WHAP HISTORY

The heart of the tri-cities History The station signed on the air in 1949, broadcasting from the same building it does now, at 150 S. Mesa Dr in Hopewell.The Building was said to have originally been built as a take-out pizza restaurant. The call letters are said to mean " Hopewell And Petersburg " The station had been the flagship station for The local Hopewell Blue Devils of Hopewell High School and for a short time in the early 80s, also broadcast the New York Yankees, as well as the Motor Racing Network. By the 1960s the station was a very popular Top 40 station in the Tri-cities, calling itself, for a while," Happy Radio". The station's popularity remained until being overcome in the early 70s by higher powered Top 40 competitors WSSV-AM/FM from Petersburg and WRVQ-FM in Richmond. In 1974 the station adjusted their format to adult contemporary. WHAP had been an ABC Radio Network affiliate for many years, but in 1979 switched to the CBS Radio Network. Owners In the 1970s the station went thru a trio of owners, first North Carolina businessman Roy Wooster, then The Chessie System (who were forced to sell the station after it's merger with Seaboard Coast Lines), and finally, Ohio businessman Carl Adams in 1980. In 1985, Adams sold the station station to his General Manager, Bruce Connon. Format Evolutions In the late 1970s business started to fall off for many small AM stations, and WHAP was no exception. The station at first attempted to counteract by adding album cuts in with its normal adult contemporary playlist, next in the early eighties was a soft rock format. Then in late 1981, an uptempo oldies/beach music oriented Adult Contemporary format. In 1983 the station switched to a country music format. By the late eighties, the station was a hybrid of talk, sports, news, and some blocks of country music. WHAP Falls On Hard Times In the early 1990s the station had fallen on hard times. Business was bad overall for small stand alone AM stations during the early 1990s recession. The 1992 suicide death of owner Bruce Connon caused the station to sign off a few months after his death. It is unclear why Connon took his own life Suspicions have been that due to the ever reducing advertising business he was getting for the station, he unable to continue to pay on his loan that he took out in 1985 to buy the station, which had been financed by former owner Carl Adams. Adams later took back possession of the station from Connon's estate, and in the 1993 the station was purchased by businessman Howard Keller and some partners, and signed back on with a news/talk format, largely from network sources. In the late 1990s the station was purchased by 4M Communications of Richmond, who already owned Richmond stations 990/WLEE, 1320/WVNZ, 1480/WTOX, and 1540/WREJ. 4M decided to simulcast the station with 990/WLEE, at that time doing a Big Band format. In 2004, MainQuad Broadcasting purchased the station. MainQuad at that time owned Richmond stations WBBT-FM, WLFV-FM, and WARV-FM. The company was not sure what to do with WHAP so they signed off the station until further notice, which was about 10 months. In 2005, Mainline Broadcasting of Philadelphia purchased the assets of MainQuad Richmond, but Mainline did not want WHAP. MainQuad had difficulty selling off WHAP. The first buyer was Silver Dolphin Communications, who signed the station back on with a Classic Country format June 1, 2006, but was forced to sign the station off on August 8/17/06. The sale to the next potential buyer Benjamin-Dane of Maryland never closed. The station was finally purchased in the spring of 2007 by Preston Brown who also owned Richmond station WCLM-AM, which is doing a variety based format. Now WHAP is under the management of Steve Nugent and David Hios.WHAP is now Broadcasting Baltimore Orioles Baseball and Big John Trimble 6am to 10am And Jean Trimble10am to 12pm