillbilly descent picked up the stoic stiffness of the warrior tribes.

A similar pickup was at work in Lowell.

Does this acquired muscular pattern shape the variable parts of the genome?

Later and simpler thought: Maybe everyone in Lowell WAS Italian. The Anglo names came from non-Italian fathers, who were genetically insignificant when Mamma was Italian.

Labels: Asked and partly answered

  ¶ 8:50 AM