HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimberlake Airfield Transcript, WTAW First 100 YearsProject HOLD
WTAW Radio
Move of WTAW Studios and Transmitter – Timberlake Airfield/Airport
Tom Turbiville | WTAW Radio Host
Laura Quezada | Transcriber
00:00:00 Dick Bolin (DB)
[Music] College Station, Texas, April 24th, 1947, Dick Bolin talking. Here's the latest news from
the Associated Press…
[Unintelligible news broadcaster speaking]
00:00:11 Speaker 2
Aggies win 74-72! Here's your ri…
00:00:16 Speaker 3
…1620 WTAW.
-------------------------------
00:00:21 Tom Turbiville (TT)
This is WTAW, the First 100 Years, I'm Tom Turbiville. 1957 was a big year for WTAW. That
was when Texas A&M decided to get out of the radio business and sell WTAW. And furthermore,
they asked the new owners to move out of the system building within 90 days. So, in December
of that year, then-manager Elsie Patronella told the Eagle that they were packing up, moving out
to property on South College in Bryan. But the transmitter was given the okay to stay on Hensel
Avenue, which was still on A&M property. Now, fast forward a couple of years to another big
year, 1959, and WTAW moved again, both their studios and their transmitter this time, to Old
College Road near the newly constructed Triangle Bowling Alley. Matter of fact, the tract of land
included the old Timberlake Airfield. Yep, WTAW had to buy an airstrip to find a new home. In
the late 1940s, at the corner of Old College Road and College Main was Timberlake Airport. It
was the home of Bowles Davis Air Service, Warwick Wilson Air Service, and in 1959, after it
had closed, well, it became the home of WTAW Studios and Transmitter. Now there's something
I bet you didn't know about WTAW, the First 100 Years.