• My Account
  • Your Profile
  • Member Archives
Thursday, July 10, 2025
Cart / $0.00

No products in the cart.

Fybush.com
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links
No Result
View All Result
Fybush.com
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links

No products in the cart.

No Result
View All Result
Fybush.com
No Result
View All Result

Site of the Week 3/28/2014: WLAD/WDAQ, Danbury CT

Scott Fybush by Scott Fybush
March 28, 2014
in Connecticut, Free Content, Tower Site of the Week
0

Text and photos by SCOTT FYBUSH

Regular readers of this column know that one of our favorite subjects is the “before” and “after” of a station move, especially when the “before” is a facility the station’s called home for a long time.

So when the news spread in early 2012 that WLAD (800) and WDAQ (98.3) in Danbury, Connecticut were getting ready to relocate, we knew we had to make a stop in northern Fairfield County, and quickly, to get the “before” half of the story while it was still there to be seen.

WLAD/WDAQ on Main Street
WLAD/WDAQ on Main Street

The office area downstairs
The office area downstairs

WLAD signed on in 1947 as part of the massive post-war rush of new stations, and it was joined by WLAD-FM (later WDAQ) in 1953. Until 1962, they were housed at 207 Main Street – but that year, the stations crossed the street to what was then the Hotel Green, at 198 Main Street. And for half a century, that’s where they remained, with offices under the awning down at street level and a warren of studios tucked in behind an otherwise-anonymous door on the fourth floor.

Up on the ninth floor
Up on the fourth floor

WLAD's air studio
WLAD’s air studio

Along the way, the hotel changed rather dramatically. What had once been a typical mid-century downtown hotel became Ives Manor, a subsidized senior housing facility, making for some unusual neighbors for the WLAD/WDAQ studios. Behind that door, the WLAD/WDAQ facility was a truly old-school place – a warren of narrow corridors and low-ceilinged, windowless studios. (But it felt like a real radio station, if you know what I mean…and if you’re reading this column, you know what I mean.)

Behind the WLAD board
Behind the WLAD board

Tape!
Tape!

The facility here had undergone several renovations by the time the end came in 2012, but the most recent one of any significance had been back in the 1980s, as witnessed by the reel-to-reel and cart decks still occupying one corner of the little booth looking into the main WLAD air studio. The air studio, in turn, looked into several production and rack rooms lined up in this compact space.

Production room
Production room

WDAQ's studio
WDAQ’s studio

WDAQ’s studio was, if memory serves, just across the narrow hallway from the WLAD cluster. There’s a third station in the cluster, too, WAXB (850 Ridgefield), the former competitor (then known as WREF) that WLAD/WDAQ bought a few years back. That AM signal is now augmented by an FM translator in Danbury, and by 2012 it was playing oldies as “B107.3,” with little mention of the AM frequency.

Going, again, from memory, I believe that was the WAXB “air studio” below at left, tucked into a corner of a rack room at the core of the studio complex here.

Rack room
Rack room

Another production room
Another production room

The WDAQ/WLAD transmitter building
The WDAQ/WLAD transmitter building

WLAD/WDAQ transmitters
WLAD/WDAQ transmitters
The WDAQ/WLAD tower
The WDAQ/WLAD tower
Stairway to towers
Stairway to towers

That’s about all we have to show you of that historic studio facility – but how about a transmitter site, too?

Head south on Main Street and South Street, turn right at the birthplace of noted composer/insurance salesman Charles Ives, and head up Brushy Hill Road – and before long you’ll find yourself at the base of the hill where the WLAD/WDAQ tower sits.

The current 276-foot tower here is relatively recent, but this is the very site where WLAD has been since its debut in 1947.

That cute little tower in the foreground at right holds a backup antenna for WDAQ, mounted on a much earlier RCA pylon antenna for the FM station.

The translator that relays WAXB, W297AN (107.3) is mounted on the tower here, too, and it’s all powered by transmitters lined up neatly in a prefab structure down at the foot of the stairs at the bottom of the hill. (It replaced an earlier transmitter building that burned.)

Those are the WDAQ main and auxiliary Harris 5K1 transmitters at the left in the photo above, then STL, processing and the translator in the middle racks, and the AM transmitters: a little rack-mounted BE main, a Harris MW1 aux, and a second MW1 that’s out of service.

Hallway at the new studios
Hallway at the new studios

A new studio
A new studio

And we leave you at a site we’ll have to come back to soon: in June of 2012, the new WLAD/WDAQ studios in an office building at 98 Mill Plain Road on Danbury’s west side were still under construction, with lots of hustle and bustle ahead of the move that took place over the July 4 weekend. Like the old downtown studios, this facility was built in two halves: the business and sales offices are on one side of the office building’s main hallway, while the studios are on the opposite side. But unlike the claustrophobic old studios, these new digs have plenty of windows looking out on the busy road just off I-84, with plenty of air and light and more space for the staff. We’ll be back soon to see how the project turned out!

Thanks to WLAD/WDAQ’s Irv Goldstein and (then-CE) Tom Osenkowsky for the tours!

SPRING IS HERE…

And if you don’t have your Tower Site Calendar, now’s the time!

If you’ve been waiting for the price to come down, it’s now 30 percent off!

This year’s cover is a beauty — the 100,000-watt transmitter of the Voice Of America in Marathon, right in the heart of the Florida Keys. Both the towers and the landscape are gorgeous.

And did you see? Tower Site of the Week is back, featuring this VOA site as it faces an uncertain future. 

Other months feature some of our favorite images from years past, including some Canadian stations and several stations celebrating their centennials (buy the calendar to find out which ones!).

We still have a few of our own calendars left – as well as a handful of Radio Historian Calendars – and we are still shipping regularly.

The proceeds from the calendar help sustain the reporting that we do on the broadcast industry here at Fybush Media, so your purchases matter a lot to us here – and if that matters to you, now’s the time to show that support with an order of the Tower Site Calendar. (And we have the Broadcast Historian’s Calendar for 2025, too. Why not order both?) 

Visit the Fybush Media Store and place your order now for the new calendar, get a great discount on previous calendars, and check out our selection of books and videos, too! 

 


And don’t miss a big batch of new IDs next Wednesday, over at our sister site, TopHour.com!

Next week: Crawfordsville, Indiana

Share this:

  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • More
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
Tags: WAXBWDAQWLAD
Previous Post

NERW 3/24/2014: Return of the Veterans

Next Post

NERW 3/31/2014: Towers Down in the Berkshires

Scott Fybush

Scott Fybush

Editor/Publisher, NorthEast Radio Watch and Tower Site of the Week

Related Posts

NorthEast Radio Watch 7/7/2025: Boston Mourns LB
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 7/7/2025: Boston Mourns LB

In this week’s issue… Remembering Boston's Lyndon Byers - CRTC approves Rogers, Evanov spins - Towers come down in PA, and might go up in NY - More FM moves in Ontario

by Scott Fybush
July 7, 2025
NorthEast Radio Watch 6/23-30/2025: Another Great Day in Alpine
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 6/23-30/2025: Another Great Day in Alpine

In this week’s issue… Honoring radio's greatest inventor - Maine morning vet retiring - Buffalo names new HOF inductees - PA's Loftus retires

by Scott Fybush
June 30, 2025
Top of the Tower Podcast #65: Back and Forth With PA’s Jason Togyer
Free Content

Top of the Tower Podcast #65: Back and Forth With PA’s Jason Togyer

In this week's episode - Top of the Tower is back with a new spring/summer season of conversations with some of the most interesting people in radio! This week, it's another joint episode, a two-way chat with my good friend Jason...

by Scott Fybush
June 22, 2025
NorthEast Radio Watch 6/16/2025: Townsquare, Corus Cut Deeper
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 6/16/2025: Townsquare, Corus Cut Deeper

In this week’s issue… Oneonta signals go dark - Whiteoaks takes over in Niagara - Corus empties Ottawa studios - CBS-FM shuffles talent - Armstrong anniversary to be honored

by Scott Fybush
June 16, 2025
Next Post
Towers down on Florida Mountain (photo: Gillian Jones/The Berkshire Eagle)

NERW 3/31/2014: Towers Down in the Berkshires

Log In

Join Now | Lost Password?

Get Fybush.com Updates

Get Fybush.com updates emailed directly to your inbox!

© 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links

© 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.