Thanks to former WKSS/WQGN weekend jock Jeff Ryan (now weekends/fill-ins at WXTU in Philly) for bringing this site to my attention: http://www.hartfordradiohistory.com/ It's a very cool site and it's currently in development.
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Cool Website To Check Out
- Thread starter MarcB
- Start date
Interesting site.
Some notes they need to add, WESU installed it's first FM transmitter in 1967 and it's current one in 1989.
I'm surprised to see a section on pirates. The need to add "CNX Radio" from Middletown, on 103.3, turns out the FCC did notify them to cease operations.
Hartford's 103.3 is not Spanish but Caribbean
Bristol's WNFR 99.5
90.9 in New Britain is Spanish Religious (just says Spanish)
87.9 was also Spanish Religious
90.1 is Spanish
87.9 WWIL West Hartford (I'm forgetting the call on this one, not sure if this is right) I know they were on the air sometime in the late 80's
I noticed once while visiting the WKOB site that the door to the station claimed they were running 1kW ("till the FCC found out")
and of course I can't leave the one I know most about out of the list, WKDH started out as a part 15 in 1981 in mono at 102.3 FM [Disco 102.3] and 1350 AM in New Britain at and moved to 99.7 in 1982 (dropping AM).
It went off the air in 1983 when the line feeding the antenna managed to fray and cross with a heating pipe, burning out the first transmitter.
WKDH (with a new techie at the helm) returned in 1995 (?) in Stereo this time originally again on 99.7 [Hot 99-7] at first and then on 99.5 [Hot 99-5, then Jammin' 99-5] after 1 month with a legal part-15 compliant output power level but over time the new techie experimented a bit and I believe the most output archived MIGHT have been as much as 5 watts (2001?).
At some point, a second WKDH 99.5 appeared in New Britain with an unknown power output broadcasting a similar Hip-Hop and R&B format to the original, this was to be short-lived as this transmitter was much more stable than the one running in Middletown and was moved to Middletown (that was also the point the power level experiments began).
In 2001, WKDH began operations on Live365, at first part-time live, then eventually a server-based playlist.
I pulled the plug on the station after deciding that regardless of how clean and non-spurious the transmitter was that because the amplifier was exceeding legal output and the transmitter alone (though capable of only a legal level output) was just not a strong enough signal to bother with in this day and age of internet radio, the plug was pulled in March of 2004.
Since then, the transmitter sits configured as it was the day the plug was pulled, ready to go at a moments notice, at a fully legal part 15 compliant output level, in fact my Sirius radio's transmitter is stronger (which is also kept at 99.5). So if per chance you are driving in the area and actually catch something on 99.5, you're either getting NYC, Albany, Boston, my Sirius or maybe I've tossed on the old transmitter, but don't expect to hear it for more than a few minutes as I do tend to warm up the thing on occasion just to see if it still works and then kill it. (BTW: if your THAT close and you do hear it, keep going, you'll see it vanish in under a block!)
I think that might be close to being historically accurate, but I can't remember everything as I wasn't involved with the second New Britain station and in the second Middletown-only operation I served only as programmer and sole-DJ.
Some notes they need to add, WESU installed it's first FM transmitter in 1967 and it's current one in 1989.
I'm surprised to see a section on pirates. The need to add "CNX Radio" from Middletown, on 103.3, turns out the FCC did notify them to cease operations.
Hartford's 103.3 is not Spanish but Caribbean
Bristol's WNFR 99.5
90.9 in New Britain is Spanish Religious (just says Spanish)
87.9 was also Spanish Religious
90.1 is Spanish
87.9 WWIL West Hartford (I'm forgetting the call on this one, not sure if this is right) I know they were on the air sometime in the late 80's
I noticed once while visiting the WKOB site that the door to the station claimed they were running 1kW ("till the FCC found out")
and of course I can't leave the one I know most about out of the list, WKDH started out as a part 15 in 1981 in mono at 102.3 FM [Disco 102.3] and 1350 AM in New Britain at and moved to 99.7 in 1982 (dropping AM).
It went off the air in 1983 when the line feeding the antenna managed to fray and cross with a heating pipe, burning out the first transmitter.
WKDH (with a new techie at the helm) returned in 1995 (?) in Stereo this time originally again on 99.7 [Hot 99-7] at first and then on 99.5 [Hot 99-5, then Jammin' 99-5] after 1 month with a legal part-15 compliant output power level but over time the new techie experimented a bit and I believe the most output archived MIGHT have been as much as 5 watts (2001?).
At some point, a second WKDH 99.5 appeared in New Britain with an unknown power output broadcasting a similar Hip-Hop and R&B format to the original, this was to be short-lived as this transmitter was much more stable than the one running in Middletown and was moved to Middletown (that was also the point the power level experiments began).
In 2001, WKDH began operations on Live365, at first part-time live, then eventually a server-based playlist.
I pulled the plug on the station after deciding that regardless of how clean and non-spurious the transmitter was that because the amplifier was exceeding legal output and the transmitter alone (though capable of only a legal level output) was just not a strong enough signal to bother with in this day and age of internet radio, the plug was pulled in March of 2004.
Since then, the transmitter sits configured as it was the day the plug was pulled, ready to go at a moments notice, at a fully legal part 15 compliant output level, in fact my Sirius radio's transmitter is stronger (which is also kept at 99.5). So if per chance you are driving in the area and actually catch something on 99.5, you're either getting NYC, Albany, Boston, my Sirius or maybe I've tossed on the old transmitter, but don't expect to hear it for more than a few minutes as I do tend to warm up the thing on occasion just to see if it still works and then kill it. (BTW: if your THAT close and you do hear it, keep going, you'll see it vanish in under a block!)
I think that might be close to being historically accurate, but I can't remember everything as I wasn't involved with the second New Britain station and in the second Middletown-only operation I served only as programmer and sole-DJ.
N
necrat123
Guest
John Ramsey did a wonderful job with it.
I didn't see any mention of the 101.5 pirate signal I was hearing in South Windsor on 291 about three weeks ago.
I didn't see any mention of the 101.5 pirate signal I was hearing in South Windsor on 291 about three weeks ago.
Necrat said:
That 101.5 in the South Windsor area is // a 103.3 in Manchester as well... not sure what language but heard same programming on 2 frequencies last week.
Some WKSS notes, I believe before they were WBMI, they were WMMW FM, and before they moved to 10 Columbus blvd, they were on Washington street as a state building of some kind, that building has since been torn down.
(somewhere I have a reel of tape I found at the dump that has a couple of minutes of WBMI, not to knock the guy who was on the air, but he was pretty bad, I've heard bad college jocks sound better, also on this tape is some WDRC FM & WCCC, which was the most professional sounding out of the bunch, I must find this tape someday and dump it to an MP3)
(somewhere I have a reel of tape I found at the dump that has a couple of minutes of WBMI, not to knock the guy who was on the air, but he was pretty bad, I've heard bad college jocks sound better, also on this tape is some WDRC FM & WCCC, which was the most professional sounding out of the bunch, I must find this tape someday and dump it to an MP3)
3:30 PM update: Now it's working again! Thank you!
Say...I didn't know that New Haven's CPTV station was once on channel 71? Must have been a low-power station! The CPTV Auction ad posted at the site was from 1973. It also said "Channel 61 - Waterbury". I believe that was W61AC, which was taken off when WTIC-TV signed on in 1984.
Say...I didn't know that New Haven's CPTV station was once on channel 71? Must have been a low-power station! The CPTV Auction ad posted at the site was from 1973. It also said "Channel 61 - Waterbury". I believe that was W61AC, which was taken off when WTIC-TV signed on in 1984.
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