KOOL OLDIES RADIO 96.1 FM / 990 AM coverage area

[RadioActiveAirHead1961]

Kool Radio featuring hits from the 60's, 70's and 80's is an excellent format. Great music mix, awesome morning, midday, Wolfman Jack 12-1p and afternoon show. Lose the translator signal in parts of Wallingford and out it's difficult to pick up on the North Haven, New Haven line. Country 96.1 out of Long Island interfers with signal. Also who does the voice imaging for 96.1. He sounds great!

 

[MarcB]

Personally I don't care for Wolfman Jack. The rest of the station is decent, though I wish they'd put on a jock at night 7PM-Midnight or maybe pick up Tom Kent's syndicated night show. I also wish they'd add jocks on the weekend besides the syndicated hosts. Maybe Wendy London aka Amy Grey or Rob Ray the Music Professor from 102.9 The Whale.

In 2017 they replaced the transmitter for AM 990. The 80 watt night signal gets out much further now. During the day they could be picked up as far north as Northampton, Mass. Back when they used to be all-talk they used to have a regular caller who was tuned in from Chappaqua, New York. In the past I have gotten them on a car radio near the Danbury Fair Mall. And the late Patty-Ann Jakubiak host of the now defunct Polka Show said she used to get letters from people who lived outside of Albany, NY. And once back in August 2001 when 990 was hip-hop I picked them up inside the Super 8 Motel on Route 5 in Brattleboro, Vermont on my boom box at 6:30AM.

 

[KML0224]

You survived the Brattleboro Super 8? Lucky man! Did you reward yourself with some Wendy's right next door? [Stay away from the EconoLodge in the south end...they suck!]

In all seriousness, I never tried for 990 AM when walking up and down US Route 5/VT Route 9 (concurrent until you reach the rotary with Mobil and Ramunto's Pizzeria across from each other). I did check WTIC-AM 1080 on my Panasonic "Walkman". Had to put the volume on max. It seemed to come in better when I was near a metal pole for a sign, etc.

 

[MarcB]

There was some kind of weird glitch yesterday afternoon and into this morning. 96.1's signal was really weak, the audio on 990 was really low, and they were playing the same songs on a loop every hour. I left a voicemail with the Engineering Dept at Full Power Radio last night. When I got out of work this afternoon the station appeared to be back to normal.

 

[WPPCProductions]

Hi Guys and gal. I agree RadioActiveAirHead1961.Great station.I finally tuned in around Christmas time last year as I heard Casey Kasem's holiday shows they were airing."WQUN was running the non holiday shows at the time". So I stayed tuned in after that and liked what they were playing.I do enjoy Michael Maze's show.

The station will fill the void if 1220 WQUN "My current fave AM station" does not continue to be on the air in July according to the WQUN thread. Hope they will get a buyer and say on the air.Brian and Mike show is great and funny LOL on WQUN..Would miss them if the station goes off the air..

Marc . I noticed to same yesterday"Tuesday" afternoon that the audio was low on the FM side.I thought it was my radio.I'm glad that they got it back up and running.I'll be more happy if they can trace the 60hz buzz issues out.

I agree with Wolfman Jack show .I like Wolfman himself but dont like the shows format as I tuned it in last Sunday night and was disappointed with the show .Get rid of the newer tunes and stick with the 50's and 60's tunes and maybe some early 1970's tunes .I cant picture Wolfman playing any music newer then the 50's and 60's music.I would enjoyed the show.

I do like "The Thing" show they run too.

80watts can travel.There is a AM classic country station out of Maine I tune in nightly .1160 WSKW out of Skowhegan, Maine.They run 730 watts at night and it comes great at times here in Wallyworld....

I remember when 990 was country.Rick Shea from WIOF had a show on the station.Got the cassette somewhere here.

 

[MarcB]

There was a weird glitch again today. When I got in the car after work 4PM there was Dead Air on both 96.1 and 990. After I got home after changing out of my work clothes I did a few things and then turned the kitchen radio on to 96.1 around 4:20PM and there was still Dead Air on 96.1, but 990 was playing Polka Music. I messaged Michael Maze on Facebook. By time he responded about 20 minutes to 5 the Oldies were back on both the AM and the FM and he had know idea what had happened.

 

[CTListener]

There was a weird glitch again today. When I got in the car after work 4PM there was Dead Air on both 96.1 and 990. After I got home after changing out of my work clothes I did a few things and then turned the kitchen radio on to 96.1 around 4:20PM and there was still Dead Air on 96.1, but 990 was playing Polka Music. I messaged Michael Maze on Facebook. By time he responded about 20 minutes to 5 the Oldies were back on both the AM and the FM and he had know idea what had happened.

The station is being run on the cheap. I doubt anyone at Full Power gives much of a crap about glitches.

 

[MarcB]

The station is being run on the cheap. I doubt anyone at Full Power gives much of a crap about glitches.

The whole company is being run on the cheap. Last year when they moved their Hartford stations from Glastonbury to Bloomfield digital break up was a common occurrence on BOMBA Radio - at least on 98.5 in Meriden for a few weeks. (I don't know if it was happening on the other BOMBA "stations."). Also on the subject of BOMBA-FM they shut down BOMBA Springfeild on 1490-AM/104.5 FM and replaced it with a 100% simulcast of BOMBA Radio from Hartford. And even more back when the Meriden repeater of BOMBA was on 99.5 (licensed to Clinton) they had dead air for over 5 days.

Theresa Berry and Sean Murphy the morning hosts on Soft Rock 106.5 serve as the the news anchors on KOOL 990/96.1 with "Wendy London" who does morning at Radio 104.1 as Amy Grey serving as a reporter. "Wendy London" also voice-tracks Middays at their Country station in New London US 99.5 Country based at 106.5 HD2.

And Michael Maze is the "Super Voice Tracker" he's on Radio 104.1, Soft Rock 106.5, WTNN 97.5 in Vermont, and Kool Radio. - It's amazing that he can do all those stations. Maze was/is also on CBS-FM and 102.7 in NYC. (I don't follow NYC Radio, so I don't know if he's still on either of these stations). I remember when Scott Wheeler was voice tracking mornings on Kool Radio he was also doing afternoons at a station in Illinois and he gave up the Kool Radio gig because he couldn't do 2 shows a day.

 

[WPPCProductions]

The whole company is being run on the cheap. Last year when they moved their Hartford stations from Glastonbury to Bloomfield digital break up was a common occurrence on BOMBA Radio - at least on 98.5 in Meriden for a few weeks. (I don't know if it was happening on the other BOMBA "stations."). Also on the subject of BOMBA-FM they shut down BOMBA Springfeild on 1490-AM/104.5 FM and replaced it with a 100% simulcast of BOMBA Radio from Hartford. And even more back when the Meriden repeater of BOMBA was on 99.5 (licensed to Clinton) they had dead air for over 5 days.

Theresa Berry and Sean Murphy the morning hosts on Soft Rock 106.5 serve as the the news anchors on KOOL 990/96.1 with "Wendy London" who does morning at Radio 104.1 as Amy Grey serving as a reporter. "Wendy London" also voice-tracks Middays at their Country station in New London US 99.5 Country based at 106.5 HD2.

And Michael Maze is the "Super Voice Tracker" he's on Radio 104.1, Soft Rock 106.5, WTNN 97.5 in Vermont, and Kool Radio. - It's amazing that he can do all those stations. Maze was/is also on CBS-FM and 102.7 in NYC. (I don't follow NYC Radio, so I don't know if he's still on either of these stations). I remember when Scott Wheeler was voice tracking mornings on Kool Radio he was also doing afternoons at a station in Illinois and he gave up the Kool Radio gig because he couldn't do 2 shows a day.

Hi Marc and gang.I had a feeling the station is on a shoestring budget.Last Sunday morning I had the station tuned in and the audio sounds like it was out of phase during the religious programing .It was OK after that.

 

[WPPCProductions]

Have the FM tuned in today in my back yard about 4PM .They are in the karaoke mode now.Thats like loosing the ground lead in your walkman headset or not pushing the headset plug all a the way in will give you the same effect...My cell is dead so I cant call the eng dept provided above. .

 

[CTListener]

Have the FM tuned in today in my back yard about 4PM .They are in the karaoke mode now.Thats like loosing the ground lead in your walkman headset or not pushing the headset plug all a the way in will give you the same effect...My cell is dead so I cant call the eng dept provided above. .

WDRC-FM used to have a few songs in its library that would sound like that when played. The worst offender was the Mamas and Papas' "I Saw Her Again," in which Mama Cass's lead vocal and much of the instrumentation would disappear at times and all you;d hear were the backing vocals. One-channel audio from a recording that was probably false stereo to begin with.

 

[scottg]

The stations automation for that station sucks.

Its almost like they done care about that station.

 

[MarcB]

The stations automation for that station sucks.

Its almost like they done care about that station.

I have no idea how the station is operated today, but when I was involved with that station from 02-04 when the station was owned by Peter Arpin's ADD Radio Group and Charlie Profit was the General Manager they got an automation computer in 2003. It was a DOS Based Automation system. Even in 03 any thing DOS was years out-of-date. It wouldn't surprise me if they are still using the DOS automation system. It could explain why the timing is off sometimes up to 40 minutes ahead. When the station was leased out to Radio Cantinco Nuevo in 07 under ownership of DMG, they set it so the legal ID would play automatically on top of programming at the top of the hour. Charlie Profit's Voice saying "WXCT Southington." As time went on that automated ID would play on top of programming at random times. i.e. 25 past the hour, :38 past the hour, etc. It continued this way even after Radio Cantico Nuevo was phased out except for the weekend in 2012 and replaced by a simulcast of sister station POWER 1270. You would hear the automated ID at a random time and then the real legal ID near the top of the hour. "WSPR Springfield. WXCT Southington. Power 1270 y Power 990."

On July 3, 2015 after stunting with with "It's the Same Old Song" by The Four Tops for 12 hours they launched the Oldies format, simulcast from WACM 1490. "Oldies 990 and 1490 WXCT." After a couple of days the people running the station disabled the random "WXCT Southington" ID that had been playing automatically since 2007. Sometime in 2016 after the sale to Full Power Radio, a new transmitter was installed. (I don't know if it was new or used). Going back to when Charlie Profit was running the station 990 would go off the air completely in extremely cold weather. That stopped after the winter of 2016, so that's why I assume they got a new transmitter. Plus the night signal gets out much farther too. (Of course with WALE in Greenville, RI gone and I think 990 in Montreal gone as well helps too). Keep in mind the old one transmitter was the same one the people from El Principe Communications damaged after they got evicted from the radio station in September 2000.

 

[WPPCProductions]

WDRC-FM used to have a few songs in its library that would sound like that when played. The worst offender was the Mamas and Papas' "I Saw Her Again," in which Mama Cass's lead vocal and much of the instrumentation would disappear at times and all you;d hear were the backing vocals. One-channel audio from a recording that was probably false stereo to begin with.

Yes Alot of 60's tunes were recorded like that.

 

[MarcB]

They were off the air again for some 20-odd hours Friday into Saturday. I left a voicemail for Scott Baron their Chief Engineer Friday Night at 8PM, mainly because I forgot to call at 3PM when I discovered them off the air after I got out of work. Anyway someone must've been angry about them being off the air as when I drove by their building on Old Turnpike Road on Saturday Morning (after they were back on) I saw that their mailbox was smashed and falling off the post. My Mom and I go to yard sales on Saturdays (if I'm not working) and we went to one off of Mulberry Street, which is down the street from the station.

 

[CTListener]

Anyway someone must've been angry about them being off the air as when I drove by their building on Old Turnpike Road on Saturday Morning (after they were back on) I saw that their mailbox was smashed and falling off the post.

Unlikely that fans of oldies would get so worked up over WNTY that they'd turn to vandalism. More likely one of the toughs and transients who keep Darling Street so prominent in the police blotter ran into the mailbox with his car on his nightly bender.

 

[Kemosabe]

Anyway someone must've been angry about them being off the air as when I drove by their building on Old Turnpike Road on Saturday Morning (after they were back on) I saw that their mailbox was smashed and falling off the post.

Perhaps it was a symbolic act of revenge by someone whose voice mail was ignored.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

They were off the air again for some 20-odd hours Friday into Saturday. I left a voicemail for Scott Baron their Chief Engineer Friday Night at 8PM, mainly because I forgot to call at 3PM when I discovered them off the air after I got out of work. Anyway someone must've been angry about them being off the air as when I drove by their building on Old Turnpike Road on Saturday Morning (after they were back on) I saw that their mailbox was smashed and falling off the post. My Mom and I go to yard sales on Saturdays (if I'm not working) and we went to one off of Mulberry Street, which is down the street from the station.

Once again, for a station you've said.. more then once.. you don't care much about or have much time for, you sure know alot about/have alot of info on, and send a fair amount of time on here talking about and etc

 

[WPPCProductions]

They were off the air again for some 20-odd hours Friday into Saturday. I left a voicemail for Scott Baron their Chief Engineer Friday Night at 8PM, mainly because I forgot to call at 3PM when I discovered them off the air after I got out of work. Anyway someone must've been angry about them being off the air as when I drove by their building on Old Turnpike Road on Saturday Morning (after they were back on) I saw that their mailbox was smashed and falling off the post. My Mom and I go to yard sales on Saturdays (if I'm not working) and we went to one off of Mulberry Street, which is down the street from the station.

Hi Marc . I was going to post about this issue Friday afternoon around 3pm as I found the station was giving us the infamous 60 buzz on AM and FM but decline to do so.As Saturday morning the station was still a buzz as I tune in for the first WNTY run of Casey's 70's countdown show at 9AM and end up listening to WQUNs 8AM version on time shift recording later that day since I was busy at the time it aired....

I'm glad they got the bugs out of their system again and I end up listening to the rerun of Casey's show Sunday night..

BTW .Maybe they can dump the Beachhouse contest and spend the money in their engineering dept.Got plenty engineers on here that are will experienced to help out the chief eng there.If the station owners want to stay on the air and willing to pay them for it.......

Dont see any since on vandals trashing the place up over this.......Especially an oldies station.

 

[MarcB]

Full Power Radio gives out a lot of cash as prizes. Since I'm a listener I follow their Spanish CHR Station BOMBA Radio on Facebook and they often post pictures of their jocks with stacks of cash to give away at remote broadcasts - mainly at Sprint Stores. Twice in 2018 they did a "song of the day" contest on both 102.9 The Whale and Soft Rock 106.5 WBMW. They gave away $1000/day on both stations weekdays for 6 weeks. They also have The Radio 104.1 Purse Party where listeners can win luxury purses at an event at Crystal Bee's in Southington.

This is pure speculation, but perhaps the beach house belongs to John Fuller. (Maybe his personal residence?) But I was discussing this giveaway with a co-worker today and we both agree $5000 is a lot of money for a week at a beach house. Maybe $1500 for food, booze, and weed. (Oops. Did I say that last one out loud?)

As for engineers. Correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't Scott Baron WDRC's engineer during the Buckley Days? I thought he was the local engineer for WDRC and Tom Ray was the corporate engineer and was based at WOR In NYC. If I'm right then Full Power Radio must have inherited him when they bought WDRC AM/FM from Connoisseur.