guild of america west . wgaw city gardner massachusetts broadcast area central massachusetts branding wgaw1340.com slogan local newstalk frequency 1340 khz first air date december 23 1946 1946 12 23 1 format talk power 1 000 watts class c facility id 72088 transmitter coordinates 42 35 33 n 71 59 20 w 42.59250 n 71.98889 w 42.59250 ; 71.98889 callsign meaning gardner athol winchendon former callsigns whob 1946 1953 affiliations abc news radio cumulus media networks westwood one premiere networks owner steven wendell webcast listen live website http www.wgaw1340.com wgaw 1340 am is a radio station licensed to gardner massachusetts . established in 1946 the station is currently owned by steven wendell and carries a talk radio format . history edit the station signed on december 23 1946 as whob . 1 it debuted at 1490 khz on the am dial and the call letters referred to one of the station s founders district attorney owen a. hoban . 2 whob was originally owned by david m. richman a connecticut businessman ; studios were in the colonial hotel in gardner . 3 the station s format was a variety of local news music and sports . one of the early stars on whob was a local country then called hillbilly music performer named doc snow real name edgar arsenault . he performed live with his band the bar x cowboys and later became one of the station s announcers . 4 the station was sold to emilien r. robillard a pharmacist in 1954 ; 5 the call letters were changed to wgaw gardner athol winchendon on october 14 1953 . 6 subsequently in 1957 the station was sold again to charles and james asher who also owned wjda in quincy . 7 in 1959 new owners again took over with judge c. edward rowe purchasing the station . 8 by the early 1990s wgaw was experiencing financial problems as much of the am audience had moved over to fm . the station was being run by judge rowe s son douglas who also owned wsro a station in marlboro massachusetts . to save money wgaw was no longer doing local broadcasting . rather it was simulcasting the programming of wsro . 9 subsequent owners of wgaw have included anastos media group of malta new york an ownership group headed by new york city television news anchor ernie anastos and northeast broadcasting of bedford new hampshire . references edit a b halper donna ; wollman garrett . the eastern massachusetts radio timeline the 1940s . the archives bostonradio.org . retrieved october 28 2012 . gardner s first radio station whob in operation . gardner ma news december 24 1946 p. 1 . gardner hotel sold . springfield union september 13 1950 p. 7 . mike richard . the golden age of gardner radio . gardner news october 23 2003 n.p. ownership changes broadcasting magazine april 26 1954 p. 104 . halper donna ; wollman garrett . the eastern massachusetts radio timeline the 1950s . the archives bostonradio.org . retrieved october 28 2012 . gardner radio station sold . boston herald january 11 1957 n.p. rowe succeeds asher . springfield ma union november 2 1959 p. 9 . mike effland . gardner s wgaw hopes for new juice with boost from weim . worcester telegram and gazette april 6 1997 p. b1 . external links edit official website query the fcc s am station database for wgaw radio locator information on wgaw query nielsen audio s am station database for wgaw v t e news talk radio stations in the state of massachusetts by callsign wbec wbix wbmx hd4 wbnw wbsm wbz wcap wcrn wgaw whmp whmq whnp whyn wmex wpkz wrko wsar wtag wvbf wxks wxtk by frequency 560 580 680 830 980 1030 1120 1200 1240 1260 1280 1340 1400 1420 1420 1480 1510 1530 1600 95.1 104.1 4 by community of license boston boston boston boston boston concord east longmeadow fall river fitchburg gardner greenfield lowell middleborough center new bedford newton northampton pittsfield springfield west yarmouth worcester worcester see also adult contemporary classic hits college country news talk npr oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in massachusetts this article about a radio station in massachusetts is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wgaw & oldid 664910803 categories radio stations in massachusettsnews and talk radio stations in the united statesradio stations established in 1946gardner massachusettsmedia in worcester county massachusetts1946 establishments in massachusettsmassachusetts radio station stubshidden categories all stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 31 may 2015 at 20 12 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view