WCCC-FM DJ Line up-Summer 1977

[Time Traveler]

In 1977 WCCC was an AOR station with a reasonably large playlist. It was broader than WHCN, but tighter than WPLR. WAQY was still Top 40 in those days...

6A-10A Dave Scott
10A-2P Bill Nosal
2P-7P Paul Anderson
7P-12A Red Beard
12A-6A Ted Labner

 

[PaulRAnderson]

Hmmm, I recognize at least one name on that lineup...

Paul

 

[rcs]

I started working for WCCC in early 1980 I missed working with Stern but a few months but had the pleasure of working with Fred Norris who was Production Director at the time. A true production wizard and a really nice guy. When he left I think Ted Labner became Production Director and perhaps even did mornings for a while and Bill Nozel later became Program Director. It's been a long time so I may not have the timing right.

Other "recollections" from my time at WCCC in the early eigities:
--Crazy Mike Adams doing mornings.
--Stoneman doing the evening shift.
--Paul Payton as P.D.
--WCCC-AM's brief attempt at talk radio.
--The phones ringing off the hook for a week straight when the owner decided to take Paul Harvey off of the FM.
--Gerry Kristofer in the am.
--The amazing production work of Brian Battles.

 

[Time Traveler]

Other "recollections" from my time at WCCC in the early eigities:
--The phones ringing off the hook for a week straight when the owner decided to take Paul Harvey off of the FM.

I remember during the first year or so that WCCC was a Progressive Rock station during 1975/1976, they were running Paul Harvey. It was so weird and out of place on such a stoner AOR as WCCC was during that period. However, it was so weird and out of place that it seemed to work for some reason...

 

[amfmradio1]

I worked for Triple C from '88-'96.

Went to school w/Fred from the Stern show at Western CT. State Univ. in Danbury.

Don't know how he went to school, was Production Dir. & did a shift @CCC - 65 mi. away!

Worked for Ted Sellers - one of the best PD's I ever had.

Sebastian in the AM, Mike Karolyi Middays, Angie "The Angel Of The Airwaves" & John Osterlind in the "O"Zone who went to Boston.

Met Red Beard when Fred was there.

Also, Peter Cole did PM Drive - great jock, nice guy & a great voice!

He lived in Glastonbury @the time, & then worked @Rock 102.

Here's a trivia ? for you.

'CCC was located on what street.

&, no, it wasn't S. Whitney or Asylum Ave!

 

[PaulRAnderson]

When he left I think Ted Labner became Production Director and perhaps even did mornings for a while and Bill Nozel later became Program Director.

Bill Nosal was Program Director when WCCC first went progressive in 1976. He was there when I "left" in 1978 and was still PD a couple of years later. I forget if Country Paul was his direct replacement.

Other "recollections" from my time at WCCC in the early eigities:
--The phones ringing off the hook for a week straight when the owner decided to take Paul Harvey off of the FM.

Paul Harvey was on both AM and FM when I was there. Sometime after 1978, Sy took him off the FM but kept him on AM, right? I've always liked Paul Harvey, his humor, his diction, his wit, even if not always his point of view. I bet WCCC was the only album station in the country carrying him. It was an odd mix.

We carried the news at 8:30 AM and the noon show, plus we taped The Rest of the Story and played it back minutes later. I have fond memories of rewinding the reel-to-reel drive in the studio while on the air and looking for the five-second warning tone on the VU meters to do a proper talk-up to the show. And having to press the button to bring the AM back into simulcast for it too.

Here's a trivia ? for you.

'CCC was located on what street.

&, no, it wasn't S. Whitney or Asylum Ave!

For a while after the 1975 fire at 11 Asylum Street, they were on Main Street. They were former studios of either WDRC or the Connecticut School of Broadcasting, I forget the connection.

Paul

 

[rcs]

I didn't know that they were on Main St. for a while after the fire. I know they borrowed the WDRC mobile unit immediately after the fire and broadcast from the WCCC tower site on Avon Mountain to stay on the air. Both WDRC and CSB were located at 750 Main St. so I assume that was the temporary location.

When WCCC-AM first went on the air, in 1948 I believe, they had studios at their AM transmitter site which until 1990 or so was on South Quaker Lane in West Hartford. It wasn't long before owner Bill Savitt moved them downtown to the "lower mezzinine level" of The Hotel Bond on Asylum. Of course "lower mezzinine level" was the basement. From there they moved to 11 Asylum Street and I was hired to move them out of there in 1980 into a building Sy bought at 243 South Whitney St in Hartford. Talk about a low budget move, about the only thing new at the "new" studio was the wire and the studio furniture. Same old Ampro rotary pot board, Gates rim-drive turntables and Teac consumer tape decks! In 1998 Sy sold WCCC to Marlin Broadcasting and I moved the studios to their preseet home at 1039 Asylum Street, former home of WHCN.

It was indeed strange hearing straight-laced Paul Harvey on a rock station. Even stranger was Sy's flipping WCCC-AM to talk for a few months in the early eighties. I can't remember any of the hosts names but they had one woman on the air who would say things while reading the news like "he was hurt but escaped the accident unharmed" and "there were no casualties but three people were killed." I wish I had it on tape.

Speaking of 11 Asylum St, when I was first hired to work there I was amazed at the on the air lights outside each studio. They were standard 2-bulb bathroom fixtures with frosted/decorative complete with electrical outlet for a razor! We used to keep an old electric razor around and every once and a while plug it into the on the air light when Sy was around just to drive him crazy.

And speaking of The Hotel Bond, turns out that WDRC called that home for a while as well. It was pretty common back in the fourties and fifties for stations to have their studios in Hotels, probably because they could trade the rent for advertising.

 

[Big Bill]

I remember in the mid-ninetys, CCC-AM was sports. Someone would go in there once an hour and play spots. I did that a couple of times and it would never be timed right. We couldn't monitor the feed so it was a train wreck. Also, I remember taking the readings on the FM and I would make an adjustment and the whole thing would shut off. A scarey moment. Of course, the transmitter like to shut down on it's own in the middle of the night and scare me. I also remember Sy playing with the transmitters during afternoon drive taking it off the air over and over, driving Lich crazy. It was in the 5:00 hour.

 

[PaulRAnderson]

I also remember Sy playing with the transmitters during afternoon drive taking it off the air over and over, driving Lich crazy. It was in the 5:00 hour.

During times the AM and FM were simulcast, Sy would often go into the production room, patch the AM to it, and track through a Billy Joel album. I'm not sure if it was to fiddle with the audio chain or the transmitter or what, but it drove me crazy too. There was still some audience for the AM because not everyone had FM in their cars in those days.

Paul

 

[MarcB]

I remember in the mid-ninetys, CCC-AM was sports.

I remember that only because I belonged to the City of Bristol's Summer Park & Rec Playground program. The park counseler would bring us to different places in a Park & Rec van for field trips and he always had on 1290 CCC. Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't they running IMUS in The Morning on 1290 CCC?


Also someone told me that even at 1039 Assylum, 1290 AM was still in the basement. They told me there was just a computer hooked up to the board playing the Beethoven.COM feed, until Beethoven.Com moved out of Miami and moved up to Hartford.

 

[rcs]

I don't recall Imus being on WCCC but perhaps I missed it. Can anyone else help.

Regarding Marlin's Beethoven.com:

Beethoven.com was operated out of WTMI-FM in Miami until that 2001 when the internet station was moved to new state of the art studios in the basement of the WCCC building on Asylum. The 2 studios are all digital with Harris Impulse consoles, SAS routers and an Audio Vault automation system. The station is live from 8 am to 6pm M-F. It wasn't until 2004 I believe that the beethoven.com classical programming was put on AM 1290 (prior to that 1290 was just a simulcast of the FM). Earlier this year we put beethoven.com on the HD2 channel of WCCC-FM.

You can see a picture of one of the studios (they are identical) at
http://www.rwonline.com/reference-room/special-report/beethoven.shtml

 

[KML0224]

Can WCCC-AM 1290 even reach Bristol? I'm in New Britain's south end and can barely get their "massive" 500 watt signal here.

 

[MarcB]

It wasn't until 2004 I believe that the beethoven.com classical programming was put on AM 1290 (prior to that 1290 was just a simulcast of the FM).

It was 99 or 2000. I still lived in Bristol when it happened. They were WCCC for a year or 2 after they went Classical. Then they went to WTMI and back to WCCC this year.

Can WCCC-AM 1290 even reach Bristol? I'm in New Britain's south end and can barely get their "massive" 500 watt signal here.

It's very weak. Also radio in cars often pick up stations you can't get on your home radio. 1290's much stronger here in Souhtington depending on which radio I use.