Many of them had worked at WHYY-FM-TV in Philadelphia, and had been laid off when the stations scaled back coverage of Delaware events.

Maryland's Salisbury University, owner of WSCL, the NPR member for the Delmarva Peninsula, had won the permit in 2007, but opted not to use it.

With the support of former Weekend Edition Sunday host Liane Hansen, who now lives in Bethany Beach, Delaware First Media secured the backing needed for a full-fledged NPR member station.

[4] WDDE began broadcasting on August 17, 2012 from its studio on the Delaware State University campus in Dover.

The station's first president, Micheline Boudreau was formerly headed WHYY's Dover bureau and reported for Delaware Tonight, the long-running news program that was canceled in the 2009 cutback.