By Joshua Smith, Owner, WYKR 101.3 FM and WTWN 1100 AM

Broadcasters know that a station’s history is about more than its call letters, transmitters, or even the music it plays. It is about the people who built it, the voices listeners came to trust, and the communities that made room for it in their daily lives.

That is what we are celebrating at WYKR as we mark 50 years of broadcasting in northeast Vermont and northwest New Hampshire.

Our story began October 3, 1976, when brothers Gene and Harold Puffer launched Puffer Brothers Radio in Wells River on AM 1490. In 1986, the AM operation moved to 1100 kHz and increased power to 5,000 watts. Four years later, 101.3 FM went on the air, with country music becoming the station’s signature sound.

Gene’s son, Stephen John Puffer, and his wife, Teresa, carried the business forward for decades. Gene was inducted into the Vermont Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1998; Stephen followed in 2022. Their contributions were not simply to one station, but to the idea that locally owned broadcasting can remain deeply connected to its audience.

In 2023, I purchased WYKR and WTWN through Yankee Kingdom Media Corporation. We closed on October 3, exactly 47 years after the station first signed on. Growing up in nearby Groton, I knew the station long before I owned it. My goal was to carry that local identity into the next generation, not replace it.

Since then, we have expanded our digital reach with online streaming and a mobile app, while maintaining the programming that makes a local signal worthwhile. We still celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, air school and community announcements, and cover local high school basketball and auto racing. We have added The Outdoor Edge, a program about the region’s outdoor traditions, while Stephen John continues his Friday morning show, Stephen John & Friends.

Our biggest anniversary project brings the old and new together. We launched WYKR Classic, a separate internet radio stream featuring historic interviews, sports broadcasts, old remotes, local music, and familiar voices from across the station’s five decades.

We are also recording memories from former staff members and inviting longtime listeners and advertisers to share theirs. We want to capture not just the audio that survived in the archives, but the stories behind it: a favorite announcer, a memorable game, or the everyday ritual of turning on the station before heading to work.

Anyone who has spent time in radio or television understands how quickly these moments can disappear. Tapes get misplaced. People retire. Equipment changes. An anniversary gives us a reason to preserve those voices while there is still time.

Fifty years after our first broadcast, WYKR is still locally focused, even as the ways people listen continue to change. We are grateful to the Puffer family, our staff, advertisers, and listeners for making that possible.

The first 50 years gave us a strong foundation. We are working to make sure the next 50 have stories worth saving, too.

Visit wykr.com/wykr-classic to hear the archive or share a WYKR memory at studio@wykr.com.