WTAG-TV?

[Sid Schweiger]

"Does anyone here know how close WTAG-TV channel 5 ever got to actually
going on the air?

I understand they had the license in hand and mailed it back to the FCC.

Did they ever transmit a test pattern?

If any of this is true then the T&G may have pulled one of the all
time blunders. I can confirm they sold WTAG-FM on the cheap in the
early 60's and it became WSRS."

I was the CE for WSRS from 1980 to 1983.  The way it was explained to me by the old-timers on the WSRS staff was that the T&G never believed television would take off the way it did, and they did indeed turn in the license.  I came across the original plans for the Paxton building, and there above the main entrance was the legend "WTAG-TV."  As far as I'm aware they never even built the transmitting facility.

While I was there WSRS had become a pretty consistent #1 station in the Worcester market, but a number of us heard the GM of WTAG (still owned by the T&G back then) state with a straight face that WSRS "was not a factor in the market."  We all got a good laugh out of that one.

Sid Schweiger
IT Manager, Entercom New England
20 Guest St / 3d Floor
Brighton MA  02135-2040