WHRC-FM: America's Smallest Commercial FM Radio Station (early 1980s)

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.

[radiogoodguy]

A real mom & pop small town radio station! A lot of work. Bravo for following your dreams.📻🎙

[telmore]

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.

[mbatchelor]

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.

[javajoelradio]

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!

[grampsradio]

"he misses it the way it was, but not the way it is." I can relate to that.

[skyhill]

Absolutely superb....radio the way it used to be and the way it still should be!

[ronc]

That was a different world back then. You knew it was a budget radio station when it had all that Mc Martin radio gear.

[zoso]

Passion, localization, connection to the community. The bones of great radio right there.

[blewis]

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.

[TheHGN]

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.

[vsibirsky]

the man had a dream and made it come true.

[Ferda]

Great show.We need more independent broadcasters.

[coffeehigh]

wow wow wow now THATS what i call dedication !! - they probably ended up selling this station to clear channel for millions.

[billgreen]

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....

[RPlace-mc]

I've been in Radio for nearly 40 years and always dreamed of owning a station. This would have been my dream gig!

[Bilbie]

It’s sad that radio is kinda dying in some ways. I miss some of the talk shows of old

[carlos_mann]

This is so amazing to watch as I am too trying to launch my own station.
Such a great story, and motivating 👏

[Ed]

At 3:15 he really gets into that '70s/'80s radio persona. Love the tight eye squeeze.

[craigavonvideo]

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".

[InvestigationsDepartment]

This is an uplifting video. Thanks for posting this!