WDRC or WPOP

[JoeLouis]

Back in the 60s which station was king of the hill in Hartford, "The Big D" or the WPOP "Good Guys" (for me it was WDRC 1360) and even better when they started an FM at 102.9 (WPOP stayed at 1410 AM) my choice: The Big D, hands down.

 

[DavidEduardo]

The earlier 60's ahead WPOP ahead, and they were prettey much tied in the mid-60's with 1360 moving ahead in the end of the decade. However, WTIC generally had more audience than the two of them combined.

WTIC was #1 from the late 30's to the mid 1990's,, and then much of the time up' to around 2006.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

Back in Queens NYC, early 60's, WPOP was one of the first stations we grammar-school kids heard during our earliest tries at DX off a big Zenith AM-Phono console. Heck -- we'd never even heard the term 'DX' back then.
Subsequent years opened our ears further to things like directional patterns and power drops, but I do recall a bunch of us with transistors listening to WPOP pretty well at times on their propellor-blade night pattern. WMEX 1510 and WPTR Albany were others like that. The largest, of course, was WKBW. Girls and guys alike would tune around to those stations even though we had four NYC rockers.
Late 60's a few of us wound up at some place in Hampton Bays, waaaay out on Long Island, and heard WDRC playing in a few local places .... diners, lobbies. We thought that was incredible, until realization that it was their *FM* -- the only Top 40 available at the time out that way.
'Deeeeh One-Oh-Three' had a mammoth signal that was easily heard all the way East on Long Island from the Nassau-Suffolk line. I saw a couple of ratings books when they'd show with like a 0.5 in the Long Island book during their AoR years.
WPLR New Haven (AoR) and WICC *AM* Bridgeport also would show, beneficiaries of that North Shore and Eastern Long Island coverage.
Barry Granti's overnight AoR show (simulcast on 1360 and 102.9) was a terrific listening oasis for this DXer, for in between those bottom- and top-of-the-hour station IDs.

 

[Kemosabe]

The earlier 60's ahead WPOP ahead, and they were prettey much tied in the mid-60's with 1360 moving ahead in the end of the decade. However, WTIC generally had more audience than the two of them combined.

Much of that success can be attributed to Bob Steele, who had dominated morning drive for decades.

 

[JoeLouis]

Back in Queens NYC, early 60's, WPOP was one of the first stations we grammar-school kids heard during our earliest tries at DX off a big Zenith AM-Phono console. Heck -- we'd never even heard the term 'DX' back then.
Subsequent years opened our ears further to things like directional patterns and power drops, but I do recall a bunch of us with transistors listening to WPOP pretty well at times on their propellor-blade night pattern. WMEX 1510 and WPTR Albany were others like that. The largest, of course, was WKBW. Girls and guys alike would tune around to those stations even though we had four NYC rockers.
Late 60's a few of us wound up at some place in Hampton Bays, waaaay out on Long Island, and heard WDRC playing in a few local places .... diners, lobbies. We thought that was incredible, until realization that it was their *FM* -- the only Top 40 available at the time out that way.
'Deeeeh One-Oh-Three' had a mammoth signal that was easily heard all the way East on Long Island from the Nassau-Suffolk line. I saw a couple of ratings books when they'd show with like a 0.5 in the Long Island book during their AoR years.
WPLR New Haven (AoR) and WICC *AM* Bridgeport also would show, beneficiaries of that North Shore and Eastern Long Island coverage.
Barry Granti's overnight AoR show (simulcast on 1360 and 102.9) was a terrific listening oasis for this DXer, for in between those bottom- and top-of-the-hour station IDs.

I remember when DRC went 'FM' the sound quality back then being used to AM was astounding to me, hearing those "WDRC in Hartford" jingles. In reverse I used to listen to some of the Long Island stations here in CT, WLNG was at 1600AM (no longer) but they juiced up their 92.1 a bit if you don't mind listening to oldies with commercials for every little business on the East End.