WDHA-FM

Infobox Radio Station


name = WDHA
airdate = February 22 1961
frequency = 105.5 (MHz) HD Radio
105.5-2 FM for Live Rock
city = Dover, New Jersey
Morristown, New Jersey
area = Northern New Jersey
format = Rock
owner = Greater Media
sister_stations = WMTR, WCTC, WMGQ,WJRZ-FM, WRAT, WWTR
erp = 1,000 watts
haat = 175 meters
branding =
slogan = "The Rock of New Jersey"
class = A
webcast = [http://bdcast-greatermedia-wdha-fm.wm.llnwd.net/bdcast_greatermedia_WDHA-fm Listen Live]
website = [http://www.wdhafm.com/ www.wdhafm.com]
callsign_meaning = W
Drexel
Hill
Associates |

WDHA 105.5 FM is a rock music station licensed to Dover and Morristown, New Jersey. WDHA is owned and operated by Greater Media and serves the northern New Jersey region.

The station focuses both on rock music of the 1970s and 1980s as well as rock music from the 1990s, 2000s, and today. The station will go as far back as the 1960s on occasion. The station plays both classic rock and newer rock cuts and calls itself "The Rock Of New Jersey." Core artists include the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Mötley Crüe, Queen, Pearl Jam, Metallica, Nirvana, Allman Brothers, The Doors, Foreigner, Aerosmith, Van Halen, Ozzy Osborne, Matchbox Twenty, and many others. The station is local and live full-time. The station's facilities are located in Cedar Knolls outside of Morristown.

In terms of ratings, the station dominates in northern New Jersey, especially in Morris County, where it is based out of. One reason was the lack of a modern rock station in New York City in 2005 and early 2006. WAXQ (Q104.3), which plays Classic Rock, was the only rock station in the New York market. This void was created by WXRK "92.3 K-Rock" when that station briefly became WFNY "Free FM", a talk station, on January 1, 2005, and ended when it changed back to K-Rock on May 24, 2006. WDHA always garnered high ratings in northern New Jersey, even when New York had as many as three full-time rock stations.

History

WDHA began operation on February 22, 1961. The WDHA calls stand for "Drexel Hill Associates," who were the original owners of the station. The station played adult pop hits during the day but had Classical Music and Jazz block programming at night. The station began broadcasting stereo in 1972. 1250 WMTR was their co-owned station. WDHA studios had been located in Randolph Township while WMTR was located in Cedar Knolls.WDHA also had a one hour lunchtime news/talk show that was simulcast with their AM station, WMTR.

From 1972 to 1974 WDHA gradually moved away from pop standards and evolved into a Soft Rock/Adult Contemporary format. Initially they stayed away from hard rock. By 1975, they played the available album cut versions instead of the shorter single versions of the hits. For a time in the 1970s, WDHA was capable of broadcasting in quadraphonic stereo, one of only a handful of stations so equipped. By 1977 WDHA evolved into a top 40/rock format blending both types of music. Harder Rock would be gradually mixed in while pop hits were being phased out. By 1978 WDHA became known as "The Jersey Giant".

By 1980, WDHA had evolved into an album oriented rock format similar to WNEW FM at the time. In 1984, WDHA was the world's first radio station to play the then-new compact disc. By the late 1980s more heavy metal bands were heard while the station still kept a balance between classic rock and new rock. At this time WDHA became a popular station in northern New Jersey. In 1990 WDHA moved out of their Randolph facilities into new Cedar Knolls facilities with sister station WMTR. In 1991 WDHA and WMTR were sold by Drexel Hill Associates to Signal Communications. The format was unaffected and WDHA continued on as usual.

In the mid-1990s Signal Communications restructured and became known as New Jersey Broadcast Partners. The station continued to dominate for rock music in this region and began to market themselves as "Classic Rock/New Rock". By the late-1990s, WDHA was the middle ground between WXRK 92.3 "K Rock", playing hard rock and alternative music, and WAXQ "Q 104" playing Classic Rock. WNEW-FM had poor ratings in New Jersey, in part due to its indecision of what kind of music to play, in part because of the influence of WDHA.

In 2001, WDHA (along with WRAT and WMTR) was sold to Greater Media (owners of WMGQ/WCTC). Today the station continues as the premiere rock station for northern New Jersey. WDHA has begun HD Radio Broadcasts; WDHA HD 1 rebroadcasts WDHA's rock format while WDHA HD 2 broadcasts a live rock format focusing on concert music. There is some consideration to adding WMTR's successful Oldies format to WDHA HD 3 but no decision has been made on this yet.

Among the prominent radio people employed at one time at WDHA were Manny Glin, Bill Hall, Tony A, Larry Seltzer, Vic Porcelli, Cheryl Richards, Kathy Millar, Mark Chernoff, and Vince Gerard.

Current full-time on-air staff at WDHA are Jim Monaghan (Mornings) Curtis Kay (PM Drive) Lindsay Klein (Nights) Jeff Charone (Overnights). Weekend part-time staff include Pat Blowers, Mike Cocheo, Bill Hall, Scott Evil (also host of Metal Mania), Bert, Laura Vaughn, Kim Mulligan, Zach Martin and Matt Gamba.

HISTORY (Cont.)

WDHA started broadcasting out of Dover, New Jersey on the FM frequency of 105.5 on February 22, 1961 with 3,000 watts of radiated power from atop Shongum Mountain, said to be one of the highest peaks in Northern New Jersey.

While the studios were being constructed on the site at Route 10 in Randolph Township near Millbrook Avenue, temporary studios were established on the second floor of the old Goodale Drug Store building at 8 West Blackwell Street in downtown Dover. Ground was broken for the new construction in Randolph Township on Monday December 12, 1960 during a snow storm that left high snow drifts and blowing wind. D. Ridgely Bolgiano, general manager, announced that construction of the new site would begin "next week with the station scheduled to go on the air by mid-February." Peter L. Arnow of Convent Station was president of the firm, and Walter C. Blaser of Wharton was named director of music.

The studios and transmitter building were still under construction when the station went on-the-air with non-stop classical music, 18-hours-a-day, seven days a week. A 100 foot tower was erected next to the transmitter building on Route 10 and a small intercom system was installed to communicate between those at the transmitter site and the ones at the studios in downtown Dover. WDHA stands for Drexel Hill Associates. The station was owned and operated by Peter Arnow who moved to Morris County from Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania and along with his associates took the name of "Drexel Hill Associates" for the name of their newly established company. It was often said the radio station was a graduation-from-college gift from Mr Arnow's father. Mr. Arnow and his associate Robert Linder operated the station together for many years. Eventually they bought out WMTR in Morristown and operated both an AM and FM radio station with one site being at 10 Park Place in Morristown and the other on Route 10. Even though the music formats were always different, for many years the newscasts were simulcast on both stations. WDHA was licensed by the FCC to the city of Dover, one of the few towns in New Jersey that the FCC allocated both an AM and FM frequency. The AM frequency eventually went to WRAN at 1510 which also went on the air the same year, 1961, and operated its studios and transmitter directly behind WDHA. With WRAN's four huge red-blinking towers, for many years passing motorists thought they belonged to WDHA since that building was located in view of the highway, while WRAN's building sat in the middle of a field, out of sight. Over the years WDHA's music selections evolved and the station started airing contemporary music at night with the classical format during the day. Soon WDHA dropped its classical format altogether and went with strictly contemporary pop and soon began with rock. Source:George LaurieDover Area Historical Society

External links

* [http://www.wdhafm.com/ WDHA Website]
*FMQ|WDHA
*FML|WDHA