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WTRI
Broadcast areaSouthern Frederick County, Maryland
Northern Loudoun County, Virginia
Frequency1520 kHz
Programming
FormatSilent
Ownership
Owner
  • Hasmukh Shah
  • (1520 Radio Asia LLC)
History
First air date
October 15, 1966
Call sign meaning
"Tri-State"
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID67755
ClassD
Power17,000 watts daytime only
Transmitter coordinates
39°18′41.0″N 77°36′26.0″W / 39.311389°N 77.607222°W / 39.311389; -77.607222
Translator(s)W269DH (101.7 MHz, Leesburg)
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.radiochai.com/index.php

WTRI (1520 kHz) is a silent commercial AM radio station licensed to Brunswick, Maryland, serving Southern Frederick County, Maryland and Northern Loudoun County, Virginia. WTRI is owned by Hasmukh Shah and last aired a South Asian format of Bollywood music and talk in Hindi and Punjabi.

WTRI is a daytimer, required to go off the air at sunset because AM 1520 is a clear channel frequency, reserved for Class A WWKB in Buffalo, New York, and KOKC in Oklahoma City.

WTRI's tower and studio were formerly located off of 13th Avenue in Brunswick. It has been silent since September 22, 2023, after that land was sold to the city government to expand a neighboring park. Pursuant to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, its license will be canceled after one year if it does not resume operations. Programming was also heard on an FM translator station, 101.7 W269DH in Leesburg, Virginia.

History

[edit]

WTRI first signed on the air on October 15, 1966. The original owner was Frank Manthos and George Gillespie's Elektra Broadcasting Corporation. It aired country music with local news coverage and originally signed on with 250 watts.[2] Soon after sign-on, power was upgraded to 500 watts.[3] In 1973, the pair sold to Charles "Bert" Thornton.[4]

WTRI has always been a daytimer that must sign off near sunset in order to clear 1520 AM for WWKB in Buffalo, New York. A notable incident occurred because of this limitation in March 1977, when the Brunswick High School boys' basketball team reached the state championship game for the first time in thirty years. However, the game was to be played at 6 p.m. at the University of Maryland, College Park, and at that time of year WTRI was required to sign off at 6:15 p.m. Charles Thornton Jr., Bert's son and the station's manager, attempted to secure permission from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to stay on the air for the game, but was flatly told it was impossible as it would violate the 1941 North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement which internationally standardized nighttime operation. Bert Thornton had the idea to broadcast the game via closed-circuit radio instead. A local car dealership cleared out its showroom to use as a makeshift auditorium, the game was broadcast over its public address system, and the team won the championship.[5]

For its first two decades of operation, WTRI refused to accept advertising containing political or religious content. This allegedly prompted atheist activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair to threaten the station with a lawsuit for not accepting her ads.[6]

WTRI was sold to the Virginia Electra Association in February 1986, as Bert Thornton had purchased WEPM and WESM in Martinsburg, West Virginia in 1978 and was increasingly occupied by those stations. This stoked controversy as one of the corporation's owners, Allen Salisbury, had ties to the LaRouche movement based in nearby Leesburg, Virginia. The new ownership pledged not to change the station's programming, though it ended the policy of not airing political content.[4] They imported Bill Maniaci, a successful talk host at KGU in Honolulu, to run the station. Shortly after the sale closed, Charles Zimmerman, an elderly former Bethlehem Steel executive who was the principal shareholder in the corporation, filed a lawsuit alleging that LaRouche supporters had taken advantage of his failing memory and unduly influenced him to contribute $200,000 that was used to buy the station.[7][8] After the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the movement's headquarters in Leesburg on suspicion of credit-card fraud later in 1986, the station began broadcasting controversial LaRouche-inspired news and political content along with the music. Maniaci quit at the end of the year, calling the LaRouche content "distasteful" in his resignation letter and criticizing an oppressive and secretive environment at the station. He claimed that Salisbury acted as the de facto manager, surveilled him and prevented him from making any consequential decisions, and that news items were regularly censored to remove negative references to LaRouche supporters. For their part, local residents were also angered by the content, and businesses pulled their advertising. The Brunswick volunteer fire department, who had a long-standing tradition of running the station for a day as a fundraiser, refused to work with the new ownership.[8]

The station went bankrupt in 1991 and was sold at auction to Liz Roberts, a former BBC and NPR reporter, who changed the format to an eclectic variety of music exclusively by local talent. The station had a policy of giving airtime at least once to every musical group in the area who either performed live or submitted a recording. Roberts also created a show for local fiction writers, the first episode of which was picked up by NPR for national distribution.[9][10] Roberts sold to Capital Broadcasting Corporation of Annapolis, Maryland in 1997. Capital upgraded WTRI's equipment, increased its power, and switched to Spanish-language pop music branded "Alpha 1520" to target the larger area's growing Latino population.[6]

In October 2000, WTRI dropped all Spanish-language programming with no notice and switched to automated beautiful music, later going silent entirely. Having been sold to JMK Communications of Los Angeles, it returned to the air in January 2001 with Korean-language talk.[11]

In March 2005, WTRI was sold to local residents Buddy Rizer, Marty Sheehan, and Taylor Walsh, who spent weeks repairing the station's dilapidated studio building. They instituted a locally programmed adult standards format branded "Vegas Radio".[12] The station also picked up daytime Washington Nationals and Frederick Keys games, as well as Navy Midshipmen football. Negotiations with the FCC and WWKB to allow some form of nighttime operation at this time were not successful.[13]

On October 1, 2007, WTRI abruptly flipped to brokered Spanish language programming. Rizer and Sheehan retained ownership of the station, but described the local marketing agreement as "an offer we couldn't refuse".[13] They flipped again to locally programmed classic country, branded "Radio Earl", on April 7, 2009.[14] "Radio Earl" was dropped on January 4, 2010, when the station flipped again to a simulcast of news-talk programming from WTHU in Thurmont, Maryland.[15] This simulcasting ended in September 2010, with a flip back to Spanish music as "Radio La Grande 1520".[16]

On May 18, 2011, WTRI began carrying the "KHZ Network" with eclectic pop music also carried on Maryland stations WKHZ, WYRE and WAMD.[17]

In May 2012, WTRI began relaying "Radio Asia", which was once again Korean-language programming. On March 31, 2014, the FCC fined the station $5,000 for repeatedly going silent during 2009, 2011 and early 2012 without permission. Rizer and Sheehan blamed mounting financial issues. A complaint seeking to deny renewal of its license outright was dismissed.[18] The station went bankrupt soon afterward, and on April 14 a court order placed it in receivership to be sold.[16][19] It was purchased in May 2015 by Hasmukh Shah, the owner of WXMC in Parsippany, New Jersey, for $275,000 plus all costs necessary to resume operation.[20] Also called Radio Asia and later "Radio Chai", Shah programmed a variety of Filmi and Bollywood music, along with talk in Hindi and Punjabi. In 2016, Shah purchased an FM translator construction permit from Priority Radio, owner of WXHL-FM in Christiana, Delaware, for $65,000. It was moved to Leesburg and on the air as W269DH in late 2017, with a tower located south of the town.[21]

WTRI has been silent since September 22, 2023, after the land housing its studio and transmitter site was sold to the city of Brunswick to expand a neighboring park. Pursuant to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, its license will be canceled after one year if it does not resume operations. At the time, Shah told the FCC he was looking for a buyer for both WTRI and W269DH.[22][23] With the loss of its originating station, W269DH was required to go silent as well. It returned to the air on September 13, 2024 rebroadcasting WPIR to keep its license active.[21]

Translator

[edit]

In addition to the main station, WTRI is relayed by one translator.

Call sign Frequency City of license FID ERP (W) HAAT Class FCC info
W269DH 101.7 FM Leesburg, Virginia 141387 220 54 m (177 ft) D LMS

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WTRI". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. ^ "New Brunswick Radio Station Goes On The Air With Strictly Country Format". Brunswick Blade-Times. 20 October 1966.
  3. ^ FCC History Cards for WTRI
  4. ^ a b "WTRI sold to group with ultraconservative ties" (PDF). The Brunswick Citizen. 6 February 1986.
  5. ^ Thornton Jr., Charles (11 April 1977). "Don't curse the darkness" (PDF). Letter to Broadcasting.
  6. ^ a b "WTRI: The little station that could" (PDF). Frederick News-Post. 20 July 1999.
  7. ^ "LaRouche Tactics Provoke Dispute". The New York Times. 27 April 1986.
  8. ^ a b Mintz, John (23 December 1986). "Airing the LaRouche Line". Washington Post.
  9. ^ Hodge, Paul (2 December 1992). "A VOICE FOR LOCAL TALENT AT SMALL RADIO STATION". Washington Post.
  10. ^ McGuire, Patrick A. (28 February 1993). "THE LITTLE STATION THAT COULD". Baltimore Sun.
  11. ^ Lear, Donna (15 February 2001). "WTRI Turns to Korean Format". The Brunswick Citizen.
  12. ^ Smith, Kevin (24 March 2005). "New owners revive Brunswick radio station". The Gazette.
  13. ^ a b "WTRI to change formats" (PDF). The Brunswick Citizen. 27 September 2007.
  14. ^ "'Radio Earl' to launch on WTRI" (PDF). The Brunswick Citizen. 9 April 2009.
  15. ^ Hughes, Dave (30 December 2009). "WTHU To Flip To News Talk, Add 1520". DCRTV.
  16. ^ a b Waters Jr, Ed (7 May 2014). "Local radio station in receivership after failing to return to air". The Frederick News-Post.
  17. ^ Hughes, Dave (18 May 2011). "KHZ Adds Brunswick's 1520". DCRTV.
  18. ^ "[In re Application of WTRI Holding, LLC]". FCC CDBS. 31 March 2014.
  19. ^ "Deal Digest for the week of May 7, 2015". Insideradio.com. 7 May 2015.
  20. ^ Venta, Lance (8 May 2015). "Station Sales Week Of May 8". RadioInsight.
  21. ^ a b "W269DH Facility Data". FCCData.
  22. ^ Niel, Clara (12 October 2023). "Brunswick to borrow $1.8 million for projects, reimbursement". The Frederick News-Post.
  23. ^ "Request for Silent Authority of an AM Station Application (LMS File No. 221548)". FCC LMS.
[edit]
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