During this time, it underwent several format changes, from news to Top-40 to alternative music and in the end, oldies.

The station's license was held by the Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College.

[3] WDCR's origins lie in a carrier-current station, WDBS, which was started on October 27, 1941 (after a month of test programming).

[4][5] During the 1950s, efforts were made to obtain a license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which would allow for an expansion of the station's reach to the rest of the Upper Valley; at 9 p.m. on March 4, 1958, WDCR signed on.

[12] By this point, interest in the AM station had declined due to a combination of its time off-the-air and Dartmouth's expansion of its radio operations (in addition to WebDCR, Dartmouth had established an FM radio station, WFRD, in 1976[7]).