January, 1980 - As the Hartford market radio grew and more stations entered the competition for listeners, WDRC FM replaced a format of album oriented rock/oldies/singles with Top 40, or as The Hartford Courant TV Week described it in an article on January 27th, "adult contemporary" music. Charlie Parker was quoted as saying, "Everything happens on the FM that used to happen on the AM...young people have literally abdicated the AM side for the most part." March 8, 1981 - WDRC AM's music featured a ratio of three oldies to one new release in some hours. Sundays from 9AM-12noon it aired a syndicated program, Memories U.S.A., with Michael D. Anthony. October 4, 1981 - WDRC AM installed automation to handle overnight music programming, displacing Mike Grady; it also aired UCONN football and basketball games...the first play-by-play it had ever carried.

February, 1982 - D103 became DRC FM 103. June, 1983 - After a period of ill health, Charlie Parker was replaced as program director by Ken Trimble. Charlie retired altogether in August.

spring, 1985 - WDRC AM began stereo operation employing the Motorola C-Quam system.

August 11, 1985 - Newly hired announcer Frank Holler pulled out all the stops to produce a ten-hour, live retrospective weekend to celebrate the 25th anniversary of when WDRC dropped CBS programming and created the local, Radio Fun music format in August 1960.

January, 1986 - WDRC AM became affiliated with Transtar's syndicated "Oldies Channel," meaning most hours of the day the programs originated from Los Angeles via satellite. The personalities were not WDRC employees and could be heard on other stations around the country as well.

September 26, 1986 - WDRC FM dropped adult contemporary music for oldies (Solid Gold Rock & Roll) under program director Frank Holler, who was promoted from announcer in June.

early, 1987 - WDRC FM became the first commercial station to provide continuous FMX Stereo broadcasting. It radiated a 19.5 kw signal from a tower at 810 feet above average terrain using a 945 MHz STL link carrying the FMX Stereo composite signal from its Bloomfield studios to Meriden Mountain.

1987 - By April, WDRC AM was carrying Mike Harvey's Supergold, a syndicated oldies show, Saturday nights from 7-midnight.