Branding Kool Radio | ||
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City Hope Valley, Rhode Island Broadcast area Southern Rhode Island
New London, Connecticut Slogan Good Times, Great Oldies Frequency 1180 kHz
(also on HD Radio via WBMW-HD3) Translator(s) W282CB (104.3, Hope Valley) | ||
WSKP (1180 AM; "Kool Radio") is a radio station licensed to serve Hope Valley, Rhode Island. The station is owned by John Fuller's Red Wolf Broadcasting Corporation. It airs an oldies format.
With Red Wolf Broadcasting acquiring Davidson Media’s New England properties, the company is combining two Oldies brands into one trimulcast. The merger of programming takes the “Kool” branding of 1180 WSKP Hope Valley, Rhode Island/106.5 WBMW-HD3 Pawcatuck, Connecticut, and the airstaff of 990 WXCT Southington, Hartford, Connecticut and 1490 WACM Springfield, Massachusetts. Northeast Radio Watch reports that the new “Kool Radio” is featuring WACM/WXCT’s Larry Kratka in mornings as previous morning host Fred King exits.
History
The station signed on October 5, 1985 as WJJF, a country music station. It was started by John J. Fuller, now owner of Red Wolf Broadcasting. The "JJF" in the call reflected Fuller's initials. WJJF's studio and transmitter were located on the Fuller Farm at 26 Woody Hill Road in Hope Valley. The transmitter still exists there.
Fuller sold WJJF to Charles River Broadcasting, owner of several classical music stations in New England (including WCRI on Block Island, WCRB in Boston, and WFCC-FM on Cape Cod), in 2002. Charles River Broadcasting continued the country music format (making it the company's second non-classical station, after classic rock-formatted WKPE-FM on Cape Cod until July 2004, when the call letters were changed to WCNX and the station temporarily left the air for tower replacement. Prior to being assigned in Rhode Island, the call letters were used by what is now WMRD in Middletown, Connecticut. WCNX returned that August with an all-news format provided by CNN Headline News; the Headline News simulcast was eventually phased out (as with most of the network's radio affiliates) in favor of talk shows.
Charles River Broadcasting announced on October 27, 2005 that it was exploring the sale of its properties, with Judson Group purchasing WCNX and WCRI in 2006. Judson continued the news/talk format until October 1, 2011, when it became WCRI, a simulcast of WCRI-FM's classical music programming. In November 2013, Judson filed to sell WCRI to Red Wolf Broadcasting Corporation; this returned the station to the ownership of John Fuller. The call letters were changed to WSKP on November 29; on December 2, WSKP dropped the WCRI-FM simulcast and launched an oldies format, branded as "Kool 1180". The format is also heard on WBMW-HD3 out of Pawcatuck, Connecticut. The station swapped call letters with 107.7 FM and became WWRX on December 24, 2013; the swap was reversed on April 23, 2014. The sale to Red Wolf was completed on May 13, 2014. Under the direction of Brian Ram, who serves as Red Wolf's VP/Programming Kool 1180 features music from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.