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 other WPOP page links on the left as well as the link to what was WPOP's sister station, WMRQ, 104.1.
On March 12, 1935 WMFE, 1380 kc, 250 watts, came on the air licensed to
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
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 as part of a government mandated frequency shift that affected 90 percents of all US stations. By the end of 1941 WNBC had increased power to 5,000 watts.
The city of license was changed to
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. This came about because the owner of the station at the time was a gentleman named William O'Neill (not the former governor). Thus WONS stood for "William O'Neill's Station).
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."
Bill Davies:
"The merger, to avert a long, expensive, competitive battle for the allocated channel 18, was between General Tire (a.k.a. General TeleRadio) and The Hartford Times. The resulting WGTH-1410/WGTH-TV-18 actually stood for
General Times Hartford. The TV side later became WHCT, and when CBS owned it, a young Charles Osgood was in charge! I talked with him about that at WPOP's 50th anniversary. He said his subsequent career switch was from CBS'
youngest GM to its oldest cub reporter!"
On December 1, 1953 the station became WGTH which stood for General Times Hartford
We have one report that WPOP might have operated out of the Hotel Bond in the fifties but several other reports point to 418 Asylum, the building on the west side of the intersection of Asylum and High Street, as the location.
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 Bobby Krowka 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 removed as part of the Cedar Street widening project. Reportedly the pre-fab building was actually dismantled, sold to a car dealer, and re-assembled in Holyoke, MA
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
WPOP remote at JJ Newberry's.
Del and Mrs. Raycee with Sammy Davis Jr.
WPOP Jocks 1967. L-R: Gary Girard, Dan Clayton, Lee Baby Simms, Woody Roberts, Bill Bland and Bill Winters. (Heatherton is not in this photo).
Del Raycee
Bob Scot, Don Blair and Del Raycee at Manchester race.
WPOP Live Remote Broadcast from JJ Newberry's.
