990 WXCT's night signal

[RonTheEngineer]

The cheapest AM in the state is probably going for 300k. It's hard to get financing these days.

I mean operating expenses... you have to pay the payroll for all this high price talent, the ASCAP/BMI extortion, the electric, water and phone bill, promotion and advertising, insurance, FCC fees, DC attorney, and on and on and on.

Hate to get the facts get in the way of a good pipe dream.

 

[MarcB]

Video is also forgetting Peter Davidson just purchased the station for north of $800K again. His new company bought it a few months ago from his old company. That's considerbly less than the $1.4 he originally bought the place for back in 2004.

 

[videokilledtheradiostar]

I believe NTY is a 2500kw daytimer???? Didn't think it was worth that much money???? Now it's probably worth half a million. But who knows?

 

[MarcB]

2500 watts. Not KW. That would be 2.5 KW. And as the original premise of this thread, their 80 watt night singal doesn't go anywhere so it might as well still be a daytimer. It was better when the station was run by George & Norma. Sign on at 6AM. Sign off at 830PM (or at the conclusion of any sporting event they were carrying). 2500 watts only.

 

[MarcB]

Look at the ad below for Radio Cantico Nuevo (the group LMAing WXCT from DMG) that lists all the stations they're on. Look carefully and you can see they used MS PAINT to change the sign on the 990 building from WNTY to WXCT.

http://radiocanticonuevo.com/images/aniversario_5x4-small.jpg

 

[bub]

I worked at NTY back in the late 80's for extra income on the weekend. Board op'ing NY Mets games and other weekend specialty shows. It was a great time. I believe the station was either a top 40 or hot ac?
The Stevens family were great to work for.

I worked there off and on for 5-1/2 years between 1993-1999. I started there during the period when it seemed almost all of the income generated there came from weekend brokered shows such as the Italian and Polka shows, and I was there the year we actually scored in the Arbitron ratings a year after the station flipped back to a music-intensive live/local station (with Sunday reserved for the brokered Ethnic shows). To this day, I still have my airchecks from that period and I still refer to that time as "WNTY's Impossible Dream - Their last, gasp effort at credibility." I've always maintained that WNTY played a central role in whatever meager success I've had in this business. With very few exceptions, I can honestly say the Stevens' family treated me well.

 

[bub]

That was before my time, but last night I was just discussing the station past and present with a new co-worker of mine at Walmart, who just happens to have been WNTY's News Director back around 84. Apparently WNTY was the station to listen to if you liked sports. He told me in addition to local play by play from Southington High School they carried The Mets, The Whalers, The Patriots, and The Univerisity of Hartford Hawks Basketball.

I believe also for a time WNTY did the Celtics games but I can't say for sure.

The first year I was there, WNTY would broadcast the Saturday Southington High School Football games on a tape-delayed basis on Saturdays at 4 PM because there was a Spanish-language religious program on from 1-4 PM with a strict no pre-empt clause in the contract. Most high schools did not have lights installed at their fields at the time so that was the only option. Later that Spring, we broadcast Southington High School baseball games during Carl Pavano's senior year. We can always tell when he was pitching because those games were usually over in about an hour. We get all the way to their state championship game and we didn't air that game because of that same no pre-empt clause...turns out that program was only charged $25 an hour. :

I recall during that same year, we would broadcast a night game and on a couple of occasions, the station's Sunwatch timer system would trip and shut the transmitter off during the broadcast. The Sunwatch system would not let us turn the main transmitter back on so we had to switch over to the station's 30-watt auxiliary transmitter just to finish the broadcast...we were only supposed to be on at 5-watts flea power.

A few years later, we did Plainville High Football in addition to Southington High games. We also were on the New Haven Ravens Radio Network for a season or 2 before the Ravens became the New Hampshire FisherCats. I also recall on Thanksgiving Day, we would broadcast 3 high school football games - usually the Southington game live with the Bristol Central-Bristol Eastern game (The Battle of the Bristol Bell) and the Plainville-St. Paul game on tape.

I can also recall producing a Polish show there that aired on Sundays on cassette tape and because of a speed dubbing mechanism on the cassette machine, I was able to produce a one-hour show in about 45 minutes, give or take 5. ;D

In 1998, WNTY was the first station to start the NB Rockcats radio network.

And since the thread's title is 990's Night Signal, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the time around the Winter of 1995 when we had a guy who would come in on Sunday nights and the first 2 things he would do when he walked in were to turn the transmitter back up to full daytime power and turn the tower lights off - this was at night in the dead of winter. :

Ah, what memories. It's a damn shame that what's become of Cinderblock Central since I left has become a...damn shame.

 

[MarcB]

Yep. 990's troubles began when The Stevens sold the station in 1999 after Donato Sarapo died. I don't know when that guy was in charge, but I know 2 people who worked there back in the day "GUY" who was News Director 84-89? and Tom Graves (who was there in the early 90s and is now with WATR) and they never heard of Doanto Sarapo. By the way "GUY" tells me he stills gets XMAS Cards from The Stevens every year. They were living in Indiana where they ran a couple stations. I believe they LMAd a couple FMers and outright owned 2 AMers. The FM LMAs weren't renewed and I know they 2 AMers were later sold dirt cheap.

 

[bub]

Yep. 990's troubles began when The Stevens sold the station in 1999 after Donato Sarapo died.

MarcB:

I mentioned this in a previous thread, and I'll mention it again because I stand by it and it's the truth. So here it goes, one more time: The station was overpaid when it was sold in 1999 and it has jumped the shark since. It is of no fault of The Stevens' or Donato Sarapo or the estate of Donato Sarapo that the station was overpaid. Whatever shred of credibility the station got after it made the Arbitron ratings back in '97 was lost for good by the time the station was sold by the estate of Donato Sarapo in '99, and no amount of time, effort, energy and good intentions on your part or anyone's part would have made a difference. What happened in Indiana is a whole different story. Beyond that, have I made my point?

 

[videokilledtheradiostar]

I drove by there the other day to get some parts at Chuck & Eddies scrap heap. Noticed there were no vehicles in the parking station lot???? Are they solely of the bird??

 

[MarcB]

I drove by there the other day to get some parts at Chuck & Eddies scrap heap. Noticed there were no vehicles in the parking station lot???? Are they solely of the bird??

Worse than that dude. There's a computer hooked up to the board piping in the internet stream of Radio Cantico Nuevo. Except for the Italian Show, taped Lutheran Church Mass, and phoned in Polka Party that building petty much sits unused. Occassionally there's a car with New Jersey plates in the parking lot. The car must belong to the program director of Radio Cantico Nuevo, since they're based out of New Jersey.

 

[kms575]

I drove by there the other day to get some parts at Chuck & Eddies scrap heap. Noticed there were no vehicles in the parking station lot???? Are they solely of the bird??

Worse than that dude. There's a computer hooked up to the board piping in the internet stream of Radio Cantico Nuevo. Except for the Italian Show, taped Lutheran Church Mass, and phoned in Polka Party that building petty much sits unused. Occassionally there's a car with New Jersey plates in the parking lot. The car must belong to the program director of Radio Cantico Nuevo, since they're based out of New Jersey.

Does anyone else find it sad we're still discussing this?

 

[videokilledtheradiostar]

There are ways to remotely operate a station. The owner actually drives in from NJ to check on things. How INSANE is that. But I have heard more bizarre things.

 

[MarcB]

So anyway Guy Esposito (sp?) is the name of the former WNTY News Director who works with me at Walmart. Sometime after he left the station he was working for Bloomingdale's. Now granted he doesn't know anything about engineering but he thinks they can get more power (both day and night) without building a third tower. Obviously the people who live in back of the station aren't gonna allow a 3rd tower to be built on the property if one had to be built. (Of course he also thinks they should only get a power-hike if the station had decent programming on it).

 

[MarcB]

There are ways to remotely operate a station. The owner actually drives in from NJ to check on things. How INSANE is that. But I have heard more bizarre things.

And here's another. When Charlie Profit was LMAing the station until May 07, there was this couple from New Jersey who drove up every Tuesday morning to host a show dealing with marital and relationship issues. They even drove up when road conditions weren't ideal.

 

[bub]

...thinks they can get more power (both day and night) without building a third tower. Obviously the people who live in back of the station aren't gonna allow a 3rd tower to be built on the property if one had to be built.

Around late-1994 or early-1995, the station was granted an increase in night power from 5 watts flea to 80 watts. It was believed at one point that around that time, the station had a CP to increase night power to 120 watts but the powers-that-be at the time didn't go for it because they claimed the upgrade would have set them back over $10K.

They don't need a 3rd tower. I used to remember the station coming in like a shot into Waterbury in the daytime much better that the 2 Waterbury AM's...even during the time when we operated much of the Summer of '94 at only 500 watts non-directional (the old daytime power before the upgrade with the 2 tower setup in '88). That was after a bolt of lightning struck one of the towers during a violent rainstorm and it took that long for the insurance company to cut the check for repairs.

...thinks they should only get a power-hike if the station had decent programming on it).

Now that's what I call preaching to the choir. As I mentioned before, it's difficult to get credible ad rates for a station when you don't have an air product to sell to begin with. Beyond that, the station's better off going dark...they're not serving anyone in the public interest as far as I can tell, and IMHO, we have too many AM stations on the air right now, not just in Connecticut, but nationwide.

And here's another. When Charlie Profit was LMAing the station until May 07, there was this couple from New Jersey who drove up every Tuesday morning to host a show dealing with marital and relationship issues. They even drove up when road conditions weren't ideal.

LOL!...Hasn't been the same at that station since I left. ;D

 

[MarcB]

WXCT's Towers Not Lit

I had to bring Rodent to Brunswick Bowling Alley again last night. Going down Old Turnpike Road past the WXCT building is the quickest way to get there. I noticed that their two towers were not lit just like when I drove past the station on 2/7 the night I started this thread. I told a friend of mine and he notified the Federal Aviation Administration. We'll see what happens with this. In the mean time remind me not to be in an airplane flying over Southington.

 

[kms575]

Re: WXCT's Towers Not Lit

I had to bring Rodent to Brunswick Bowling Alley again last night. Going down Old Turnpike Road past the WXCT building is the quickest way to get there. I noticed that their two towers were not lit just like when I drove past the station on 2/7 the night I started this thread. I told a friend of mine and he notified the Federal Aviation Administration. We'll see what happens with this. In the mean time remind me not to be in an airplane flying over Southington.

Maybe their payment to CL&P got lost in the mail?

 

[RonTheEngineer]

Re: WXCT's Towers Not Lit

I had to bring Rodent to Brunswick Bowling Alley again last night. Going down Old Turnpike Road past the WXCT building is the quickest way to get there. I noticed that their two towers were not lit just like when I drove past the station on 2/7 the night I started this thread. I told a friend of mine and he notified the Federal Aviation Administration. We'll see what happens with this. In the mean time remind me not to be in an airplane flying over Southington.

Good god your obession with this station borders on the unhealthy! Why do you care? Do you know for a fact that a NOTAM was not filed? Do you know for a fact the owners and engineer were not aware? FAA regulations allow for 30 days outage provided a NOTAM was timely filed.

Stuff happens, things break. May I watch you perform your job then post about every mistake in a national internet forum?

"And I'm sure it wouldn't interest anybody Outside of a small circle of friends."

 

[GreatCalloftheNE]

Re: WXCT's Towers Not Lit

Going down Old Turnpike Road past the WXCT building ... I noticed that their two towers were not lit.. I told a friend of mine and he notified the Federal Aviation Administration. .. In the mean time remind me not to be in an airplane flying over Southington.

Let's see...990kc, probably quarter-wave towers...maybe a max of 250 feet high...nearest airport is Robertson in Plainville...about 6 miles away.... A plane flying that low over Southington would have more problems than just WXCT's towers.