This entry was posted on September 14, 2010 at 4:33 PM and is filed under --WORTH COUNTY GA--, Sylvester GA with tags --WORTH COUNTY GA--, Copyright Brian Brown, Sylvester GA, {South Georgia Architecture}, {South Georgia Banks}. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed
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December 29, 2011 at 6:44 PM
After the Bank of Worth County moved to their new location, two of the major stockholders of the bank, Dr. J.M. Sutton and James Rouse formed Worth County Broadcasters, Inc. and started Worth County’s first radio station, WOGA, “WOrth county GA”. The station’s studios and offices were located in this building. The station’s 185 ft tower was located on Highway 256 (Scooterville Highway) at the city of limits of Sylvester. The station began operations in December 1963 at 1540 on the AM dial. It was a daytimer, only authorized by the Federal Communicatioins Commission to operate from sunrise to sunset with 1,000 watts. The station had a variety music format and was very popular with local citizens but the station had limited financial success. In 1975, an Albany minister purchased the station and changed its format to religious then in 1979, Irv Feldman of Booneville, Mississippi relocated to Sylvester and returned local programming to the station. The call sign was changed from WOGA to WRSG for “Radio Sylvester Georgia” While Feldman likely built the station’s advertising revenues to their highest level ever, FM radio stations outside of Worth County were deeply eroding the audience levels of WRSG and other South Georgia AM stations. The station was sold once more before it left the airwaves and the license was cancelled by the FCC. I began my career in radio broadcasting at WOGA in 1977 at the age of 15. Now, 34 years later, I remain in the business and own a Toccoa, GA based group of radio stations operating in northeast Georgia, western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina.
September 16, 2010 at 11:34 AM
Ocilla has a building almost identical to that – at the corner of 4th and Cherry – if I remember my street names correctly.
September 16, 2010 at 10:27 PM
Good eye and good memory, Trish. It’s a very similar bank, that’s for sure…But the Ocilla bank originally had three floors! One was removed long ago…
September 14, 2010 at 5:01 PM
Great shot–Sylvester has beautiful old buildings.