Detective Bob Bell locates the ghost of WQMR once and for all -
OK, it's bothered me for some time now - I could not "merge" my memories of where the art-deco 11306 Kemp Mill Road was, given how the neighborhood looks today. Bob Bell did this excellent research and it finally answers the question! I had told Bob that I thought, somehow that it was near the shopping center where Giant is today; but I really didn't know. I could kinda sorta picture in my mind that the station was there, as the building was "up front" and the fence with transmission cables back to the tower was on a sort of flat field, a few feet below street level as best I could recall. That matches up with the shopping center... and so now you can see from the ample evidence below that while 11306 Kemp Mill Road no longer exists, since the stretch it was on became Arcola, IT REALLY WAS THERE I SWEAR. So now, decades later, we know where it was, and before I leave the area in a couple of months I hope to see the "new" World Building. Now, all we need is for some wealthy person to take responsibility and put this "relaxing" music back on the air. I will do the programming, cheap. I learned a lot listening during the Ed Winton and Bob Chandler years! There will be showtunes, popular standards, soundtracks, and there will be damned few covers of ROCK. I expect investors to line up at this opportunity. Perhaps this could restore the "beautiful music" format and (gasp) people might actually tune in, and stay tuned in for HOURS just because it's good music and repetition will be minimal, and spot load will be kept to a minimum through aggressively high RATES; what a novel idea; it was done, of course, 30-40 years ago - on WQMR and WGAY...
Bill:
In 1967, Montgomery County and the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission approved a new "Master Plan for Four Corners-Kemp Mill and Vicinity". Improvements were slated for the section of road which was known as Kemp Mill Road running from Route 193 westward to the bend where it met Arcola Avenue.