In 1950 Brattleboro’s first broadcasting station, WTSA, began. The station appeared at frequency 1,450 kilocycles on your radio dial, (AM 1450). It went on the air April 20th and was the eighth radio station established in Vermont. The 170-foot radio tower was built on a swampy site just north of the Milk Plant on Putney Road and a 20 X 30-foot building housing the transmitting apparatus and broadcasting studio was built up the hill from the tower.
A year later, 34-year-old Clara Antonetti began working at the station. She did Christmas programming, played the piano and told children’s stories. She was the only female employee at the time and also handled a lot of the day-to-day office work of the business.
Clara had grown up in Barre, Vermont and came to Brattleboro to attend the local branch of Bay Path Institute. She graduated from the stenographic department in 1939 and took a job at Holstein. As she said in an interview almost 30 years later, “I came to Brattleboro to go to business school for 18 months and I’m still here.”
Clara worked at Holstein for ten years and became a fixture in the community. She was very active in the Centre Congregational Church…volunteered to run children’s programs, help with musical performances, and act as treasurer for the church school. She was also very active in the local chapter of the Girl Scouts and took on many organizational roles. Clara was also busy with local theater performances and planned community dances.
In 1949 she left the clerical work of Holstein and became an instructor at Austine School. She continued in that role until she took the job at WTSA. During this time, she was a director of Girl Scout summer camps and also worked with the Recreation Department to organize various “fun days” for young people.
In the 1950’s Clara’s “Children’s Birthday Hour” was a daily feature on WTSA. She also focused on interview programs, copywriting and daily logs. She worked as Woman’s Program Director and broadcaster at WTSA for ten years.
During the 1950’s Clara established herself in many leadership roles around town. She became Girl Scout Council President, Chair of the March of Dimes, and Chair of the Easter Seals Campaign. She lived in the Colonial Apartments on the corner of High and Oak Streets and was active in various women’s organizations.
Carol Farrington grew up listening to WTSA and shares, “In the 1950’s we used to listen to the radio for entertainment and news… especially on weekends, we’d sit at the dining room table, eating popcorn drinking Kool-Aid, and reading comics. Miss Antonetti had a morning show and would wish a Happy Birthday to any child whose parent contacted WTSA at least a week before the big day. It was great fun to hear your name announced live! At Christmas time, Miss Antonetti would read stories, play the piano and offer music that fit the season. She became part of our holiday memories!”
In 1962 Clara moved to the Brattleboro Reformer and worked in the newsroom for two years. From 1964 to 1966 she moved to Brattleboro’s other radio station, WKVT. WKVT had begun on Larkin Street in 1959.
When the new Welcome Center on Interstate 91 opened in September, 1966, Clara Antonetti was chosen to be the manager. She supervised three staff members and they greeted visitors to Vermont. Clara was a Native Vermonter and, as part of her various professional and volunteer responsibilities, had traveled to many parts of the state.
In an interview she gave after a few years as Welcome Center manager she said she had been able to answer most questions asked of her by visitors but was stumped when “One woman insisted we must direct her to Vermont’s most famous lighthouses.” Clara didn’t have an answer for that one.
Richard Michelman worked on her staff when the Welcome Center opened. He remembered, ”Clara was a nice person. She did the best she could to be a professional woman at a time when it was very challenging. She took her job seriously. Many people wanted to visit Vermont but the state had not yet built-up hotels and accommodations for busy times, like foliage season. Visitors may have known what they wanted to see and where they wanted to go but we often worked to find rooms for them… We gave out free milk at the Visitor’s Center and I ran the milk machine. For a while my job also entailed chasing bats out of the building with a tennis racket. Exterminators were eventually brought in and I went back to cleaning up spilled milk.”
Clara Antonetti retired from the Vermont Welcome and Information Center in 1982. In 1980 she had been named Brattleboro Business and Professional Woman of the Year. In 1975 she was given her 30-year pin for service to the Girl Scouts of America and in 1971 the Swift Water Girl Scout Council awarded her the Thanks Badge, the highest honor granted to Girl Scout volunteers.
For more than 40 years Clara Antonetti was a public figure in our area and contributed to the fabric of our community. In the 1960’s she was the “Voice of Winter Carnival”. She was a radio personality describing Main Street parades to those who could not make the trip downtown. As a news reporter she announced local election results from the Reformer newsroom. As “Aunt Clara” she read children’s books over the radio and influenced what was purchased from bookstores and checked out of the library. As Centre Congregational Church volunteer, she organized years of children’s pageants and community performances. As Girl Scout volunteer she oversaw countless leadership experiences for young women, and at the Welcome Center she greeted hundreds of thousands of visitors to Vermont.