Former WRCH/WRCQ Studios for sale

[MarcB]

The building that used to house the studios of WRCH 100.5 and their former sister station WRCQ 910 on Birdseye Road in Farmington is for sale. Most recently the building housed the Robinson School of Broadcasting.

130 Birdseye Rd, Farmington, CT 06032 | LoopNet

130 Birdseye Rd, Farmington, CT 06032. This Office property can be viewed on LoopNet.

www.loopnet.com

Question. WRCH's back up tower is on this property along with the towers for WLAT 910. Can the new owner of the property ask the radio stations to move their towers?

 

[Kent]

Question. WRCH's back up tower is on this property along with the towers for WLAT 910. Can the new owner of the property ask the radio stations to move their towers?

I don't know the particulars of the building sale, but, typically, the towers don't get sold, at least not to the same owner, when a building like that changes hands. Also, when land with towers gets sold, a lease agreement is usually negotiated in the sales process if the towers wish to remain on the land. That lease will either accompany the property if it's sold again or will require a substantial buyout to terminate.

Again, I don't know much about the building itself and whether or not the roughly 3.5 acres being sold include the land where the towers it. If it does, the new owners could ask the towers to vacate after their leases have expired (again, usually subject to certain conditions, like notification requirements).

 

[Don CT]

Where are the stations now? Wasn't the whole cluster in the same complex.

 

[MarcB]

WRCH and WRCQ moved into an office building on Executive Drive in Farmington with WZMX 93.7 in the early 90s after American Radio Systems bought WRCH and WRCQ. Mega Broadcasting bought 910-AM in December 96 (WNEZ at that point) and moved the station to Hartford after Mega Broadcasting also bought 1230-AM. WTIC AM/FM moved to the office building on Executive Drive in Farmington.

2021

10 Executive Drive Farmington
Entercom Hartford

93.7 WZMX
96.5 WTIC-FM
100.5 WRCH
1080 WTIC

135 Burnside Avenue East Hartford
Gois Broadcasting

97.5/1480 WKND
101.7/910 WLAT
105.3/1230 WNEZ

 

[Kent]

WRCH and WRCQ moved into an office building on Executive Drive in Farmington with WZMX 93.7 in the early 90s after American Radio Systems bought WRCH and WRCQ. Mega Broadcasting bought 910-AM in December 96 (WNEZ at that point) and moved the station to Hartford after Mega Broadcasting also bought 1230-AM. WTIC AM/FM moved to the office building on Executive Drive in Farmington.

I was thinking that change at 910 had happened earlier than that, but you’re right. WRCQ became WNEZ and picked up the EZ format after WRCH dropped it for soft AC. That didn’t last long, though, and WNEZ became Kool Gold 910.

What confused me was that WLAT was originally at 93.7, and I was thinking it had bought 910 as a replacement.

 

[CTListener]

Wasn't WNEZ also all-news for a while, carrying CNN Radio?

 

[MarcB]

Wasn't WNEZ also all-news for a while, carrying CNN Radio?

They did until the sale to Mega Broadcasting in December 1996. "News-Sports 910 CNN". They carried CNN Headline News, The Fabulous Sports Babe from ESPN Radio, Channel 8 News, New Britain Redsox Baseball, New England Patriots football (along with WZMX), and I think they were WTIC's sports overflow station too. I remember the legal ID from when they ran the Patriots Games with WZMX. "You're listening to the WBCN New England Patriots Rock Radio Network on 93.7 The 70s Station WZMX Hartford and News-Sports 910 CNN WNEZ New Britain/Hartford."