NOTE TO READERS: Tower
Site of the Week is on hiatus while we're out gathering many
more images and stories to share with all of you.
We'll return with a new
Site of the Week on July 11, so be sure to check back then. In
the meantime, use the "LAST WEEK" links at the bottom
of the page to enjoy the archived sites we've already visited.
See you in July!
June 13 - July 11, 2001
WHJJ, East Providence, R.I.
Here's a classic site: nestled alongside Wampanoag Trail in
East Providence, Rhode Island, you can't miss the two towers
and brick transmitter building of WHJJ. I'm not sure exactly
when this building was built, but its design and the big square
towers out back strongly suggest that this site has been here
since before World War II.
 Back
then, of course, this station was WJAR, owned by the Outlet Department
Store. After the war, Outlet added WJAR-TV (Channel 11, later
10), operating radio and TV from its store building downtown
and later from a new facility on Dorrance Street.
In the 1970s, the radio station was spun off from TV, with
channel 10 keeping the calls. WJAR radio thus became WHJJ, co-owned
with WHJY-FM (94.1).
That, in turn, explains the towers seen at the WHJJ/WHJY studio
building a few miles away at 115 Eastern Avenue. FM 94.1, you
see, began as WHIM-FM, co-owned with WHIM (1110 East Providence).
Even as that AM facility was spun off in favor of the better
920 signal, the towers stayed put at the old studio site -- complete
with WHJY's antenna at the top, and later bays for WBRU (95.5
Providence) as well.
We're long overdue for a return visit to Providence; when
we get there, we'll show you more goodies, like the famed Neuticonacanut
Hill in Johnston and the WPRO site just down the road from 'HJJ.
A special note: We'll be on the road this summer gathering
many more tower photos to keep this page humming through the
fall and winter months - and we just might be near you! Click
here for a look at the itinerary!
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