The old WGAW

[Doug Drown]

It is, or was,WHWB in Rutland.  A daytimer on 1000.
And the WGAW transmitter is still on Green Street, about a mile and a half
north of downtown Gardner.
The "new" studios were built on the transmitter site when the station was
relocated from the Colonial Hotel.  They sat more or less vacant for years
until the new owners took over in 2004; I understand they've spruced
everything up and are once again broadcasting out of the building.  WGAW has
had, happily, a new lease on life.
Seems to me that the same thing could potentially happen in any number of
small cities and towns, with some money, creative programming instincts and
a genuine desire to serve the community.   We have a little FM station in
Farmington, Maine, near here, that is locally owned and does a wonderful job
with its varied, community-oriented format.  It's even popular with the kids
at the local state college.

Doug
to Doug
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dan Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>
To: "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>; "Boston Radio Interest"
<boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 1:47 PM
Subject: Re: The old WGAW


> Hmmm... I thought that around that time the WHOB calls were in central NJ,
> in or near Princeton on 1350. The name of the licensee was Herbert W
Hobler.
> Maybe I've got WHOB and WHWH confused. And then, wasn't there also WWHB in
> Rutland VT, which started on 1000 and moved to 970? Or was that WHWB?
There
> are obviously large numbers of ways to arrange small numbers of letters
;>)
> The ultimate radio-geek passtime.
>
> --
> Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
> eFax 707-215-6367
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>
> To: "RBB" <oldradio@earthlink.net>;
> <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.BostonRadio.org>
> Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 1:24 PM
> Subject: Re: The old WGAW
>
>
> > At 10:07 AM 6/10/2005 -0700, RBB wrote:
> > >Does anyone remember WGAW studios at one time, being in a large brick
> > >building in Gardner, occupying the corner of (what looked to me to be)
a
> > >gymnasium with a shiny floor or an open room?  The board was with two
> > >turntables and a couple of 45rpm players (yes, back to the old days of
> 45's...)
> >
> > I'll look up what addresses I have for the station, but I know that
until
> > the fall of 1953, the station was known as WHOB, and it was in the
> Colonial
> > Hotel;  the antenna site was supposed to be on Green Street (for those
who
> > know the Gardner area).  When it was sold in October of 1953, I assume
the
> > new owners not only changed its name to WGAW but also moved it, since
the
> > old owners (including an attorney named Owen Hoban-- from whence the
WHOB
> > calls came) were the ones with the deal to have studios in the hotel. I
am
> > working on a list of dates for some of the suburban stations, so that we
> > can bring the Boston Radio Archives more up to date-- a lot of small
> > stations, while not in Boston, provided Boston radio with a number of
> > d.j.'s, so we may as well record some of the history of those stations.
> >
>
>
>
>