A whitewashed building sits on Radio Avenue in the north end of Secaucus, surrounded by low-lying wetlands and a series of high-spiraling white and orange antennas.
Its juxtaposition next to single-family homes is startling, and the building itself has remained a mystery to residents because it provides no signage explaining its use.
As it turns out, the facility is a relay center for a radio station that is headquartered not in Secaucus, but in New York City.
WWRL has been broadcasting in the New York area since 1926 at the 1600 AM frequency. The station was well known in the 1960s for R&B and soul music, with the famous disc jockey Frankie Crocker spinning the sounds of James Brown and other renowned acts.
From the early 1980s to 1997, the station played mostly gospel music. Since 1997, the station has broadcast progressive talk shows during the day. It plays Caribbean music at night and Saturdays, and broadcasts Gospel music on Sunday.
WWRL recently announced that it would become the flagship station for Air America Radio, the progressive talk radio network best known for the work of commentator and comedian Al Franken, beginning Sept. 1.
Although Air America tends to express a liberal point of view, officials at WWRL were conservative about confirming the existence of the signal relay station in Secaucus.
Adriane Gaines, WWRL's station general manager, said, "We would not exactly want people to know what it is, given the current environment that we are in [referring to terrorism]. Radio transmitters and towers are very vulnerable in the current climate of security in America."
Mysterious to residents
Residents of Radio Avenue know that the street got its name from the existence of the station, but didn't know much about it.
"There was nothing much there before [the station was built]," said Town Historian Dan McDonough. "The towers gave the street the name."
"It's always been a place that people really didn't know too much about," said 2nd Ward Councilman John Bueckner. "I'm kidding, but maybe it's Radio Free Europe."
John Canivari, 77, resides across the street from the building. He has lived in Secaucus for 40 years.
"It's a radio station, WWRL, over in New York somewhere," he said.
Even if the building is quiet, it has caused some complaints from neighbors like Canivari about alleged interference into homes.
"The station was so powerful that it used to come through my television," Canivari said. "Then they sent a guy over with a filter about five years ago and it never happened no more. I think the son of the owner takes care of the place. The place has been there before me, and it doesn't bother me. It's OK with me."
Canivari's neighbor on Radio Avenue, Laura Lew, has been living across the building since 1998. She maintained that the interference is not necessarily a thing of the past.
"I hear the radio every now and then coming through the speakers in my room, when I'm listening to something else," she said. "But we really have a lot of problems with the phone lines around here. I heard that people around this block get a lot of radio feedback through their phones, but we're not sure if it's because of what goes on over there or something else."
Lew said she has heard friends speculate about the building.
"My family and friends kind of wondered what the towers are for," she said. "We thought that they might have something to do with airplanes, because they blink on top at night. But because of the feedback we have gotten on our speakers and on our phones, we used to think that they were maybe broadcasting shows over there."
Bueckner said, "There were people in the area complaining that the towers were giving them interference on their telephones. They were getting music through their phone lines and other places. I checked back with the company, and they said that it wasn't them, but just the side effect of being in an area where there is so much interference because there is so much going on here."
Bueckner said he also got a complaint about the land flooding.
"Supposedly there are all these copper cables in the ground around the building, and they've got to keep the land around it wet," he said, "so that the towers operate efficiently. I think that the electricity conducts better if the cables are moist. They used to allow the area to flood, and people used to complain. They were told that they had to keep it wet for better reception. They last time that we had any calls about the place was maybe two or three years ago."
Gaines said he has no concerns the station's relationship with the town of Secaucus.
"We've modified all the transmission problems we had over the years," she said. "It has been a common problem throughout the country. All of our equipment has been upgraded. Our relations with the town have been totally positive. They don't know we're there, and we don't know they're there. It's a very nice relationship. We've been there a long time."
Post a Comment