History
WKND signed on in 1961, as WSOR, and featured a country music and Polish format. It was a 500-watt daytime-only station. After a couple sales of the station in the mid-1960s, WSOR became WEHW in 1966.
In 1969, The KND Corporation purchased the station, and changed the callsign to WKND. A format change to R&B soon followed, and WKND became the first radio station in the state to feature a format targeting the African American community. 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. [2]
In 2004, under an LMA with Freedom Communications of Connecticut, WKND's call sign and format moved to Freedom's WNEZ (1230 AM). With the move to 1230, WKND became a 24-hour station for the first time and got a power boost to 1,000 watts. They ran on-air announcements "The all-new 24 Hour, Twice the Power WKND 1230 AM". The 1480 facility then took the WNEZ call letters from 1230 AM and became urban gospel-formatted "Heaven 1480" for a few months, and then became Spanish oldies "La X 1480". WNEZ soon joined its sister stations WLAT and WKND at 330 Main Street in Hartford.
Freedom Communications ended up in receivership, and in 2007, WKND and its R&B oldies format returned to 1480, with 1230, going back to WNEZ and a Spanish-language format. Gois Broadcasting acquired WLAT and WNEZ in 2008, and WKND in 2009. The three stations were moved into new studios on Burnside Avenue in East Hartford shortly thereafter.
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