History

WFEA has been broadcasting continuously since 9:00 a.m. on March 1, 1932, making it New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

's oldest radio station

Radio station

Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...

. It has always had the same call letters. During its long life, WFEA has had 10 owners. Saga Communications

Saga Communications

Saga Communications is a broadcasting company that owns and operates stations in 26 markets in the United States. The company, which is based in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, primarily operates radio stations , but it also operates 9 television stations Saga Communications is a broadcasting...

 of New England LLC has operated WFEA since April, 1991. Saga also operates 95.7 WZID

WZID

WZID is an American radio station located at 500 Commercial Street in Manchester, New Hampshire. Its signal can be heard as far south as Route 128 in Massachusetts, as far east as southern Maine and as far west as Vermont.-History:...

 FM and 96.5 WMLL

WMLL

WMLL is an American radio station licensed to Bedford, New Hampshire and studios located on Commercial Street in Manchester, New Hampshire. 96.5 The Mill is operated by Saga Communications of New England LLC, whose parent company is Saga Communications Inc. of Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan...

 FM, licensed to Manchester and Bedford

Bedford, New Hampshire

-Demographics:As of the Census of 2000, there were 18,274 people, 6,251 households, and 5,125 families residing in the town. The population density was 556.6 people per square mile . There were 6,401 housing units at an average density of 195.0 per square mile...

, respectively. Over the years, WFEA had a diversified format evolving into Top 40 in the early 1960s. The format evolved into more of a Hot AC format by the mid 1980's and a straight Adult Contemporary format by 1989. In 1990, the adult contemporary format was dropped in favor of a satellite delivered Adult Standards

Adult standards

Adult standards is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations.Adult standards is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly those persons over 50 years of age, but it is mostly targeted for senior citizens...

 format.

Programming

WFEA employed an Adult Standards

Adult standards

Adult standards is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations.Adult standards is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly those persons over 50 years of age, but it is mostly targeted for senior citizens...

 music format

America's Best Music

America's Best Music is the on-air branding of an adult standards 24-hour radio network, known internally as Adult Standards and formerly known as AM Only, currently owned by Dial Global. It was one of the original Westwood One's Transtar networks...

 from 1990 until sometime in 2002. This included such artists as Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

, Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett

Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....

, The Carpenters

The Carpenters

Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of sister Karen and brother Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and...

, Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...

, Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...

, Nat "King" Cole, Dean Martin

Dean Martin

Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...

, Kenny Rogers

Kenny Rogers

Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, and entrepreneur...

, Connie Francis

Connie Francis

Connie Francis is an American pop singer of Italian heritage and the top-charting female vocalist of the 1950s and 1960s. Although her chart success waned in the second half of the 1960s, Francis remained a top concert draw...

, The Lettermen

The Lettermen

The Lettermen are an American male pop music vocal trio. The Lettermen's trademark is close-harmony pop songs with light arrangements. The group started in 1959...

, Neil Diamond

Neil Diamond

Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....

, Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley

Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

, Jack Jones

Jack Jones (singer)

John Allan "Jack" Jones is an American jazz and pop singer. He was one of the most popular vocalists of the 1960s.-Overview:...

, Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand

Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

, and others. The station played an occasional big band song as well. In 2002, the format focused less on adult standards artists and more on baby boomer pop artists. While the station still plays all the artists mentioned in this paragraph, some more softer songs by oldies type artists, Motown singers, and 70's soft rock artists are being played as much as the standards artists. Today, the station, though it is still referred to as "Adult Standards" by distributor Dial Global

Dial Global

Dial Global is a radio syndication company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Triton Media Group and is a sister company to Townsquare Media, both of which are owned by Oaktree Capital Management....

 (the on-air tag line is "America's Best Music

America's Best Music

America's Best Music is the on-air branding of an adult standards 24-hour radio network, known internally as Adult Standards and formerly known as AM Only, currently owned by Dial Global. It was one of the original Westwood One's Transtar networks...

"), sometimes sounds like many soft AC stations from the 1980s.

WFEA broadcasted the Manchester Wolves

Manchester Wolves

The Manchester Wolves were a professional arena football team, based at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire, which folded at the end of the 2009 season along with the rest of the league...

 arena football league games before the team folded at the end of the 2009 season, and the University of New Hampshire

University of New Hampshire

The University of New Hampshire is a public university in the University System of New Hampshire , United States. The main campus is in Durham, New Hampshire. An additional campus is located in Manchester. With over 15,000 students, UNH is the largest university in New Hampshire. The university is...

Sports Network covering football, volleyball, hockey, basketball, etc.

The studios for WFEA are at 500 N. Commercial St. in Manchester, NH and the WFEA transmitter site is located in Merrimack, NH at the original location. WFEA operates with a directional pattern both day and night. One of the towers in the array is the famous diamond shaped "Blaw-Knox" a smaller version of another famous Blaw Knox tower, that of WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio.