On November 18, 1987, Cape Cod Tech filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to build a new high school radio station on 90.3 FM. The high school envisioned the station as an educational tool for students in speech and journalism.[2] The FCC granted CCT a construction permit on October 27, 1988, and the station, known as WCCT-FM, began broadcasting in September 1989, debuting in the 1989–90 school year.[3] It was part of the now-defunct hotel and business management shop.[4]
In 1992, it was one of three campus stations on Cape Cod to begin rebroadcasting the programming of WBUR-FM, an NPR station in Boston, under agreement, joining WKKL in Barnstable and WSDH in Sandwich. The idea was hatched by a local resident who noted both the poor signal of WBUR in the area and the underutilization of the WCCT-FM facility.[5] WBUR programming aired during most of the day and around the clock when the school was on summer vacation,[5] with Cape Cod Tech output preempting the Boston public radio outlet from 1 to 2 p.m. on weekdays in 1992[6] and three hours a day by 1996. As part of the arrangement, WCCT-FM exchanged its original transmitter, dating to 1945, for a new one furnished by WBUR, which also provided other technical support.[7][5] The school's engineering shop maintained and repaired the equipment, much of which was donated.[7] The station's broadcasts suffered from playing a format that had comparatively little interest to students, with a small and dated record library[8] that included records from the 1960s and 1970s, classical music and old-time radio shows.[4]
Student DJs ceased broadcasting on WCCT-FM in 2011.[4] Three years later, WBUR informed the station that it was terminating the agreement on September 30, 2014.[9] The move came after the station built a new and much more powerful station of its own, WBUH, at 89.1 FM, in nearby Brewster, in May 2014.[10] Cape Cod Regional Tech High School was demolished and rebuilt, but no provision was made for WCCT-FM; as a result, it was silent for more than a year, leading to the cancellation of its license by the FCC on January 24, 2024.[11]