WCVR went on the air November 26, 1968. The station was initially a
daytimer with a
middle-of-the-road music format that leaned country. The original owners were Frank Gilman and Nelson Crawford, businessmen from
White River Junction. Their original general manager was the prominent Vermont radio-newspaper commentator Bob Smith, who staffed the station with a program director from
Burlington (Gary D'Arcangelo) and a morning man, Gene Puffer, who had operated a general store in a neighboring town. Puffer later purchased a radio station in
Wells River, WYKR (now
WTWN). The station struggled to gain traction with the local business community. WCVR was sold during its first year in operation to Scott McQueen and Ted Nixon and Randy Odeneal, all
Dartmouth College graduates who subsequently built Sconnix into a very successful ownership group. Sconnix sold the station to Vermont Radio Group in 1976; It had shifted to a more contemporary country format by 1982, when
WCVR-FM was launched as an
FM simulcast of the station. In 1987, the call letters were changed to WWWT; by 1988, the station carried an
adult contemporary format, with the country format being heard solely on WCVR-FM. In the 1990s, WWWT returned to simulcasting WCVR-FM, which by then was receiving its programming via the
Real Country network from ABC Radio (now
Cumulus). In 1999, the Stokes sold WWWT and WCVR-FM to Excalibur Media; Soon after taking over, Clear Channel returned WWWT to separate programming, airing
Jones Radio Networks'
oldies service,
Good Time Oldies. The station switched to a
talk format in May 2003; initially a simulcast of
WSYB in
Rutland, it began to relay
WTSL in
Hanover, New Hampshire in 2006 (following Clear Channel's sale of WSYB), at which point the WTSJ call letters were adopted. A few months later, WTSL was also sold, and WTSJ again changed simulcasts, this time to
WXZO and
WEAV in the
Champlain Valley. In January 2008, Clear Channel agreed to sell its Vermont stations to Vox Communications as part of Clear Channel's plan to divest itself of most of its smaller market radio stations. The sale was completed July 25, 2008. Vox soon concluded that it had no interest in retaining WTSJ and WCVR-FM, and reached a deal to sell the stations to Great Eastern Radio in September 2008. Great Eastern switched WTSJ to a simulcast of
Lebanon, New Hampshire country station
WXXK. However, it never closed on the deal, and a year later Vox retook the station In March 2010, another deal to sell WTSJ, this time to Koor Communications, was reached. Koor took over the station on March 12, and reverted the station to Real Country. The WCVR call letters were reinstated on April 23, and the sale was finalized on June 25. On February 3, 2017, WCVR was purchased by Sugar River Media, LLC. , the station has been re-branded as "North Country 1320". ==Programming==