• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Happy 10th Anniversary WQUN 1220

MarcB said:
It's the 10th Anniversary of Quinnipiac's Commercial Radio Station WQUN AM 1220 in Hamden. A special ceremony was held on Friday 9/14 and aired on the CT-N Cable Network this morning.
Click to expand...

From the station's website www.wqun.com:

Sept. 10, 1996: Quinnipiac acquires an all-Spanish radio station and builds a new master control room and renovates offices at 560 New Road, which also houses the University's Polling Institute.

Feb. 7, 1997: After five months of construction and silence on the AM 1220 frequency, WQUN begins broadcasting at 6 p.m. with the Music Of Your Life network.


WQUN waited until "school was back in session" with the traditional Fall semester to mark the occasion. BTW: The all-Spanish station WQUN acquired was WXCT AM 1220 with studios and offices on Denslow Hill Road. Now where have I heard those call letters before? ;D

The 1220 signal in Hamden dates back to the old WDEE in the 1960's. They've also gone by call letters WCDQ, WOMN, WSCR and WNNR.

To date: WQUN remains the longest running affiliate of the present day-MOYL in the state. They are also the New Haven market affiliate for the Boston Red Sox.
 
bub said:
The 1220 signal in Hamden dates back to the old WDEE in the 1960's. They've also gone by call letters WCDQ, WOMN, WSCR and WNNR.
Click to expand...

I used to listen to WDEE from Long Island when I was in my teens back in the early 60's. I lived in Uniondale, close to NYC and was a big fan of the legacy rockers like WMCA, WABC, WINS and WMGM. I'd spend my summers out at my grandmother's place on the North Shore of LI in a place called Sound Beach.

You could still hear most of the NYC stations out there, but the CT stations came in like gangbusters. I loved listening to WAVZ and WDEE which I thought were both better than the NYC stations. (I also got WDRC and WPOP, but not as good.)

My memory isn't that great but I think I liked WDEE better than WAVZ and I was disappointed when they'd sign off each evening. Tracy Garneau was at WDEE at the time and I got to work with him later in the 60's along with Bill Beamish at WAVZ. Two great talents at two secondary market stations that sounded better than the New York rockers!
 
bub said:
The all-Spanish station WQUN acquired was WXCT AM 1220 with studios and offices on Denslow Hill Road. Now where have I heard those call letters before? ;D
Click to expand...

Nothing wrong with recycling call letters. :D It happens all the times in Rhode Island. WLKW and WICE have been on 1/2 a dozen stations in Rhode Island. WALE on the dark Greenville station is a recycled set of call letters as are the WWRX calls on the hip-hop station in New London.
 
GreatCalloftheNE said:
I used to listen to WDEE from Long Island when I was in my teens back in the early 60's. I lived in Uniondale, close to NYC and was a big fan of the legacy rockers like WMCA, WABC, WINS and WMGM. I'd spend my summers out at my grandmother's place on the North Shore of LI in a place called Sound Beach.

You could still hear most of the NYC stations out there, but the CT stations came in like gangbusters. I loved listening to WAVZ and WDEE which I thought were both better than the NYC stations. (I also got WDRC and WPOP, but not as good.)

My memory isn't that great but I think I liked WDEE better than WAVZ and I was disappointed when they'd sign off each evening. Tracy Garneau was at WDEE at the time and I got to work with him later in the 60's along with Bill Beamish at WAVZ. Two great talents at two secondary market stations that sounded better than the New York rockers!
Click to expand...
Times that I visited Uniondale, be it the Nassau Mausoleum or Hofstra, I would pick up WICC and WADS pretty good.

You are aware that WDEE shut down for good around 1965 or '66 due to a fire at the station site, aren't you?

I have a copy of WATR's 50th Anniversary video that includes Tracy Garneau. Bill Beamish also worked there around 1992 or thereabouts. I remember Beamish when he did color for the New Haven Nighthawks hockey games on WELI. Play-by-play guy? Ron Rohmer. And don't forget T.J. Martin. T.J. and Beamish worked together at WXCT 1220 when it was a business news format in late 80's-early '90's before the flip to Spanish.

In the days you were alluding to, WAVZ was home of the Straightshooters, WDEE was the Road Runner. For many years, I had a bunch of WDEE music surveys. I gave them away a few years ago.

In mentioning that WQUN carries the Red Sox, I failed to mention that the play-by-play guy, Joe Castiglione, is from Hamden.
 
>You are aware that WDEE shut down for good around 1965 or '66 due to a fire at the station site, aren't you?

Not true. I remember the station going back on the air sometime after the January 1965 fire as WDEE, and a I have a 1967 aircheck. WDEE-FM 101.3 didn't go on the air after the fire (I can't remember if the FM was on the air in the first place). The FM license was sold to Kopps-Monahan Communications, Inc.
 
Bill1820 said:
>You are aware that WDEE shut down for good around 1965 or '66 due to a fire at the station site, aren't you?

Not true. I remember the station going back on the air sometime after the January 1965 fire as WDEE, and a I have a 1967 aircheck. WDEE-FM 101.3 didn't go on the air after the fire (I can't remember if the FM was on the air in the first place). The FM license was sold to Kopps-Monahan Communications, Inc.
Click to expand...
If that's the case, then I stand corrected. I'll have to look back to the newspaper accounts of that fire. So they didn't go back on as WCDQ? If not, when did they?

I believe it's safe to say the 1220 frequency has had more staying power as WQUN than at any other time.
 
UN

1220 became WCDQ (colt, defino and quayle, the owners) in early 1972 if I can recall. It was primarily an oldies station at that time, later becoming more top 40 orientated. Several calls and formats followed, including a stint as PLR II. It seems it has had its longest run as WQUN.
 
WDEE went back on the air after the fire with it's calls, then became WCDQ under new ownership in the late 60s with an MOR format. The station went country in the early 70s, then oldies before morphing into a top 40 format with Jerry Kristafer, Ken DeVoe and Jay McCormick. WPLR bought the station in 1978 and called it WOMN for WOMaN Radio. It was AOR for women. The station had no ratings and therefore was a big bust with no support. PLR kept the WOMN calls and called the station PLR2 - AOR without simulcasting the FM. Next calls and format - WSCR for Suburban Country Radio with John Savelle as program director. Pete Salant, the man who had put KC101 on the air, then bought the station in 1996 and changed it back to oldies as WNNR, Winner Radio in AM Stereo. Unfortunately WDRC-FM went oldies a few months later. Next - Spanish as WXCT before becoming WQUN.
 
I remember all the formats going back to WCDQ, but I never understood where WDEE stood in the market. WELI was the adult station and WAVZ was the Top 40 station. What were WNHC and WDEE?

I recall seeing billboiards advertising WNHC as Beautiful Music station in the late 70s. They were the Top 40 before switching to urban. Does anybody remnember either of these stations?

Mike
 
Two things - I meant to say WNNR was oldies in 1986, not 1996.

WNHC was top 40 in the late 60s/early 70s with a Bill Drake type format. Several jocks went on to Drake consulted RKO General stations. Bill Hennes went to CKLW, and Chris Bailey, Tom Kennedy and JJ Phillips went to WRKO.
 
Bill1820 said:
WDEE went back on the air after the fire with it's calls, then became WCDQ under new ownership in the late 60s with an MOR format. The station went country in the early 70s, then oldies before morphing into a top 40 format with Jerry Kristafer, Ken DeVoe and Jay McCormick. WPLR bought the station in 1978 and called it WOMN for WOMaN Radio. It was AOR for women. The station had no ratings and therefore was a big bust with no support. PLR kept the WOMN calls and called the station PLR2 - AOR without simulcasting the FM. Next calls and format - WSCR for Suburban Country Radio with John Savelle as program director. Pete Salant, the man who had put KC101 on the air, then bought the station in 1996 and changed it back to oldies as WNNR, Winner Radio in AM Stereo. Unfortunately WDRC-FM went oldies a few months later. Next - Spanish as WXCT before becoming WQUN.
Click to expand...
After WNNR, WXCT (1220, Exciting 'XCT) came on board first as a locally-produced AC format. Bill Houston worked there briefly before heading to WHLI in Hempstead. Around 1988 or 1989, the owners dumped the format for the fledgling Business Radio Network out of Colorado Springs (They are now Business Talk Radio Network out of either Greenwich or Stamford). During that time, they were the station that broadcast Hamden High School Hockey. WXCT flipped to Spanish around Spring of 1991. I stopped by there the day of the flip.

Ah, now I remember. The music surveys I used to have dated back to 1966 during the Road Runner days.
 
Bill1820 said:
Two things - I meant to say WNNR was oldies in 1986, not 1996.

WNHC was top 40 in the late 60s/early 70s with a Bill Drake type format. Several jocks went on to Drake consulted RKO General stations. Bill Hennes went to CKLW, and Chris Bailey, Tom Kennedy and JJ Phillips went to WRKO.
Click to expand...
Fox's Alan Combes worked there, too. So did Ed Flynn. So did George Grande, Carl Grande, Bob Picozzi and former Giants/Jets punter Dave Jennings. I was going to say Charley Steiner but that was 13 WAVZ.

WNHC was a Red Sox affiliate in the late '70's. Also carried the old Herb Jepko Nightcap show from Mutual.
 
There were actually 3 Top 40 AMs in Hamden/New Haven in the mid 60s: WDEE, WAVZ & WNHC. Even WADS in Ansonia played some rock n' roll and even had a music survey - the "bright exciting sound of tomorrow!" WNHC gave WAVZ a run for the money around 1970. Within 5 years, WNHC was heavy on automation as "Southern CT's Hit Parader." I've heard stories of hard times there around '76 when UI cut the power. After a failed stint in the crowded beautiful music field, WNHC turned the Top 40 sounds back on against WAVZ in 1979 under PD Lee Roberts, only to have the WAVZ format migrate to FM on WKCI.

By the early 80s, WNHC found its identity as an urban outlet... a format it kept until financial troubles overtook the 1340 spot in 1996. After shutting down for some time, it was bought by Yale Broadcasting as WYBC-AM.

I remember playing "Beat the Bomb" on Boss Radio 1340 WNHC as a kid. I got blown up after 3 ticks! Frank Stickle, Kenny Baby Jordan, Wild Willy Mitchell, Don Starr and other names remain ingrained in my brain from there. Dan Ingram was there in the mid 50s - before my time!
 
Does anyone know if 1340 is back on the air. Thier tower took a header during one the heavy winds in April (lack of guy wire maintenance). Carl Grande was the owner of that station in the 70's with his Westerly Broadcasting Company. At one time, Bob Picozzi tried his hand at programming it as "AM New Haven"-morning news and beautiful music.
 
My very first commercial radio job was with WQUN while I was a Quinnipiac student in the late 90s. It was, and I assume still is, a small operation, but everyone there had passion to be local and knew a ton about the business. It was cool to see a station with no marketing and no advertisers beating bigger, corporate stations. I'm proud to be able to say I was a small part of WQUN's early years.

- Justin Louis, Quinnipiac '00
 
1220 'CDQ was at its best shortly before its demise in 1978 as Top 40. WCDQ was named after the 3 original owners: Cote, Delfino & Quayle. I remember that from a late 60s billboard with their faces on it around 1968 when they replaced the old WDEE with an AC (MOR back then) format.
 
What happened to WQUN? They used to be in the top 5 in New Haven stations.
Now they are out of the loop. Probably cause they play the same tunes day in and day out. How about expanding that worn out playlist? Maybe a few AC tunes from the 60's, 70's and 80's?


New Haven, CT (#114)

12+ Population: 417,100 Updated: Jan 15, 2008
Surveyed: Standard Next Update: TBA
Ethnic Comp: Black: 14.2
Hispanic: N/A

Station Group Owner Format Fa'06 Sp'07 Fa'07
WPLR-FM Cox Rock 7.0 8.6 8.9
WWYZ-FM Clear Channel Country 6.0 8.0 5.2
WEZN-FM Cox AC 4.9 4.7 5.0
WYBC-FM Yale Urban AC 6.8 5.2 5.0
WELI-AM Clear Channel News/Talk 4.1 3.4 4.9
WEBE-FM Cumulus AC 5.3 4.5 4.7
WZMX-FM CBS Radio Rhythmic 5.3 5.2 4.7
WKCI-FM Clear Channel CHR/Top 40 4.0 3.7 4.5
WFAN-AM CBS Radio Sports 3.6 3.0 4.1
WDRC-FM Buckley Classic Hits 5.3 4.9 3.9
WHCN-FM Clear Channel Classic Hits 2.4 3.7 3.7
WQUN-AM Quinnipiac College Adult Standards 3.0 2.8 3.5
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom