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 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 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.