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

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

History

Early history

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. Soon after sign-on, power was upgraded to 500 watts. In 1973, the pair sold to Charles "Bert" Thornton.

WTRI was 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.

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.

LaRouche movement ties

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. 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.

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, political and conspiratorial content. As the Washington Post described it, along with the country music came warnings of "dire conspiracies, murderous plots against local residents, and traitors in their midst." 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. Salisbury refused to answer any questions from the Post unless the interview was broadcast live over the station, which the paper found unacceptable. 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. The station went bankrupt in 1991.

Later local ownership

WTRI was sold at bankruptcy 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. Roberts sold to Capital Broadcasting Corporation of Annapolis, Maryland in 1997. Capital upgraded WTRI's equipment and increased its power to 9.3 kilowatts, limited to 1.4 kW during critical hours. Programming switched to Spanish-language pop music branded "Alpha 1520" to target the larger area's growing Latino population.

In October 2000, WTRI dropped all Spanish-language programming with no notice and switched to automated beautiful music, later going silent entirely. It was sold to JMK Communications of Los Angeles and returned to the air in January 2001 with Korean-language talk in simulcast with WKDV and WPWC, both based in Prince William County, Virginia. In 2003, JMK increased power to 17 kW, with directional nulls toward WWKB and KOKC eliminating the need for a power reduction during critical hours.

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". 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.

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". They flipped again to locally programmed classic country, branded "Radio Earl", on April 7, 2009. "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. This simulcasting ended in September 2010, with a flip back to Spanish music as "Radio La Grande 1520".

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

Bankruptcy and FM

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. The station went bankrupt soon afterward, and on April 14 a court order placed it in receivership to be sold.

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. 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.

End of operations

WTRI broadcast for the last time on 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, it had one year to resume operations or its license would be cancelled. At the time, Shah told the FCC he was looking for a buyer for both WTRI and W269DH. 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. However, WTRI did not resume broadcasting by the statutory deadline of 12:01 a.m. on September 23, 2024, and its license was forfeited.

Translator

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

References

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. ‹ The template below (FCC letter) is being considered for deletion. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus. ›

   FCC History Cards for WTRI

4. ^ "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. ^ "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. ^ 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. Hughes, Dave (12 January 2001). "WTRI Goes Korean". DCRTV.
13. Smith, Kevin (24 March 2005). "New owners revive Brunswick radio station". The Gazette.
14. ^ "WTRI to change formats" (PDF). The Brunswick Citizen. 27 September 2007.
15. "'Radio Earl' to launch on WTRI" (PDF). The Brunswick Citizen. 9 April 2009.
16. Hughes, Dave (30 December 2009). "WTHU To Flip To News Talk, Add 1520". DCRTV.
17. ^ Waters Jr, Ed (7 May 2014). "Local radio station in receivership after failing to return to air". The Frederick News-Post.
18. Hughes, Dave (18 May 2011). "KHZ Adds Brunswick's 1520". DCRTV.
19. "[In re Application of WTRI Holding, LLC]". FCC CDBS. 31 March 2014.
20. "Deal Digest for the week of May 7, 2015". Insideradio.com. 7 May 2015.
21. Venta, Lance (8 May 2015). "Station Sales Week Of May 8". RadioInsight.
22. ^ "W269DH Facility Data". FCCData.
23. Niel, Clara (12 October 2023). "Brunswick to borrow $1.8 million for projects, reimbursement". The Frederick News-Post.
24. "Request for Silent Authority of an AM Station Application (LMS File No. 221548)". FCC LMS.

External links

• Facility details for Facility ID 67755 (WTRI) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• WTRI in Nielsen Audio's AM station database

• Radio stations in Maryland
• Brunswick, Maryland
• Radio stations established in 1966
• 1966 establishments in Maryland
• Daytime-only radio stations in Maryland
• Hindi-language radio stations
• Punjabi-language radio stations
• Indian-American culture in Maryland