In honor of the anniversary, for five days, the station, which now operates from Thorndale, plans to return to the city where it received its federal license. Tomorrow through Friday, it will broadcast four hours a day from the Coatesville Cultural Society on Lincoln Highway.
"We wanted to go to our roots," said current owner Lloyd B. Roach, 55.
The station will set up a makeshift studio in a front window at the cultural society's new building, which features a cafe, a theater, and a variety of arts-related programs.
"Our mission is encouraging interaction and interpersonal communication through the arts," said the society's Mary Kuhn, who is helping to coordinate the event with WCOJ. "So that's the test we apply: Is this going to serve that mission? And we felt that it would contribute to it."
Between 6 and 10 a.m. each day this week, the Margie in the Morning show, starring Margie McQuillin and Robert Henson, will feature guests with ties to the old days. They will range from Art Douglas, a WCOJ host for four decades, to local officials, to a woman who returned from her honeymoon to hear the station go on the air in 1949.
"It's a look back at the station, but it's also a look back at Chester County and how things have developed and how things have changed," said Henson, 30, the station's news director.
Halpern, who hails from Philadelphia but lives now in Hershey's Mill, said he was working at a radio station in Lebanon when he and Seltzer came up with the idea to start their own station. After some research, they discovered that a frequency was available in Chester County, and they were able to obtain their license in Coatesville.
"Our next task was to gather the financing," Halpern said. "I was out pounding the streets of the county to sign up sponsors."
On Nov. 27, the station aired a half-hour dedication program featuring U.S. Rep. Paul B. Dague and Coatesville Mayor Richard Scully Jr. And history was made.
