Adult contemporary radio station in New Britain?Hartford, Connecticut
For the small signaling G protein, see
Wrch1
.
WRCH
(100.5
FM
; "Lite 100.5") is a
commercial
radio station
licensed
to
New Britain, Connecticut
, and serving the
Greater Hartford
and
New Haven
areas. It is owned by
Audacy, Inc.
and airs an
adult contemporary
radio format.
WRCH's
transmitter
is located atop
Rattlesnake Mountain
, and transmits from the
WTIC-TV
tower off
U.S. Route 6
(Colt Highway) in
Farmington
.
[2]
A backup transmitter is in "Radio Park" behind the
Connecticut School of Broadcasting
, its former studio location. The station's studios and offices are located on Executive Drive, also in Farmington. WRCH broadcasts in the
HD Radio
hybrid format. It offered smooth jazz programming on its formerly HD2 sub-channel. The HD3 sub-channel formerly carried a
simulcast
of
sports talk
-formatted
WEEI-FM
in
Boston
.
[3]
History
[
edit
]
Beautiful music
[
edit
]
On July 1, 1968, WRCH-FM
signed on
the air.
[4]
It was the FM counterpart of WRCH (910 AM, now
WLAT
). Both were owned by Central Connecticut Broadcasting, itself owned by Aldo DeDominicis.
[5]
While the AM station aired a
full service
,
middle of the road
format, WRCH-FM carried a
beautiful music
format. It played quarter-hour sweeps of mostly instrumental
cover versions
of pop songs and
Hollywood
and
Broadway
showtunes
.
Easy listening
was a popular format in that era, with several stations in the Hartford area also playing beautiful music, including
WKSS
,
WWYZ
,
WKCI
and
WTIC-FM
. Over time, as those stations switched to other formats, WRCH continued its easy listening sound.
In 1977, WRCH-FM and its AM
sister station
WRCQ, were acquired by the Radio Corporation of Hartford,
[6]
controlled by Enzo DeDominicis (nephew of Aldo DeDominicis) and
Connecticut School of Broadcasting
owner Nicholas Robinson, for $3 million;
[5]
Robinson sold his stake to DeDominicis in 1979.
[7]
Soft AC
[
edit
]
In the 1980s, WRCH gradually increased the number of soft vocals and decreased the instrumentals, to the point where it became a
soft adult contemporary
station. The transition was gradual. Many of its listeners stuck with WRCH as a companion in the office and at home, and it remained one of the top rated stations in
Greater Hartford
.
Enzo DeDominicis sold WRCH, along with AM sister station WNEZ, to
American Radio Systems
(ARS) in December 1993.
[8]
The $15 million acquisition,
[9]
completed in July 1994,
[10]
was the first made by ARS following its formation a month earlier. It placed WRCH under the same ownership as
WZMX
, which offered a "
bright adult contemporary
" format.
[8]
Ahead of the sale, DeDominicis relocated to South Carolina to oversee his two radio stations there,
[8]
which he had acquired in 1989.
[11]
CBS and Entercom
[
edit
]
Westinghouse Electric Corporation
, then-parent company of
CBS Radio
, announced its acquisition of ARS in September 1997,
[12]
a deal completed in June 1998.
[13]
By this time, the company's holdings in the market, in addition to WRCH and WZMX, included
WTIC (AM)
and WTIC-FM;
[14]
WNEZ had been sold to Mega Broadcasting in 1996.
[15]
WRCH continued its soft AC format, although picking up the tempo a bit into the 2000s, shifting to mainstream adult contemporary music.
On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with
Entercom
.
[16]
The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on November 17.
[17]
[18]
The only noticeable effect from the merger for listeners was the switch of Boston sports stations on WRCH's HD3 subchannel, as the simulcast changed from the now-
Beasley
-owned
WBZ-FM
to Entercom-owned
WEEI-FM
.
In 2021, Entercom changed its name to Audacy, Inc. Audacy discontinued WRCH's HD subchannels in 2022.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Facility Technical Data for WRCH"
.
Licensing and Management System
.
Federal Communications Commission
.
- ^
"WRCH-FM 100.5 MHz - New Britain, CT"
.
radio-locator.com
.
- ^
"HD Radio Hartford?New Britain?Middletown, CT"
.
HD Radio
. Archived from
the original
on November 13, 2016.
- ^
Broadcasting Yearbook 1971 page B-36
- ^
a
b
"Changing Hands"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. May 2, 1977. p. 40
. Retrieved
October 14,
2021
.
- ^
Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1985 page B-48
- ^
"WRCH-FM history cards"
(PDF)
.
CDBS Public Access
.
Federal Communications Commission
. Retrieved
October 14,
2021
.
- ^
a
b
c
Lender, Jon (December 16, 1993).
"Deal adds up to radio 'duopoly'
"
.
Hartford Courant
. Retrieved
October 6,
2021
.
- ^
"Changing Hands"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting & Cable
. January 31, 1994. p. 44
. Retrieved
October 14,
2021
.
- ^
"Newsline"
.
Billboard
. July 9, 1994
. Retrieved
October 6,
2021
.
- ^
"Changing Hands"
(PDF)
.
Broadcasting
. January 2, 1989. p. 110
. Retrieved
October 14,
2021
.
- ^
"Baltimore Sun: Baltimore breaking news, sports, business, entertainment, weather and traffic"
.
The Baltimore Sun
.
Bloomberg News
. September 20, 1997
. Retrieved
October 7,
2021
.
- ^
Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1999 page D-79
- ^
"ARS Cashes Out, Goes To CBS"
(PDF)
.
Radio & Records
. September 26, 1997. p. 6
. Retrieved
October 7,
2021
.
- ^
Keveney, Bill (November 13, 1996).
"Spanish stations becoming a force"
.
Hartford Courant
. Retrieved
October 7,
2021
.
- ^
CBS Radio to Merge with Entercom
- ^
"Entercom Receives FCC Approval for Merger with CBS Radio"
.
Entercom
. November 9, 2017
. Retrieved
November 17,
2017
.
- ^
Venta, Lance (November 17, 2017).
"Entercom Completes CBS Radio Merger"
.
Radio Insight
. Retrieved
November 17,
2017
.
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]
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