There is an excellent website dedicated to the history of WPOP located at:
http://www.wdrcobg.com/wpop.html

Don't forget to check out the "WPOP Technical" section on the left as well as the link to what was WPOP's sister station, WMRQ, 104.1, also on the left.


       On March 12, 1935 WMFE, 1380 kc, 250 watts, came on the air licensed to New Britain, Connecticut with studios located at  272 Main St.
  On March 13 of the same year the call letters were changed to WNBC which stood for the city of license.  According to the 1936 CT State Register the station's owener was William J. Sanders.

       We have not been able to determine where the transmitter and antenna(s) were located prior to June, 1936 but the records indicate that by that time they were on Cedar Street in Newington where it remains to this day.  The power was increased to 1,000 watts the following year.
        In 1937 the studios were located at 147 Main Street in New Britain.

        From appr. 1938 to 1956 the studios were located at 54 Pratt Street, Hartford       
        In March, 1941 the station’s frequency was changed to 1410 kc and by the end of that year they had increased power to 5,000 watts.

       The city of license was changed to Hartford in June of 1942 and the studios moved to Hartford as well.

       Two years later, on October 9, 1944, the call letters were changed to WHTD.  This new call sign lasted less than two years when on April 10, 1946 they were changed to WONS.  In October of that same year the station merged with WTHT. 
       Contributor Robert Paine:  "My understanding about General Tire is that the company bought the Yankee Network in the 40s. I'm not sure when they purchased WNBC/WHTD but believe it to have been around 43 or 44." 

     On December 1, 1953 the station became WGTH which stood for Goodrich Tire, Hartford.  Two years later RKO Teleradio Pictures sold the station to Tele-Broadcasters of CT, Inc, and changed the calls to WPOP.  Contemporary Top 40 Music commenced in 1958.

      We have one report that WPOP might have operated out of the Hotel Bond in the fifties. Can anyone confirm that?
    In the seventies a pre-fab building was added in front of the transmitter site "in the swamp" on Cedar street to house new studios and offices.
    It is believed that WPOP initially operated non-directional during the day and directional at night.  Several local engineers have reported that in order to put a better signal into the New Haven area the station applied to the FCC to operate with a directional daytime pattern which they still do to this day.

    Augie Santana and Bobbie Kroka were the station's engineers around this time.
    Later the studios were moved to a new location several miles east on Cedar St. in the late seventies(see picture below) and the pre-fab studio building was demolished as part of the Cedar Street widening project.
    The music format was abandoned on June 30, 1975 when the station switched to the NBC News and Information Service format. 
    WIOF, WPOP's sister station moved to the Cedar St. location in the late seventies. 
    Around 1998 WPOP's studios were moved in with the Clear Channel cluster at 10 Columbus Blvd in Hartford and the station affiliated with ESPN Radio.
    John Ramsey recalls "when WPOP was purchased by Clear Channel for the first time I had a chance to do some engineering for WPOP, a station I had grown up listening to in the sixties.  On my first visit to the transmitter site I was surprised to see an old, retired 5,000 watt transmitter with the call letters "WNBC" on the front of it.  I had had no idea that WPOP had used those call letters."

1937 Letterhead

1950

1956

WPOP's old studio building on Cedar St. in Newington.  They operated out of this site, for a while with sister station Radio 104 in the eighties and up until 1998 when they moved to 10 Columbus Blvd. in Hartford.  The building was sold in 1999 to a church group which still owns it.  2009 photo.

One of about a half dozen WPOP pop music albums produced by the station in the sixties and seventies.

Another WPOP Album.

WPOP's old studio building on Cedar St. in Newington.  They operated out of this site, for a while with sister station Radio 104 in the eighties and up until 1998 when they moved to 10 Columbus Blvd. in Hartford.  The building was sold in 1999 to a church group which still owns it.  2009 photo.

2009 Photo of the first WPOP studio/transmitter site on Cedar Street in Newington.

Inside view of those near, translucent, glass bricks in the front of the old building.

If you look really close to the left of the T handle in this picture you will see the faint outline of the letters "W N B C" on the front of this old Westinghouse transmitter at the WPOP Cedar St. transmitter site.   WPOP used the calls WPOP for a number of years prior to the New York station using them.

 1956

 
1957