Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

WWOD

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Branding
  
Kool 93.9 and 96.3

City
  
WWOD: Woodstock, Vermont WFYX: Walpole, New Hampshire

Broadcast area
  
WWOD: Lebanon-Rutland-White River Junction WFYX: Monadnock Region

Slogan
  
The Twin States Greatest Hits

Frequency
  
WWOD: 93.9 MHz WFYX: 96.3 MHz

First air date
  
WWOD: April 18, 1989 (as WMXR) WFYX: January 2001 (as WLPL)

WWOD (93.9 FM) is a Classic Hits broadcasting radio station. Licensed to Woodstock, Vermont, USA, the station serves the Lebanon-Rutland-White River Junction area and monadnock/sunapee/southeastern Vermont area. The station is owned by Great Eastern Radio, LLC. Programming is simulcast on WFYX (96.3 FM) in Walpole, New Hampshire for the Monadnock Region in Southwestern New Hampshire and Southeastern Vermont.

Contents

WWOD

93.9 FM was started on April 18, 1989 as WMXR-Magic 94FM by Rob and Shirley Wolf. In its early years, the station broadcast an oldies format, which was expanded to WCFR-FM (93.5 FM, now WEEY) in 1998 after the Wolfs' acquisition of that station. This evolved to into one of the country's first classic hits station (programmed by KFRC's Chuck "Boom Boom" Canon) with all-digital studios, 3 frequencies (93.5, Springfield, VT, 93.9 in Woodstock, VT and 94.3 in White River Junction/Lebanon); billed as the Valley's "Superstation" and first-in-the nation internet streaming in 1995 via Dartmouth College. In April 2000, new owners Conn River Broadcasting switched the stations' format to Bob Country - still a simulcast of 93.5, 93.9 and 94.3 country music.

Clear Channel Communications bought WMXR and WCFR in 2001 and merged the stations' country format (branded as "Bob Country") with that of its own WXXK (100.5 FM), branded "Kixx". After several months of simulcasting with WXXK, WMXR switched to a simulcast of WVRR's (101.7 FM, now WKKN at 101.9) classic rock format that October. WMXR shifted to modern rock in late March 2002, though WVRR did not follow suit until early April. Two years later, the stations (branded Rock 93.9 & 101.7) tweaked their format to mainstream rock with modest success. Clear Channel sold its stations in the Lebanon, New Hampshire market to Great Eastern Radio in January 2007, who later that year switched WMXR to a news/talk format as "93.9 The Pulse", modeled on sister station WTPL in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. This format was moved to and consolidated with a similar format on sister station WTSL (1400 AM) under the "Pulse" branding in May 2008, at which point WMXR adopted a classic hits format as "Maxx 93.9". The station subsequently returned to classic rock, retaining the "Maxx" branding.

WMXR returned to a classic hits format on November 19, 2012, branded as "Kool 93.9 & 96.3," referring to the then-upcoming simulcast on WFYX. On November 30, WMXR changed its call letters to WWOD, swapping calls with then-silent 104.3 FM, which has since been moved to the Burlington, Vermont radio market.

On July 7, 2016, Dartmouth College announced that WWOD / WLPL would be the new carriers of Big Green men's and women's basketball broadcasts as part of the Big Green Sports Network / Learfield Sports.

WFYX

96.3 FM went on the air in January 2001 as WLPL, owned by Gary Savoie and simulcasting Vox Radio Group-owned oldies station WWOD (104.3 FM). WLPL's sign on was delayed when environmental objections prevented the station from building a tower in Athens, Vermont; it chose to transmit from an existing tower in New Hampshire. The call letters were changed to WCFR-FM on October 19, shortly after they were dropped from WXKK (now WEEY); soon afterward, Savoie sold the station to Vox. Nassau Broadcasting Partners acquired most of Vox's northern New England radio stations, including WCFR and WWOD, in 2004. WCFR-FM's call letters were changed to WPLY-FM on October 12, 2005, then to WFYX on October 7, 2008.

WFYX, WWOD, and 28 other Nassau stations in northern New England were purchased at bankruptcy auction by Carlisle Capital Corporation, a company controlled by Bill Binnie (owner of WBIN-TV in Derry), on May 22, 2012. The stations, and 11 of the other stations, were then acquired by Vertical Capital Partners, controlled by Great Eastern Radio owner Jeff Shapiro. As this would put Shapiro over the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) ownership limits in the Lebanon-Rutland-White River Junction market, WWOD and WEXP were acquired by Electromagnetic Company, a company controlled by William and Gail Goddard; WFYX was not included in that transaction. As a result, on December 1, 2012, WFYX began to simulcast 93.9 FM, while 104.3 FM left the air. The Vertical Capital Partners stations were transferred to Great Eastern Radio on January 1, 2013.

On January 9, 2013 WFYX was granted an FCC construction permit to increase ERP to 600 watts.

References

WWOD Wikipedia