WLLH info for Dan

[Mark Watson]

Chris Hall wrote:

>The Rex Center
> was a roller skating rink and the WLLH main studios were located on the 
> second floor,  pictures show them to be quite elaborate.
 > Sometime in the early sixties the city of Lowell initiated an urban 
renewal  project and one of the casualties included the Rex Center.
> WLLH moved its studios and transmitter to an industrial building called 
> One Broadway which if I remember correctly once had a Kings discount 
> department on one of the floors.

  To add to and clarify some of Chris Hall's excellent information, if I 
may:

    The Rex Center not only had a roller skating rink and radio station, but 
also had a restaurant, bowling alley and banquet hall. (On a personal note, 
my parent's wedding reception was held there in Sept.1948). Most of the Rex 
Center complex was destroyed by a fire in June 1960. As my father told me in 
sharing his many memories over the years of the golden days of WLLH, 
longtime WLLH newsman & personality Tom Clayton, who was with the station 
from 1936 to 1980 broadcast live descriptions of the fire on the air from 
the fire escape outside the WLLH studios until the Lowell studios lost power 
and the fire dept. told him to come down for his safety. The tower remained 
standing throughout the fire. He believes the Lowell transmitter came back 
on the air sometime (several days?) after the fire and WLLH originated all 
programming from Lawrence even after Lowell's TX came back. The destroyed 
portion of the Rex was torn down not long after the fire, the remainder 
(including the portion that WLLH occupied and the tower) was demolished some 
years later.

   In 1963 WLLH moved it's Lowell studios and transmitter to 4 Broadway, a 
large 4 story industrial buliding with the Giant Store (a department store) 
in the basement, first and part of the second floor which had closed by the 
mid-1970's. Today that entire building is now luxury apartments.

Mark Watson