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This used to be a radio station

R

Runrigger

Thinking of the buildings on Eastern Avenue in East Providence that housed WHJJ, WHJY, WSNE, & WHIM got me thinking of other structures no longer radio stations. Maybe some of you can add to them:

Naturally WPRO on Mason Street in Providence. I had my first radio interview there with Jay Clark. It was informational more than anything else, as I had zero experience but an interest in the business & he was good enough to sit with me & talk shop. It was in the same building as the state unemployment offices, which probably was convenient.

John Street in Cumberland with the treacherous driveway. I have no idea if anything is in that building now, but it's still there.

What about WKRI in West Warwick. I've never been inside, but isn't that where On The Rocks is now?

Don't know about WKFD's location in Wickford as I'd never been there.

A friend of mine told me some incarnation of WALE was located on Westminster Street near Empire & the studio overlooked the street so passers-by could see the personality. I swear he mentioned driving by one Thanksgiving day & Geoff Charles was in the window doing his talk show.
 
I worked briefly at WKRI while an intern. The station was in a house! When you walked inside there was a staircase leading up to what looked like Bedrooms. LOL. It was really weird. All the studio stuff was on the first floor. What a freaking dive! The console was filthy from the cigarette ashes of Big Ange. I wanted to puke.
 
Runrigger said:
A friend of mine told me some incarnation of WALE was located on Westminster Street near Empire & the studio overlooked the street so passers-by could see the personality. I swear he mentioned driving by one Thanksgiving day & Geoff Charles was in the window doing his talk show.
Click to expand...

During the early part of the Battaglia family's "Reign of Error", the station was indeed located across from Grace Church, at 311 Westminster in downtown Providence, in what was once a porno theatre.

The broadcast studio (with storefront style window) was in the theatre's old men's room (somehow strangely appropriate :D, the ladies' room thus becoming the 'unisex' restroom, and the receptionist / secretary's area being the former box office.

In fairness though, that studio was inherited from the previous incarnation of 990 WEAN during its flirtation with adult standards in the late 80's.

Thankfully, that building no longer exists, and has been replaced with a lovely little urban park across from Grace Church.

See!!......Urban Renewal DOES have its advantages :D
 
Dighton Rockhead said:
Runrigger said:
A friend of mine told me some incarnation of WALE was located on Westminster Street near Empire & the studio overlooked the street so passers-by could see the personality. I swear he mentioned driving by one Thanksgiving day & Geoff Charles was in the window doing his talk show.
Click to expand...

During the early part of the Battaglia family's "Reign of Error", the station was indeed located across from Grace Church, at 311 Westminster in downtown Providence, in what was once a porno theatre.

The broadcast studio (with storefront style window) was in the theatre's old men's room (somehow strangely appropriate :D, the ladies' room thus becoming the 'unisex' restroom, and the receptionist / secretary's area being the former box office.

In fairness though, that studio was inherited from the previous incarnation of 990 WEAN during its flirtation with adult standards in the late 80's.

Thankfully, that building no longer exists, and has been replaced with a lovely little urban park across from Grace Church.

See!!......Urban Renewal DOES have its advantages :D
Click to expand...
Where do I begin ???...All of these are gone, now...yes, I worked at WFKD, in Wickford...used to be in an old house on Updike Street, across from the town hall. I also worked at WWON (now WOON) when it was in a house on Getchell Avenue. That house also once housed WNCK (We're winking at you). WGNG in the old swampy area of John Street, as well as WARA up on the 4th floor of the then-Attleboro Trust building. How about JB105 in the Lapham building, or The Hawk on 255 Quaker Lane, on the second floor of that business office building. B101 was once on Wampanoag Trail...I was there, too. Also, WHIM, yes not only on Eastern Avenue, but on John Street for awhile, then on Pavilion Avenue, where it all ended for them. Another was WLKW-FM, on North Main Street in Providence, or WSNE, when it was over near the Rumford Aquarium...and the new WICE (550) on John Street. I was at all of them, sad to say.
This business is full of sad stories like this. I could only wish that lots of new stations were going up, rather than going dark and coming down (or becoming a Walgreen's).
 
You can thank Harold Bausemer for the 311 Westminster address. Studio was in the old men's room, production in another room. There was a security grate that was rolled over the front window at night.
I worked overnights there for awhile. You'd see the occasional derelict....
 
DG02816 said:
You can thank Harold Bausemer for the 311 Westminster address. Studio was in the old men's room, production in another room. There was a security grate that was rolled over the front window at night.
I worked overnights there for awhile. You'd see the occasional derelict....
Click to expand...

Studio in an old men's room? Employees must wash hands before cracking mic.
Charles actually sitting in a ground level window broadcasting? I bet he wasn't intimidated at all.
Occasional derelict on Westminster Street? Did you say occasional?

Oh and wasn't Hot 106 originally located in Pawtucket? Anyone know what that building is?
 
McRadio said:
DG02816 said:
You can thank Harold Bausemer for the 311 Westminster address. Studio was in the old men's room, production in another room. There was a security grate that was rolled over the front window at night.
I worked overnights there for awhile. You'd see the occasional derelict....
Click to expand...

Studio in an old men's room? Employees must wash hands before cracking mic.
Charles actually sitting in a ground level window broadcasting? I bet he wasn't intimidated at all.
Occasional derelict on Westminster Street? Did you say occasional?

Oh and wasn't Hot 106 originally located in Pawtucket? Anyone know what that building is?
Click to expand...
WKFD didn't even have a working bathroom, when I left. Talk about needing a Purel dispenser...
HOT106 was in a building off Central Avenue, in Pawtucket, behind the fairly new Pawtucket Credit Union building. They were owned at one time, by Peter Ottmar, right next door to Mercury Mail. Peter also is a former owner of WARA in Attleboro (when I was there).
 
Mariner Square in Narragansett had either WBLQ or WPJB (I think it was PJB) in the mid 1980's-early 1990's

Who can forget the Outlet building?

Oxford St originally housed Lite 105/WLKW before Telemedia brought them over to the Trail (that move was a nightmare) and then WRX moved in if I remember the timeline right

Wasn't the 550 studio in Warwick at some point near Ski Market before they became Radio Disney (or am I mixing that up with another station?)
 
wow, wkfd. i just went to mom's house this weekend and she had dug up an old photo of me behind the wkfd board-circa 1979. the old biulding is still there, covered in ivy. just on the right heading south on the other side of the bridge. i think its a dentist office now
 
Wknd,

Mariner Square was the original home of 99.3 WBLQ. I helped build the studios, was one of the board ops, and was Chief Engineer for awhile.
 
DG02816 said:
Wknd,

Mariner Square was the original home of 99.3 WBLQ. I helped build the studios, was one of the board ops, and was Chief Engineer for awhile.
Click to expand...
Does anyone know what's going on with the old WGNG/WICE location, on John Street ? Does the Hysko family still own the building ? How about those towers ? How long will they stay there, if the station no longer exists ? Who has the unenviable task of changing the lighbulbs, when they go out, if there is no longer a station there ?
That driveway, which was always quite a thrill in the snow and ice, has a locked gate across it, these days. I had the chance to work in that building on three separate occasions (WGNG, WHIM, WICE). Being near the water, it had to have some of the biggest, nastiest spiders that I have ever seen. Switching to low power was also a trip, in that you actually disabled the on-air signal for a second, to do it. In my last days there, at the resurrection of the old WICE call letters (WICE BIG TIME), I recall a lot of attention being given to AM stereo.  I was there on the Sunday morning that it went live, and supposedly cost the station thousands. The first program broadcast by WICE (550) in AM stereo was the Polish Mass. In retrospect, when was the last time that anyone heard anything, about AM stereo ?
 
The old WHIM in East Providence. Went AM stereo for a time in 1989. I remember seeing the bumper stickers
that said "AM Stereo 1110 WHIM" in dark blue at Elmwood Dodge.
 
DG02816 said:
Wknd,

Mariner Square was the original home of 99.3 WBLQ. I helped build the studios, was one of the board ops, and was Chief Engineer for awhile.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Dave. I knew it was one of them....used to hit Pancho's for irish music and park near the sign showing the way toward the studio; but was always a weekend and never went there on a weekday (was working down at Salty Brine Beach at the time).
 
The Old WGNG studios are long gone from John Street. The transmitter & antennas
are still there and now relay radio disney, owned by abc.

How Sweet It Is!

Gary
 
IdentityProgramming said:
The Old WGNG studios are long gone from John Street. The transmitter & antennas
are still there and now relay radio disney, owned by abc.

How Sweet It Is!

Gary
Click to expand...
Yes, but the building is still there. Who owns it now ? Does it still belong to the Hyskos ?
 
Runrigger said:
Mark, unless I'm misreading this page from Fybush, Radio Disney owns the building too.
http://www.fybush.com/sites/2004/site-040820.html
Click to expand...
Thanks for that link, Runrigger ! A pretty sad end to the old 550 saga...I'm almost sorry that I saw those pictures, now...I was there for the Golden Great 55 era, the short time that WHIM was there, and then for WICE AM Stereo...all interesting times...the one constant...an older gentleman named Bob Carnie, who was an evening engineer/jack-of-all-trades. A soft spoken guy, and one of the nicest guys that you'll ever meet. Back in the Golden Great 55 era, he was often seen setting up that old monster of an automation system. This was the precursor to today's voicetracking. I used to record the Saturday overnight breaks on cart, and leave...Bob would plug them in, so it sounded like I was there...and that was back in 1979...which was also the first time that I ever heard myself on the radio, AFTER I had already left for the night :)
 
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