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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
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Keith Dakin
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Mike Lapitino
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Allan Lamberti
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On
January 15, 2018, Connoisseur Media sold the stations to Red Wolf
Broadcasting (doing business as Full
Power Radio) with one exception - it kept WWCO in Waterbury.
For more about the early history of WDRC and its original
owner, Franklin M. Doolittle, click
here.
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