Before Hartford had WDRC, the station was known as WPAJ and it broadcast from New Haven, Connecticut. Founder Franklin M. Doolittle put WPAJ on the air on December 10, 1922. The name of the pioneering station was changed to WDRC (for Doolittle Radio Company) on February 21, 1925. A few years after getting its sea legs, the station relocated to Hartford on December 5, 1930 and has been there ever since.

Doolittle had a fine ear not only for electronics and binaural broadcasting, but for music. He was so impressed by the Krakauer brand of pianos that he wrote a letter of testament that appeared in a national trade publication.