WHRC-FM: America's Smallest Commercial FM Radio Station (early 1980s)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ธ.ค. 2022
- This is a look (and listen) into a unique little FM radio station that Peter Hunn and his wife put on the air on a hill outside Port Henry, New York. Having long dreamed of being a broadcaster, he scraped together the $30,000 needed to acquire land, fill his Datsun/Nissan hatchback with second-hand broadcast equipment, build a studio/transmitter building from a 20' x 24' two-car garage kit, and debuted the 818 watt signal on 92.1 mHz during the fall of 1982. The soft rock (6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and variety (6 p.m. - 10 p.m.) programming formatted station produced a surprisingly good mono signal throughout the Lake Champlain Valley. Hunn had previously served as morning personality (as Peter Davis) at WMGK(FM) in Philadelphia, WNLC New London, Connecticut (where he was named 1976 Billboard magazine air-personality of the year), and as Peter Knight at several Providence, Rhode Island AMs, including WPRO. After selling WHRC-FM for $210,000 in 1985, he earned a Masters degree at Central Missouri University, bought a defunct daytimer in suburban Syracuse, New York, revitalized it as WZZZ, and then sold the AM at a profit in 1995. Local radio was alive and well prior to the Internet era. This video provides a glimpse of how much fun and rewarding that brand of media ownership was for young radio entrepreneurs. Hunn served on the Communication Studies faculty at SUNY Oswego from 1995-2021, and as Career & Technical Education administrator with OCM BOCES in Syracuse from 2005-2022. Often asked if he misses the radio business, Hunn reflects that he misses it the way it was, but not the way it is.
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A real mom & pop small town radio station! A lot of work. Bravo for following your dreams.📻🎙
"he misses it the way it was, but not the way it is." I can relate to that.
Golden voice, that Peter.
That was a different world back then. You knew it was a budget radio station when it had all that Mc Martin radio gear.
LOL!! Yeah, good 'ol McMartin!
And that McMartin gear just runs... and runs... and runs.
It's all pretty simple - from boards to transmitters to FM/Stereo monitors. And even after the company failed, Charlie Goodrich was always there to lend a helping hand if you got in a bind, or fix your gear if you sent it to him.
Complexity and surface mount tech isn't always better!
This station ended up eventually being owned by Clear Channel, and is today owned by Vox Communications and is WVTK, a Classic Hits format. It has upgraded power to 18000 watts and targets Vermont with its programming.
Fantastic information! I was searching for an update on Google! You beat Google! Thank you very much!
Is this man still alive? Owner, Program Director, On-Air Personality, receptionist, engineer, News Director, General Manager AND sales? Impressive. I would LOVE to get my hands on some unscoped (or even scoped) airchecks of this gem of a station. Community/smalltown locally-minded radio is where it's at!
Yeah, that IS where it's at, but good luck getting the FCC monarchy to swallow it.
There is a video of a couple exploring the abandoned station….
th-cam.com/video/uOHc1c1LcYs/w-d-xo.htmlsi=LMj2U6eoQbXOrgsT
@@maxasaurus3008 Abandoned?
@@ApartmentKing66radio station was sold in 1985.
Absolutely superb....radio the way it used to be and the way it still should be!
And COULD if the FCC would allow it.
IHeart has taken over
@@japplegate3000if it's anything like Heart in the UK it'll be homogenised radio but hopefully not.
the man had a dream and made it come true.
It’s sad that radio is kinda dying in some ways. I miss some of the talk shows of old
I knew Peter back 37 years ago when I lived in Vermont. He had just sold WHRC and moved to Fulton, New York and bought WOSC AM 1300 a daytime 1kw station. Peter changed the call letters to WZZZ because he wanted something unique if I recall correctly. That station had been off the air for a while and I helped him to get it back on the air. Peter eventually sold that station and went into teaching at one of the colleges in the area and I believe he is still around today.
Whoaaaa. I have an aircheck of WZZZ/Fulton NY from November '99. Peter owned the station back then? Was he on the air. I listened to that station often when I lived/worked in Syracuse. That's crazy!
I believe Peter sold the station around 1987 or 1988. I lived in Vermont until 1992 and it had already gone through a couple hands by then. @@javajoelradio
Great show.We need more independent broadcasters.
i would love to work In a station like this, I would do It for nothing as well. Playing Vinyl on those classic decks, and tapes for the Jingles as well. It Is how radio should be.
I remember reading a story about this guy and WHRC in "Popular Communications" back in the mid-80s at the Eastern NC radio station where I got my start.
At 3:15 he really gets into that '70s/'80s radio persona. Love the tight eye squeeze.
Awesome video, brings back memories.
wow wow wow now THATS what i call dedication !! - they probably ended up selling this station to clear channel for millions.
The original radio station isn't on anymore under WHRC BUT the frequency is still on air on 92.1 as WVTK.
Great editing on this news story, too, btw.
Wow. I knew Peter from his work in Philadelphia on WMGK and my wife and I socialized a bit with both him and Caroline. And sure enough, after he'd moved away to build his dream, we took a side trip on our way back from Montreal to find his station and visit it. I still have the pictures I took of Peter standing outside the building he'd built. A really nice couple of people and I'm happy I got to know them even a little bit.
What ever became of him and his wife?
This is so amazing to watch as I am too trying to launch my own station.
Such a great story, and motivating 👏
By yourself, or with other people? Are you in the US?
@@ApartmentKing66 yes, all of it is completely by myself. (The funds for all the hardware, equipment, hours of learning, etc). I cant tell you how many times I've came close to quitting but I've yet completely given up the fight.
*** and yes I'm in the US
Loved the video! I started out in a small radio station in Texas and although it was only part time for almost 30 years, it was tye most enjoyable time of my life! It was the only "job" I actually enjoyed and wouldnt trade the experience fo anything! Thanks for bringing back the memories for me!
Fascinating to find this news report on WHRC as I have had Peter Hunn's book about the setting up the station for over 30 years! I could never find any information about the station on the internet (most old links no longer work) so this is the first time I've heard him speak :) Great stuff.
Oh, and the book is called "Starting and Operating Your Own FM Radio Station".
This is an uplifting video. Thanks for posting this!
That is small-market radio, just like Mom & Pop used to make. Classic!
I really miss the small stations like this. The multi million dollar market these days just don't understand because to them it's all about, "How much money can we make today" . Bring back the human touch. It isn't always the money....
One of the FASTEST-GROWING radio stations in the country!
Hello from switzerland! 😀 I Like this videos, i find them very interesting! I Never heard before from this station. Very nice, thanks 👍😀 I Watched this Video Coincidence here🙂 (I Hope, my english is ok… 🤣🤣) Greetings from Switzerland, Phil
I know the feeling here. I'm all for it, good job.
While I'm happy for Peter and Carolyn in that they were able to do something of this nature, I can't help but get pissed off myself. Not at them, of course; but at the little monarchy known as the FCC. I could easily do what Peter and Carolyn did, but can't get a license like he was able to. I have an AM and an FM myself, but for various reasons, they're only Part 15 stations (meaning they're unlicensed). With my Part 15 stations, I could *easily* upgrade their power to a few hundred watts and do just what Peter and Carolyn did. Small transmitters aren't hard to come by or to set up. Somehow, Peter got a license to put it on the air from the FCC. The tyrants at the FCC won't issue licenses to individuals; only to groups, crushing the entrepreneurial spirit unless you decide to bootleg it and risk some @$$hole busybody turning you in and putting a $10k fine around your neck. I've got *everything* one would need to put a station on the air, one that would serve a community, and serve it WELL. Servers for music and automation software to run the station when I can't be there (but with the ability to go "live" on a moment's notice), turntables, mics, boards, transmitters, processing, a tower out back for the antenna, all but that little "note from Daddy." It really pisses me off that the FCC issued him a license, but won't to others like me and other would-be radio entrepreneurs. I'm wondering how he pulled it off when someone like me isn't allowed to.
MUCH easier to get a license in the early 1980’s. Docket 80-90 created hundreds of these tiny stations. Most were eventually gobbled up by big corporations.
Great video. They it was, so true!
The guy sounds like Seth McFarlane. It’s that CT/RI accent.
Unfortunately this station no longer exists, unless the call sign has been changed.
Did a quick Google search and couldn't find anything. Is this station still going?
It still is on, just commercialized. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WVTK
It's clear channel now.
I always thought working at a radio station would be fun and then I did. How fucking boring!
1980s podcasting
Unless this is a tongue-in-cheek remark, I think that there's a really important difference. Podcasters have freedom regarding when they do their podcasts. This couple was doing live radio, so the person in the DJ room really was running the station. Peter had to be prepared to sign on the station at 6:00 every morning. Then, the person who had signed in on the FCC logbook had to sneak over to the transmitter room to take a reading while a record was playing (not shown in the video).
I believe that one reason that university radio stations are starting to go away is that college students today grew up with podcasts, so the constraints of having to be at the studio for an airshift and having to follow a schedule are alien to them.
WKRP was also in it's hey day, back then, and they had the cumbersome corporate format, 1 peep per task, and the show was based on the "eddies".
Nein! It's way sober compared to what is being done these days in the name of pod-casting or whatever that stands for! A very dignified couple with a decent start-up station to keep local population updated. There is no comparison.... Na!
Announcement audio bible App
In radio channel studio
lost me at christian radio... yawn
That soured things for me a bit as well
Well, if it brings in revenue, you'd do it too. It's like agency commercials...it's guaranteed money.
The preachers and ministries bought (and continue to buy) blocks of airtime at commercial radio stations. I can guarantee that it was about the money.
The other advantage was that if the ministries delivered their shows pre-recorded on reel-to-reel, then either Peter or his wife had to sign in on the FCC logbook, take one transmitter reading per hour, and play the station's legal ID near the top of the hour. The religious show tapes could then play over the air while Peter and his wife attended to any other tasks related to running the radio station.