WNHC TV
Patrick J. Goode and Aldo DeDominicas

1110 Chapel Street (demolished)

WNHC-TV Studio, 1952. Courtesy CTIAHS Archives, gift of Patricia Sanders Behan.

Patrick J. Goode, c. 1950. Courtesy CTIAHS Archives.

Aldo DeDominicis, c. 1931. Courtesy DeDominicis Family.

When young Patrick Goode arrived from Galway, Ireland, with his parents, sister and 3 brothers, neither he nor his parents could have envisioned his future in New Haven. In a career spanning 60 years, Patrick worked as a mail carrier, and as private secretary to Connecticut Congressman Thomas Reilly, New Haven Postmaster Philip Troup and S. Z. Poli in his theatrical business. While Patrick was in charge of the Poli Theater real estate department from 1920 to 1934, he organized WELI, the first of his two local radio stations. Patrick Goode served as New Haven Postmaster from 1936 to 1950. In 1934, Patrick and Italian immigrant Aldo DeDominicis, of Abruzzi, Italy, established WNHC radio, and in 1948 WNHC TV (Channel 6). This was the first television station in Connecticut and Southern New England. Aldo DeDominicis had been a successful pasta salesman and had also sold air time on WELI radio for Italian programs. He believed in TV and convinced the DuMont television network to give him equipment to start a station. The WNHC television station broadcast from the radio station’s building at 1110 Chapel Street. The station was the first in the country to use videotape for local programming and one of the first to broadcast in color and create local TV shows such as Connecticut Bandstand. In 1971 the station’s call letters were changed to WTNH-TV and it now broadcasts on Channel 8. The station moved to its present location at State and Elm Streets, c. 1984.

Text source courtesy Connecticut Irish American Historical Society, DeDominicis Family and John Migliaro.