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Updated February 2, 2007
Radio Facilities on Long Island
    This is a picture of the original Sayville radio station when it was still being operated by the German firm, Telefunken in 1916.  The station opened in 1912 and was commandeered by the US Navy upon the US entry into World War I.  There was an accusation that the German wireless operators had radioed sailing information back to Germany concerning the luxury liner Lusitania's departure from New York in 1915.  The US Navy operated this station as a part of its high power chain until 1925. 

     The Sayville site occupied 102 acres.  The original tower was 477 feet high and was the tallest structure on Long Island at the time.  The sign faced the Long Island Rail Road tracks which ran along the southern boundary of the site so that passengers would know what the place was all about.

     The Lusitania, mentioned above, was subsequently sunk by a German U-Boat (U-20) on May 7, 1915 off the coast of Southern Ireland with a loss of 1,201 lives.  If you are interested in knowing more about the Lusitania, here is an excellent site:  www.lusitania.net
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    This is the Sayville Mackay Radio station taken in 1930.  Mackay Radio began operations here in 1927.  Transmitting was done from here.  Receiving was done at the Southampton site below.  There was also a remote transmitting site at Napeaque shown at the bottom of this page.
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    This is the Sayville station taken circa 1933-34.  The station was running out of space by 1934 and made overtures to adjacent undeveloped property owners.  The property owners thought they could make a killing, so asked outrageous prices.  Mackay told them where to go and purchased an 1100 acre site north of Brentwood, a few miles to the northwest of Sayville.
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    This is the Brentwood  Mackay Radio station.  This was the main transmitter site.  This facility was dedicated primarily to transatlantic and South American point-to-point transmissions.  Late in the game, as such communications were giving way to improved transatlantic telephone cables and satellite links, Brentwood had excess capacity and took over some marine transmission services from the Montauk/Amagansett marine site.  Point-to-point involved telex, fax, CW and voice communications.

     Brentwood was the mailing address but it was actually located in Hauppauge, a rather ill-defined locale at the time.  As operations began here in 1936, operations began to be phased out at Sayville.  This building was much larger than it appears in this photo having large east and west wings.  All Mackay Radio operations on Long Island ended in 1986.  It must be acknowledged that ITT bought all Mackay communications companies in 1928.  Gradually, the name ITT World Communications replaced the name Mackay Radio. Click here for more detail concerning what happened to all the Mackay Companies after 1928.

     Not long after this building was erected in 1935, CBS entered into an agreement with Mackay to share the site for construction of an international short-wave broadcasting station.  The building's west wing was extended and the station built in 1940-41 for beaming programs to South America.  Shortly after the outbreak of WW II, the Office of War Information (OWI) leased the station from CBS for operation as a Voice of America station.  VOA operated from here until 1962. 
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    This is a picture of the Southampton Mackay Radio station taken in the late 1950s.  Southampton was dedicated to point-to-point receving and ship-to-shore services.  Ship-to-shore operators at Southampton would receive messages there and remotely key transmitters located at Napeaque (or later, at Brentwood).  Transmitters had to be remotely located from receiving sites to eliminate interference.
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    This is a picture of the Montauk Mackay Radio station at Napeaque.  This station was also referred to as the Amagansett site.  The west tower is shown in this photo.  It is one of two 300-foot high towers separated 1000 feet from its' counterpart.  These towers supported a catenary running between them for the purpose of supporting low frequency vertical antennas.

     The station was located on a 118 acre marshland site next to Napeaque Harbor.  This property is now part of Napeaque State Park. 
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    This is a second picture of the Montauk Radio station at Napeaque.  This photo was taken from Napeaque Meadow Road.  The east tower is shown to the right of the small building.  The building in this photo and the one above were tuning shacks for the antennas.  The station was manned 24 hours a day, but no operating was done from here.  The transmitters were keyed from Southampton.

     These photos were taken in 1982, just two years before the Long Island marine operation closed down. 
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