The WJDA tower is located in a marsh near the end of State St. in Quincy. The transmitter building sits on concrete pilings; at high tide, the water here is a few feet deep. Thankfully, but entirely by coincidence, it was low tide when we visited, so we didn't need hip waders to get out to the building. There was at one time a gravel road to the transmitter building, but it washed away in a flood many years ago; with modern solid-state transmitters, there's little need for heavy equipment to access the site. (Obviously it could not be built today given modern environmental regulations.)
WJDA is a 1-kW daytimer on 1300 kHz. The current studios, which will probably be sold by the new owners, are located a mile or so away on Brackett St. (The new owners are building studios in Chelsea for both stations.) The tower was once painted and lit, but the Ashers removed the lighting some years ago after receiving a waiver from the FAA.
The station was originally built in the 1950s by James D. Asher, Senior, Jay's father, when the post-war economic boom paved the way for hundreds of small suburban daytimers around the country.
Copyright 2006, Garrett Wollman. All rights reserved. Photograph taken 2006-03-24.