From Boylston we head west on I-290 into Worcester, and then north on I-190 up to Holden, a small suburban town. At 412 Shrewsbury Street, we find the four-tower directional array of WTAG (580 Worcester), one of the oldest stations in central Massachusetts. Tower 4, at far left, was built in 1941 for nighttime use only, as a part of a power upgrade. It's also slightly shorter than the others. Towers 1 through 3 form a straight east-west line, and are used both day and night; they were completed on March 30, 1939, replacing an earlier array which was destroyed in a 1938 hurricane. Another tower was built at the same time as tower 4; it fell during Hurricane Carol in 1954, and the night pattern was re-engineered to require only the four remaining towers.
Copyright 2005, Garrett Wollman. All rights reserved. Photograph taken 2005-09-03.