(This section is under construction. The text below is a draft history, more information is needed. Please contact us with corrections, updates and/or suggestions. Email us at: admin@hartfordradiohistory.com.)
IMPORTANT NOTE:
4/21/09 The folks at South Congregational Church have been very helpful and are compiling information for us, some of which is presented below. More information is on the way so please check back soon.
In late 1962, the South Congregational Church on Main Street in The call letters were changed to WSCH and the new station came on the air in September, 1963 as an independently incorporated FM station operated by the church. Their intent was operate it as a public educational FM station. Early programming consisted of live broadcasts of the Hartford Symphony and the station was affiliated with the Eastern Educational Network. A financial statement from January 1, 1963 shows the following expenses: Equipment, $25,463; salaries, $12,200; transmitter maintenance, $1.806 and tapes and records, $2,251. The total budget in the first year was $65,000 with most of that amount going into building the new studios at the church. According to the first WSCH Annual Report from 1963, requests for the station’s program guide were being received at a rate of 75 to 100 per week! The station drew a large audience by broadcasting the UN Sessions live during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. The first year that station had five regular employees, a station manager, a secretary, a board operator, a transmitter attendant and an engineer. The financial costs on
By January, 1964, WSCH was on the air 98 hours a week. Daily 15 minute “Viewpoint” editorials on the air were presented by Dr. Gray, who also conducted “Phone-the-Pastor” program on Saturday evening. The Sunday morning 11 o’clock church service was broadcast, and F.M. radios were placed in the homes of all shut-ins who desired them. The National Educational Radio Network (NERN) accepted WSCH as a member and this enabled the station to present programs from many lands in addition to the quality music which originated in
Above: South Congregational Church. 2009 photo.
Contributor Tom Ray writes: My wife belonged to South Congregational when we met. She was afraid the minister wouldn’t marry us because I was brought up Catholic. At our first meeting with the minister, he asked what I did for a living. At that time, I was CE at WKSS. The conversation immediately turned to RF, tubes, transistors – because South Congregational owned 93.7 at one point, which became WLVH when South Church sold it. The minister, Dr. John Elmore, had been their CE at the time. So for almost an hour, Dr. Elmore and I discussed radio, FM, transmitters, while my poor wife-to-be sat there with her mouth open. The meeting was supposed to be about us! At the end of our time, Dr. Elmore asked what we had been doing together as a couple. My wife mentioned that we were in the process of rebuilding the kitchen in the house I owned so she would be comfortable living there after we were married. Dr. Elmore stated, “well, you’ve got a good Engineer here – and you’re doing a kitchen. If you two are still talking in 3 months, there should be no problem with you getting married”. That was the extent of the conversation about “us”. My wife, 23 years later, has yet to let me live that meeting down!
