WDCR (1340 AM) was a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

broadcasting an

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...

format during the day, and a

variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

format at night. Licensed to

Hanover, New Hampshire Hanover is a town located along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 11,870. The town is home to the Ivy League university Dartmouth College, the U.S. Army Corps of Eng ...

, United States, the station served the Hanover and greater Upper Valley area. The station carried broadcasts of several

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

sports teams in association with the Dartmouth Sports Network, a division of Dartmouth Broadcasting. The station's license was held by the

Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College The Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College is the governing body of Dartmouth College, an Ivy League university located in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. , the Board includes twenty-three people. The current Chair of the Board is Stephen Ma ...

History

Dartmouth Broadcasting began in the 1920s, over copper wires linking all the dorms, using the call letters WDBS (Dartmouth Broadcasting System), changing to WDCR (Dartmouth College Radio) when it became an officially licensed station of the Federal Communications Commission, its first official broadcast at 1340 AM in 1958. WDCR's origins lie in a carrier-current station, WDBS, which was started on October 27, 1941 (after a month of test programming). During the 1950s, efforts were made to obtain a license from the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC), which would allow for an expansion of the station's reach to the rest of the Upper Valley; at 9 p.m. on March 4, 1958, WDCR signed on. The station left the air on August 22, 2008 due to damage to WDCR's ground system during a construction project near the station's transmitter location; soon afterward, the station announced that it had transitioned to being an

Internet radio Online radio (also web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, IP radio, Internet radio) is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted ...

station, WebDCR.com (although this station's website still features WDCR's logo). The station nonetheless briefly returned to the air in August 2009 in order to maintain the

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary ...

; in September 2010, Dartmouth College surrendered the license to the FCC for cancellation. By this point, interest in the AM station had declined due to a combination of its time

off-the-air In the broadcasting industry, a dark television station or silent radio station is one that has gone off the air for an indefinite period of time. Usually unlike dead air (broadcasting only silence), a station that is dark or silent does not eve ...

and Dartmouth's expansion of its radio operations (in addition to WebDCR, Dartmouth had established an FM radio station, WFRD, in 1976).

References

External links

WebDCR.com
DCR Defunct radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1958 Radio stations disestablished in 2010 Hanover, New Hampshire Dartmouth College 1958 establishments in New Hampshire 2010 disestablishments in New Hampshire Internet radio stations in the United States {{NewHampshire-radio-station-stub