Who here has been to WSRS/WTAG?

[ssetta]

I know these stations aren't discussed very much on here, but both stations share the same building out in Paxton, MA in the middle of nowhere. I just recently looked it up on Google Maps and did Street View, and it looks like it's pretty much in the woods. The building itself looks like it's somewhat old, but not THAT old. Does anyone know how old this building is, or if it's the original? I know both stations have been on the air since around 1948, though I'm mostly interested in WSRS, since I think it's better-known. I'm surprised WSRS isn't talked about much on here, since it seems like it's really popular, and it's like a superstation almost. I think it covers most of New England, and some people think of it as a "Boston area" radio station.

So, who has been there?

 

[WMC2006]

Never been there but, looking at their website, I notice that the woman (Nancy? Can't recall her name off the top of my head) who had the 10-3 shift is gone and some guy named Glenn Hamilton is now in.

 

[HHH]

"I know both stations have been on the air since around 1948......"

Actually, both WTAG and WSRS go back further than that, and both are historic stations.

WTAG has been on the air since 1924, founded by a department store, originally called WDBH. The following year, 1925, the station was purchased by the newspaper the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, and the call letters changed to WTAG, the abbreviation of the ownership. It was an NBC affiliate for many years. As a matter of fact, WTAG was an original NBC affiliate, carrying the inaugural broadcast of the network in 1926. The paper sold the station in the early 60s.

WSRS first went on the air in 1940 as W1XTG, the experimental FM of WTAG, later called WTAG-FM and finally WSRS (Worcester's Stereo Radio Station). They ended up on Asnebumskit Hill in Paxton a few years later, probably following the example of the Yankee Network FM station, built by Major Armstrong, that began transmission from up there in 1939. The Yankee station (later called WGTR) had a fantastic reach, heard from Provincetown to the Berkshires, and WTAG-FM's reach was almost as good. WGTR went off the air in the 50s, but WTAG-FM remained. Later, WAAB (1440 AM) established WAAB-FM up there in 1961, which became WAAF.

 

[4CX1000A]

Later, WAAB (1440 AM) established WAAB-FM up there in 1961, which became WAAF.

And a couple months ago, WUMB moved its Worcester station, WBPR 91.9, to the former Armstrong tower,

 

[4CX1000A]

The place you really should see is not Asnebumskit Hill but WTAG's AM transmitter site. The place is a veritable museum of radio going back to the 1920's. I was privileged to have been taken on a tour of the place last summer. I wish my brother had been with me, because questions arose concerning some of the old 78 RPM recordings at the site, and my brother has an encyclopedic knowledge of the popular music of the 1920's and 1930's.

 

[paulcano]

I've been there (not inside the studios). It's really not that much "in the woods". It's right off of a main street in Paxton and just down a side street. If I remember correctly, I think the street is a dead end street.

 

[ssetta]

The place you really should see is not Asnebumskit Hill but WTAG's AM transmitter site. The place is a veritable museum of radio going back to the 1920's. I was privileged to have been taken on a tour of the place last summer. I wish my brother had been with me, because questions arose concerning some of the old 78 RPM recordings at the site, and my brother has an encyclopedic knowledge of the popular music of the 1920's and 1930's.

It looked to me like both WSRS and WTAG broadcast and transmit from the same location. I do know that there are some towers in back of the building that both stations transmit from. Maybe those are only for WSRS, I'm not sure. If not, where is WTAG's AM Transmitter site?

 

[jlehmann]

The place you really should see is not Asnebumskit Hill but WTAG's AM transmitter site. The place is a veritable museum of radio going back to the 1920's. I was privileged to have been taken on a tour of the place last summer. I wish my brother had been with me, because questions arose concerning some of the old 78 RPM recordings at the site, and my brother has an encyclopedic knowledge of the popular music of the 1920's and 1930's.

It looked to me like both WSRS and WTAG broadcast and transmit from the same location. I do know that there are some towers in back of the building that both stations transmit from. Maybe those are only for WSRS, I'm not sure. If not, where is WTAG's AM Transmitter site?

The WSRS main and backup towers are behind the studios. This is where the WTAG towers are:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=42.33694,+-71.82083+(WTAG-AM)&om=1

 

[scranton]

wtag was sold to the Knight Quality Stations in 1987. Knight Quality Stations had purchased wtag-fm in the sixties. I visited WTAG in PAxton in 1994. In looked like a college dorm in a modualr building

 

[ssetta]

So the building on Asnebumskit hill is NOT the original building? Are you saying that WTAG moved there in 1987? Is that when that building was built? I'm confused. I looked at the building on the WTAG transmitter site in Holden, which looks older. I'm guessing THAT was WTAG's original studios.

Also, slightly off-topic, but I think that out of all the stations in the area playing all Christmas, I think that WSRS has the worst music selection of them all. Most of what they play is softer, and older/original. They don't seem to play the humorous songs like "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer," "The 12 Pains of Christmas," etc. I wonder if they're using Clear Channel's national feed of Christmas music. I remember a few years ago, when WSNE and then WWBB also went all-Christmas (they're both Clear Channel), they played the exact same songs right around the same time. I think WSRS' playlist is programmed locally throughout the rest of the year, though.

 

[Don Juan]

So the building on Asnebumskit hill is NOT the original building? Are you saying that WTAG moved there in 1987?

I thought WTAG_AM's original bulding was in the Telegram and Gazette building (i.e..T-A-G) downtown.

 

[wdoa]

So the building on Asnebumskit hill is NOT the original building? Are you saying that WTAG moved there in 1987?

I thought WTAG_AM's original bulding was in the Telegram and Gazette building (i.e..T-A-G) downtown.

WTAG's studios were on the 4th Floor of the Telegram and Gazette building until 1987 when the studio's were moved to Paxton. Somewhere I have pictures taken inside both studios from when I used to work there in the mid 1980s.