WKND is a radio station, that operates on 1480 kilocycles, licensed to the city of Windsor, Connecticut

Windsor, Connecticut

Windsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, and was the first English settlement in the state. It lies on the northern border of Connecticut's capital, Hartford. The population was estimated at 28,778 in 2005....

. The transmitter site is in Windsor, while the studios are in Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...

. WKND is owned by Gois Broadcasting.

WKND operates with 500 watts during the day and 14 watts at night with a mix of R&B Hits and Oldies with Gospel Music thrown in on Sundays.

History

WKND signed on in 1961 as WSOR and featured a Country Western and Polish Format. They were a 500 watt daytime only station. After a couple sales of the station in the mid 60s, the WSOR became WEHW (Windsor East Hartford West Hartford) in 1966. In 1969 The KND Corporation purchased the station and changed the call letters to WKND. A format change to Rhythm & Blues soon followed and WKND became the first radio station in the state to feature a format targeting The African American communinituy. In 1981 Hartcom Inc. purchased the station. Hartcom was formed by an all minority group of individuals committed to keeping the station serving the African American community. Studios eventually moved to The Windsor Parkade Shopping Center. Major transmitter site renovations were undertaken in the mid 1990s, with the replacement of the station's three towers and a retuning of the station's directional antenna pattern. http://www.hartfordradiohistory.com/WKND__WSOR_.html

In 2004 under an LMA with Freedom Communications of Connecticut WKND's call sign and format moved down the dial to Freedom's WNEZ 1230. With the move to 1230, WKND became a 24 hour station for the first time and got a power boost to 1000 watts. They would run on-air announcements "The all-new 24 Hour, Twice the Power WKND 1230 AM." 1480 took the WNEZ call letters from 1230 AM and became Gospel "Heaven 1480" for a few months and than became Spanish Oldies "La X 1480." WNEZ 1480 soon joined its sister stations WLAT 910 and WKND 1230 at 330 Main Street in Hartford.

Freedom Communications ended up in receivership and in 2007 WKND and it's R&B Oldies format reverted back to 1480, with 1230 going back to WNEZ and a Spanish Language Music and Information format.

Gois Broadcasting acquired WLAT and WNEZ in 2008 and WKND in 2009. The 3 stations were moved into new studios on Burnside Avenue in East Hartford shortly thereafter.