On July 7, 2014 Hartford, Connecticut radio stations WDRC and WDRC changed hands for only the third time in 92 years. Franklin M. Doolittle put WPAJ on the air from New Haven on December 10, 1922. It was renamed WDRC (Doolittle Radio Corporation) on February 25, 1925, call letters which have stuck ever since. The station relocated to Hartford starting December 5, 1930. On June 19, 1959 Mr. Doolittle sold the stations to Richard D. Buckley and John B. Jaeger; Buckley Broadcasting remained the owner until 2014.

The new owner is Connoisseur Media, with headquarters in Westport, CT. It was founded in 1993 and owns more than three dozen radio properties including stations in New Haven, Bridgeport and Stamford, CT.

The fact of life in radio means ownership changes result in on-air changes. On July 7, 2014 virtually all of WDRC FM's staff was let go: program director and midday host Grahame Winters, morning man Mike Stevens, afternoon driver Floyd Wright and night man Rockin' Ron Sedaille. The only member of the FM airstaff retained was news person Kim Zachary, although production director Rob Ray was retained to voicetrack the 7PM-midnight shift. Brad Davis stayed on as morning host on WDRC AM.

The industry trade publication All Access reported that Connoisseur's southern Connecticut general manager, Kristin Okesson, would add the former Buckley properties to her responsibilities. Operations Manager Keith Dakin became program director at WDRC FM. It also reported that WFOX midday host Allan Lamberti would takeover afternoon drive and function as assistant program director...and WPLR afternooner Mike "Lappy" Lapitino would host middays on WDRC FM. Chief engineer Scott Baron also remained with the new owner.

Kristin Okesson

Keith Dakin

Mike Lapitino

Allan Lamberti

For more about the early history of WDRC and its original owner, Franklin M. Doolittle, click here.