WTHK is a radio station broadcasting a classic rock format. It is licensed to Wilmington, Vermont. The station is currently owned by Jeffrey Shapiro's Great Eastern Radio, and currently simulcasts sister station WKKN.
History
WTHK began its radio life as WVAY. The station was part of the 'wave' of upscale smooth jazz formatted stations that were very trendy in the mid to late 1980s. The station was owned and operated by Rothschild Broadcasting. Founding Program Director Roger Coryell left the station in 1990 for a position as morning host on San Francisco "Smooth Jazz" outlet KKSF. WVAY's slogan evolved from "Smooth Sounds - 100.7 WVAY" to 100.7 WVAY, Different by Design as the station evolved into more of a triple-A formatted radio station. At one time WVAY also had additional translators at 99.7 in Marlboro, Vermont, which was sold to Harvest Broadcasting, a religious broadcaster, and had an arrangement to operate a translator at 100.1 which helped WVAY have a stronger signal in Manchester, Vermont. At one time WVAY was positioned as 100.7/100.1 WVAY Different By Design. The station was sold to Dynacom Corporation in 1998, and wound up having many simulcast partners of the Dynacom stable which included being part of the soft AC, "Wish" stations, and AOR formatted Q 106 from Claremont, New Hampshire. Eventually the simulcast partner became WRSI, an AAA station from Greenfield, Massachusetts. The WVAY call letters were shelved in favor of WMTT during this time. In October 2000, the WRSI simulcast with WMTT ended and was moved to WRSY in Marlboro, Vermont which had a better signal into Brattleboro, yet continued to serve the Deerfield Valley. WMTT's new simulcast partner became WEXP from Brandon, Vermont and together the stations were known on air as Classic Rock 101, The Fox. It was at that time that the WVAYcall sign were restored to 100.7. In 2004 Nassau Broadcasting Partners purchased WEXP and WVAY as well as an entire portfolio of radio stations in Vermont and New Hampshire from the Vox Radio Group. While the station has evolved into "Rutland's Rock Station, 101.5 The Fox", the WVAY call sign went away again in favor of Nassau's warehousing of the WTHK call sign on November 16 2006, where they remain to this day. The call sign was previously used on an 97.5 FM station in Trenton, New Jersey. WTHK, along with 29 other Nassau stations in northern New England, was purchased at bankruptcy auction by Carlisle Capital Corporation, a company controlled by Bill Binnie, on May 22, 2012. The station, and 12 of the other stations, would then be acquired by Vertical Capital Partners, controlled by Jeff Shapiro; however, WTHK was not included in the subsequent sale of simulcast partner WEXP to Electromagnetic Company. The sale of WTHK and the other 12 stations was consummated on November 30, 2012, at a purchase price of $4.4 million. The Vertical Capital Partners stations were transferred to Shapiro's existing Great Eastern Radio group on January 1, 2013. On January 22, 2013, WTHK dropped its simulcast of WEXP and began simulcasting new sister station WXXK. The WXXK simulcast ended on March 16, 2015, when WTHK, along with WKKN in Westminster, launched an adult album alternative format branded as "The Peak." Under the new format, the WTHK signal is marketed to the Bennington area. The stations switched to a classic rock format on May 14, 2018, while retaining their existing branding.
Translator
WTHK also operates translator station W284AB that transmits a directional signal from the top of Stratton Mountain. The translator can be heard at 104.7 FM.
