WTAG-TV?

[Mark Laurence]

Kevin Vahey wrote:
> Worcester was a thriving radio market up until 30 years ago. WTAG,
> WORC, WNEB and WORC all did well.
>   
WSRS, WXLO, WTAG, and WCRN are all focusing on Worcester (as much as any 
radio station focuses on its home market in 2009) along with "The Pike" 
and WORC-FM, so it's still got about as much local broadcasting as ever.
> People forget that Worcester was the second largest city in all of New England.
>   
AFAIK it still is.  But Worcester's suburbs are much smaller than other 
metros in New England, and the eastern suburbs with the most population 
are all credited to Boston.  So Worcester is pretty much tied with 
Providence in city population, but the Providence metro is about twice 
the size as metro Worcester.  That's been the case since they started 
talking about metro areas.
> Who knows what the NY Times will do with the T&G. I suspect they may
> fold it and publish a Central Mass edition of the Globe if they can't
> sell it.
>   
Last I heard there was a local coalition of buyers led by the owners of 
Polar Beverages who were making a bid for the T&G.  I don't think a 
Worcester edition of the Globe is going to happen, although they'd 
probably be smart to share more of their resources.


> Had WTAG-TV launched you can only wonder what the landscape would be
> like today.
I guess that's like saying "if the Telecommunications act of 1996 hadn't 
passed, what would radio be like today?"  WTAG-TV would have given 
Worcester much more prominence from the 60's through the 80's for sure, 
but in this decade you have to wonder if the impact of a local VHF 
station is anything like it used to be.  It's likely that  a Worcester 
channel 5 would have tried to move its real focus to Boston, like WAAF 
and channel 27.