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Hartford Radio History

R

rcs

A while back there was a discussion about the CT Broadcasting History timeline created by the Conn. Broadcaster's Association. There is some fascinating information in there, for instance:
A. The South Congregational Church in Hartford held a license for 93.7 FM in the mid-sixties!
B. WRYM 840 AM (formally WKNB and co-owned at the time with channel 30) held a Construction Permit for an FM station that they never built.
You can find it here: http://wwuh.org/history/CTtimeline.htm

I know of at least two stations who have anniversaries of sorts this year:
WWUH at Univ. of Hartford turned 40 on 7/15, and they have a 30 minute documentary about the station's early years at www.wwuh.org. The program has mentions WHCN frequently since some of the folks who put WWUH on the air in 1968 are also responsible for flipping WHCN's format from Classical to Prog. Rock the following year. This year also marks 50 years since WPOP switched to their pop music format. This is significant because WPOP and WDRC were major players in the early days of Top 40 radio. It is extremely unlikely that the current WPOP will do anything to commemorate the milestone but I thought it would be worthy of at least a mention here.
 
Sad that WPOP has become such a "shell." I'd heard that it was a big Top 40 station back in the day. How is their signal though? I don't believe you can pick it up here in the New Haven area.
 
WPOP 1410 can come in pretty well down I-91 into New Haven during the day on a decent receiver. When you go east from there toward Middlesex County (Routes 80,1,95) you quickly get out of the signal pattern and it's very weak. They, like WDRC 1360 and powerhouse WTIC 1080, also can put out a pretty good skywave in certain directions at night. Drive through Northern Vermont and they can come in like locals.

Charlie Parker built a legendary sound at WDRC, but WPOP can also claim a lot of heritage as a Top 40 station from 1958? to 1975, with an amazing roster of talent to pass through there. Hartford was second to none in great stations for baby boomers like yours truly to grow up with. A visit to www.wdrcobg.com and a link to its WPOP pages will demonstrate that. A 20 year run as a news/talk station is nothing to sneeze at either.
 
At the time most people in the region lived in Hartford, not in the suburbs. WPOP's signal today obviously covers the city well.
 
During the day, WPOP-AM's signal can be a problem in New Britain's south end...but in the other direction. It's strong to the point where my Sony's AM radio picks it up at different points on the upper part of the dial. I have to intentionally find a "sweet spot" to make it come in weak. If I don't, 1470 from Meriden and 1500 from Milford have no chance.
 
GlennO said:
WPOP 1410 can come in pretty well down I-91 into New Haven during the day on a decent receiver. When you go east from there toward Middlesex County (Routes 80,1,95) you quickly get out of the signal pattern and it's very weak. They, like WDRC 1360 and powerhouse WTIC 1080, also can put out a pretty good skywave in certain directions at night. Drive through Northern Vermont and they can come in like locals.
Click to expand...

Both WDRC and WPOP had great night time signals in upstate NY and central Ma in the 1960s....
 
Like WPTR in Albany, WPOP and WDRC both had great signals on Bostons North Shore in the late 50's and 60's, now none of the three are really listenable at all
anymore.
Thursday night was the first time I have been able to hear anything at all listening
to 1540 what ever it calls itself these days.

Its a shame owners are so callous disgarding heritage call letters particularly three
letter calls likw WHN.

When radio and TV combos split the call letters should remain with the radio, the call letters are more important to radio (dial position is more important to a TV station)
Once a heritage radio station looses the call letters to its former sister station
more often the radio station fades into obscurity
 
MarcB said:
WPOP's singnal is weird. I'm "living" with some people who live off of South Street in Bristol. During the day their signal is very staticy on all my radios. At night it's virtually non-existant.
Click to expand...

What does the above part in boldface have to do with WPOP's signal?
 
Speaking of anniversaries, this year marks the 60th year since WBIS first went on the air in 1948. Of course, it's not in Bristol anymore and is called WPRX and is on a different friequency, so there will be no mention of the anniversary there.
 
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