REBUILDING A LEGEND: REBUILDING WOR RADIOFROM THE TIP OF THE MIC TO THE TOP OF THETOWER

摘要

WOR Radio is one of the oldest radio stations in theUnited States, signing on for the first time February 21,1922, from the radio department of Bamberger'sDepartment Store, Newark, New Jersey. The ensuing80+ years saw the WOR studios move to ChickeringHall uptown, to 1440 Broadway in 1926 where WORremained until 2005.On the transmitter side, WOR went from 500 Watts to5,000 Watts with a transmitter site move from the roofof Bamberger's to a site up the road from Bamberger's.In 1936, the Carteret, NJ facility was built, along with apower boost to 50,000 Watts and a directional antenna.President Franklin Delano Roosevelt threw theceremonial switch to launch a high power Golden Ageof radio for WOR.In the early 1960's, it had become obvious that WOR'sthree tower, quarter wave directional antenna, abouteighteen miles out of Manhattan, was just not able tocut through the noise of the rapidly growing metropoliscalled New York City, and the site was moved to arecently closed dump in Lyndhurst, New Jersey: theJersey Meadowlands. This site featured towers almosta half-wave in height, arranged in a "dog-leg"arrangement to put the major lobe directly over MidtownManhattan and the secondary lobe straight downthrough New Jersey towards Philadelphia. This siteserved WOR well until September 8, 2006, when thenewest facility in Rutherford, New Jersey, was placedinto operation.This paper will take us through the process ofrelocating the studios and offices of WOR, as well asthe transmitter facility in Jersey.