[BC] Western Union Clocks

[David Kaye]

--- On Fri, 6/29/12, rfoxwor1 at tampabay.rr.com <rfoxwor1 at tampabay.rr.com> wrote:

> the newscast took air at xx.55 when the hourly clock drift
> was greatest.

I'm really mystified by these WU clocks people are talking about.  By the 1960s most clocks had synchronous motors, locking into the 60Hz line frequency.  While the freq might drift a bit, conventional clocks kept time so well (at least here in the SF Bay Area where we have Pacific Gas & Electric) that a clock need only be corrected every few days at the very most.  

So, why didn't stations just use WWV and conventional clocks as we did?