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CT Radio History

Let's see:

WDRC-AM started out in New Haven?

WDRC-FM was once on 93.7?

New Britain once had 103.7 FM licensed to it? (You can get 103.7 FM from Rhode Island here today with a good antenna.)

Stratford was home to the nation's first UHF tests?

Pat Sheehan started in Willimantic back in 1959? Wow!

Merv Griffin owned a station in Connecticut before 104.1 FM? Didn't know that!

Danbury had the state's first cable subscriber in 1972? Good to know!

A very good read if I do say so myself! :)
<P ID="signature">______________
The 2006 New York Yankees...on to title #27!</P>
 
The first 3 I knew already.

I remember hearing somewhere that 103.7 was the FM side of WKNB AM 840. WKNB was finacially troubled and the station got sold to the other New Britain Station WHAY 910. It moved to 100.5 and became WRCH.

As for Merv Griffin, I thought the stations he owned were WWCO AM & FM in Waterbury (1240 AM/104 FM) and WPOP in Hartford.
 
> As for Merv Griffin, I thought the stations he owned were
> WWCO AM & FM in Waterbury (1240 AM/104 FM) and WPOP in
> Hartford.
>

I know he was the one who owned the station back in the "Magic 104" days, back when Jack Carney was one of their DJs. I believe the studio was on Cedar Street in Newington by the Berlin Turnpike and the Wethersfield town line.
<P ID="signature">______________
The 2006 New York Yankees...on to title #27!</P>
 
I really think this timeline is terrific really educating me on CT radio... but I'm just saying, would it be so difficult to proof read something like this before posting it?
 
> I really think this timeline is terrific really educating me
> on CT radio... but I'm just saying, would it be so difficult
> to proof read something like this before posting it?
>
In this era of spell check, I agree. The WIOF Magic 104 studios were located on Route 69 at the Waterbury/Prospect line during the Merv Griffin days. Their auxiliary tower, used as the main one when they were country up to 1978, was on the hill there. Sister WPOP and the main offices were in Newington.
 
Re: CT Radio History, Where's WESU?

> Produced by the CT Association of Broadcasters, the
> "Timeline of Connecticut Broadcasting" is now available on
> line at
> http://wwuh.org/history/CTtimeline.htm
> It contains lots of interesting stuff about the state's
> radio and TV stations.
>

I didn't see any mention of WESU's move to FM from AM Carrier Current, in fact, I see no mention of any of other Carrier Current stations who later became FM.

I can understand not listing the CC station startups, but at least the mention of the startup on FM for each.

I don't know the exact date for the FM, I have seen Wesleyan Argus articles for the WES CC AM from 1939, but the station's minutes had a few gaps in them when in was there in 89 and the only books that existed prior to 1970 were one from 1959 and another from 1967 at the start of the incorporation of the Wesleyan Broadcast Association where they mentioned the work they were doing to get on FM.
 
The original document put out by CBA was error free. From what I understand the typos were the result a poor scan into a word recognition program. A cleaned up version will be posted shortly I'm told. With all of the call letter combinations, company names and frequencies that a spell checker won't recognize, feel free to post any errors you find and I will forward them on to the webmaster of that site.





> > I really think this timeline is terrific really educating
> me
> > on CT radio... but I'm just saying, would it be so
> difficult
> > to proof read something like this before posting it?
> >
> In this era of spell check, I agree. The WIOF Magic 104
> studios were located on Route 69 at the Waterbury/Prospect
> line during the Merv Griffin days. Their auxiliary tower,
> used as the main one when they were country up to 1978, was
> on the hill there. Sister WPOP and the main offices were in
> Newington.
>
 
> The original document put out by CBA was error free. From
> what I understand the typos were the result a poor scan into
> a word recognition program. A cleaned up version will be
> posted shortly I'm told. With all of the call letter
> combinations, company names and frequencies that a spell
> checker won't recognize, feel free to post any errors you
> find and I will forward them on to the webmaster of that
> site.
>

I think its great but the only thing missing is when the stations changed formats. Would be nice to see that also in the timeline.
 
Re: CT Radio History, Where's WESU?

I too was initially surprised by some of the things that were left out, like the start date of each station, but once I gave it some thought I realized that going into more detail was probably outside the scope of the project. To include details about each of Connecticut's 70+ stations would have taken quite a bit of additional research. Even if they had tried to get more information directly from the stations themselves, not every station would have responded.

To include all of the format changes would have been great but would have taken tons of research.

One also has to consider the appeal of a more detailed document. I'm not sure who the intended audience of the publication was, but only the die hard radio buffs among us (myself included) care when station X changed from playing seventies oldies to music of the '80s and '90s, or when station Y changed call letters for the seventh time in 25 years.

No one that I know of has ever attempted compiling a CT radio timeline, so I think the CBA deserves lots of credit for taking on the task.

There is a local producer in the Hartford area who is working on a radio documentary about Hartford Radio history. His last project was an incredible 60-minute documentary on the Hartford Circus Fire. He is probably about 6-12 months away from finishing his project. Some critics say that the second Golden Age of radio has ended so this is perhaps the perfect time for him to conduct interviews since unfortunately some of the major players "who were there" when radio was in its prime are getting on in years and won't be around too much longer.

I know that WESU was one of the earliest stations, as documented in the excellent book "The Gas Pipe Network" (which outlines how early college stations such as WESU used pipes as radiators prior to the perfection of carrier current AM).

In addition to the well known CT radio history sites such as http://www.wdrcobg.com/history.html
and
http://www.440.com/
there are several other web sites that I have found that have historical information about Connecticut radio broadcasters.

The WTIC Radio Alumni site is excellent: http://wticalumni.home.comcast.net/

There is lots of information about WHUS, a pioneer CT non-com broadcaster, at
http://www.freewebs.com/whus/whustory.htm.

And WWUH has started a history page that can be found at:
http://wwuh.org/history/history.htm
 
Re: CT Radio History, Where's WESU?

> I know that WESU was one of the earliest stations, as
> documented in the excellent book "The Gas Pipe Network"
> (which outlines how early college stations such as WESU used
> pipes as radiators prior to the perfection of carrier
> current AM).
>
> In addition to the well known CT radio history sites such as
> http://www.wdrcobg.com/history.html
> and
> http://www.440.com/
> there are several other web sites that I have found that
> have historical information about Connecticut radio
> broadcasters.
>
> The WTIC Radio Alumni site is excellent:
> http://wticalumni.home.comcast.net/
>
> There is lots of information about WHUS, a pioneer CT
> non-com broadcaster, at
> http://www.freewebs.com/whus/whustory.htm.
>
> And WWUH has started a history page that can be found at:
> http://wwuh.org/history/history.htm
>

Actually WESU does have a small history site at http://www.wesufm.org/his.html

Although the new transmitter mentioned wasn't 1987, it was 1989. One of these days I'll have to find the free time to contact them and see if I can point that out (I hope they still have most of the old WBA Inc. meeting minutes somewhere, I know it's mentioned in there.)
 
There are some substantial (to this ex-WICC guy) errors about WICC. In 1959, it mentions the "weather boat." The "Channel 60," as the boat was called, was out on weekends to talk with fishermen and see how things were going on the water. Weather was not what we did out there. What we did out there stayed out there...Also, the "Flying Beach Reporter" preceded the traffic guy, Morgan Kaolian, in the beginning. It was Al Zotak. Al used to go down the CT coastline in his Cessna, or something, and take notes on the beach population, then go across the Sound and sweep up the LI coast. Then he'd go back and land at the Stratford airport, go to his office and give us a call. We'd rack up a tape and take his report. When the jock was ready, we'd stick our head in the studio (the Exide Battery building in Fairfield) and tell him to remote-start the tape. He would cue up the sound efx record (an old 78 of a DC-3, the smallest plane we had) and play it under Al, whose feed we recorded thru a rather tight filter. It sounded like the bombing of Dresden, but the audience didn't know; they thought it was live from the plane.WICC-TV went dark around 1959. Ken Cooper, the new owner, wanted to start all-news tv, but the FCC shot him down. He was going to stick the camera in front of a teletype and play music, but audio and video had to be related in those days. He came back with WFTT (Forty Three Television), but it never went on-air.WJZZ-FM was simulcasting WICC 12 hours a day about the time I left; the jazz format failed financially. The entire station was the size of a production studio in the WICC complex. It went thru the Top 100 Classical, then was sold and became WPSB, or something -- Passport Radio, with an emphasis on travel. Then WEZN, as it remains now.
 
2 things, The Dude:1. Learn how to write in English2. 103.7 gets higher ratings now then they did before. Sorry if you don't like Boston sports talk3. Let us know when you learn how to write
 
ARivers said:
2 things, The Dude:1. Learn how to write in English2. 103.7 gets higher ratings now then they did before. Sorry if you don't like Boston sports talk3. Let us know when you learn how to write
Click to expand...
Adam, I'll easily agree with points #1 and 3. However, I have no desire for your second one. (I hate the Red Sox.) Anyways, 103.7 was a fun station back in the "RI 104" days of the 1980s. ;D
 
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