Three
and a half years after buying WDRC, WDRC FM and
its sister stations from Buckley Broadcasting, Connoisseur
Media has sold part of the package to Red Wolf Broadcasting
for $8 million.
The
transaction was announced on Monday, January 15, 2018. The two
principals of Red Wolf are John Fuller, president, and Brian Ram,
vice president. The company is based in Ledyard, Connecticut and
was formed in 1990.
Connoisseur
Media was just the third owner in WDRC's lengthy history
when it bought the stations on July 7, 2014. Franklin
Malcolm Doolittle founded the station in New Haven as WPAJ
on December 10, 1922. On February 21, 1925 the call letters were
changed to WDRC (Doolittle Radio Company). On December
5, 1930 WDRC began broadcasting from Hartford. Mr. Doolittle sold
WDRC AM to Buckley-Jaeger
Broadcasting Corporation of Connecticut for $815,000 on August
3, 1959. The new owners put WDRC FM on the air.
From
1996-1998 Buckley Broadcasting enlarged the company by acquiring
three Connecticut AM stations: WSNG Torrington, WWCO Waterbury
and WMMW Meriden. Since that time those stations have simulcast
WDRC AM programming. WWCO will stay with Connoisseur and
Red Wolf will pick up the others, as well as a number of translators
and low power FM frequencies.
Red
Wolf owns a
number of radio stations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island and New York.