Connecticut Radio News

[TheFugitive]

iHeartMedia is getting ready to flip Hartford's 1410 AM to News/Talk with the call letters WPOP.

https://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/netgnomes/93483/wpop-to-bring-another-talker-to-hartford/

[ynkeesfn82]

Thanks for the heads up. I've been away from the computer the past couple hours doing some chores. Washing my car and my mom's car and mowing the lawn.

Thus WPOP goes back to its previous talk format after 18 1/2 years as a Sports Station. First they ran the 1on1 Sports Network (now known as Yahoo Sports Radio) then they flipped to ESPN. They've been running FOX Sports Radio since 2012 when they flipped Hartford Market move-in 97.9 FM to ESPN.

[TheFugitive]

How is the signal?  KQV here in Pittsburgh is on 1410, and it's a really crappy signal with lots
of holes as you drive around town.  I am old enough to remember a time when KQV was the
way most Pittsburghers consumed their music.  Hard to imagine that now.

They've been all-news since the mid-1970's. 

[ynkeesfn82]

Daytime WPOP's signal is decent. Night time, not so much. It pretty much misses Bristol at night. That was the joke when they were running ESPN from 1998-2012 that you couldn't get the station at night at ESPN. (Of course the 97.9 FM signal isn't much better). Their antennas are in on Cedar Street in downtown Newington behind their former studios. The former studios are used to store equipment for when they have to work on the antennas. And many in Newington want the building torn down. (See below image below)

WPOP was one of 2 Top 40 stations in Hartford until 1975 when they flipped to all-news (not local like KQV), but using the NBC News and Information Service. In the Top 40 genre they competed with WDRC 1360. Now that WPOP is going to be all talk again (not sure when the flip is happening) they will be in competition with WDRC once again. I hope the "new" WPOP isn't going to run wall-to-wall infomercials on the weekend like WDRC does.  People are wondering if I-Heart will snag RUSH, HANNITY, and Coast-to-Coast from CBS's WTIC 1080 since I-Heart (through its Premiere Radio Network division) owns those shows.



Photo Credit: Vision Government Solutions

[TheFugitive]

KQV's studios are in the Chamber of Commerce Building downtown.  At one time this included a studio at street level with a window looking out where passers by could watch the DJ as he did his show.  One of them christened this as "the corner of Walk and Don't Walk".   Famously you could not hear KQV's night signal on the monitors inside their downtown studio!  My sister's husband's father was a jock there in the early 60's.

[ynkeesfn82]

KQV's studios are in the Chamber of Commerce Building downtown.  At one time this included a studio at street level with a window looking out where passers by could watch the DJ as he did his show.  One of them christened this as "the corner of Walk and Don't Walk".   Famously you could not hear KQV's night signal on the monitors inside their downtown studio!  My sister's husband's father was a jock there in the early 60's.

WPOP and the other I-Heart Stations (Country 92.5, Top 40 KISS 95.7, 97.9 ESPN, and Variety Hits The River 105.9) in Hartford are in downtown Hartford in an office Building known as The Candy Cane Building.


I was involved with AM 990 in Southington, Connecticut from 2002 until 2004. During the day their 2,500 watt signal is gangbusters. At night they reduce power to just 80 watts but they still cover most of Southington. However there used to be an AM 990 out of Rhode Island they were 50,000 watts during the day and at night they were supposed to reduce power, but if they stayed at the full 50,000 watts they used to interfere with 990 in Southington on Old Turnpike Road and that's where the antennas for the Southington station are located.

[ynkeesfn82]

Don D. The Owner of WLIS/WMRD in Middletown, Connecticut posted on the station's Facebook page that long time Polka Host Ed Henry passed away over the weekend. If I'm not mistaken Mr. Henry had been playing Polkas on WMRD going back to when WMRD was still WCNX. (And it's been WMRD for close to 20 years now).

Lots of great Polka DJs in heaven.

John Jeski (WRYM 840 Newington, CT) passed in 2007.

Patti Ann Jakubiak (WXCT/WNTY 990 Southington, CT) passed in 2011.

Sophie Zembruski (WATR 1320 Waterbury, CT) passed in 2012 (I think).

And now Ed Henry (WMRD/WCNX 1150 Middletown and WLIS 1420 Old Sayrbrook).

[ynkeesfn82]

iHeartMedia is getting ready to flip Hartford's 1410 AM to News/Talk with the call letters WPOP.

https://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/netgnomes/93483/wpop-to-bring-another-talker-to-hartford/

They finally flipped today.

Line-Up:

6AM-10AM Vinnie Penn (from their sister station in New Haven WELI)
10AM-12Noon The Financial Exchange (From Entercom's WRKO in Boston)
12Noon-3PM Bloomberg Radio
3PM-6PM Howie Carr (From WRKO)
6PM-9PM Mark Levin
9PM-12Midnite Meghan McCain

Overnights and Weekends: Fox Sports Radio

http://www.1410wpop.com

Editor's Note: Bloomberg might be a place holder until Limbaugh's contract with CBS's powerhouse WTIC 1080 expires.

[JimSawhill]

I guess they'll be 3 talk stations in Hartford now...WTIC, WPOP now and (I think) WDRC.

[TheFugitive]

Does WTIC still use the tones that play "Yankee Doodle" at the top of each hour?  ???

[ynkeesfn82]

Does WTIC still use the tones that play "Yankee Doodle" at the top of each hour?  ???

They play a tone at the top of every hour  and have since World War II.

From Wikipedia (As a CT Resident I can tell you this is true).

WTIC, a class A station on a clear channel, is known for its historic time tone, which is a broadcast of the Morse code letter "V" every hour on the hour since 1943. This makes it one of the oldest continuously broadcasting radio time tones in the world. WTIC employs a GPS master clock system that fires the custom-built time-tone generator shortly before the top of the hour, timed such that the final tone of the sequence occurs precisely on the hour (Even though everything else heard on the station is on a 10-second delay), and listeners have been setting their watches to WTIC for many years. The notes of the sequence were pitched to mimic the famous opening sequence of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, whose "short-short-short-long" rhythm matches that of the Morse code letter "V". The Morse code letter "V" for Victory was selected during the height of WWII.

[TheFugitive]

Interesting.  I had thought the tone played "Yankee Doodle" as a reference to Connecticut Yankees.
WTIC would sometimes beam in here after WEEP went off the air at sundown.

[ynkeesfn82]

Connecticut/Western Massachusetts AM Oldies Combo of WXCT 990 Southington and WACM 1490 West Springfield has expanded to Southern Rhode Island and Southeast Connecticut with the addition of WSKP 1180 Hope Valley, Rhode Island and WBMW 106.5 HD3 in Pawcatuck, Connecticut. This was made possible by WSKP's parent company purchasing WXCT/WACM. Programming will still originated at WACM's studios in West Springfield and all 4 will go by the name "KOOL Radio", which had been the branding used by 1180-AM/106.5 HD3.

[TheFugitive]

Wow, 1180?

That's packed in pretty tight against 50,000 watt WHAM in Rochester, NY.
I can actually get that one in Pittsburgh during the daytime when conditions are right.

[ynkeesfn82]

Wow, 1180?

That's packed in pretty tight against 50,000 watt WHAM in Rochester, NY.
I can actually get that one in Pittsburgh during the daytime when conditions are right.

Me too and depending on what radio I'm using. Meanwhile WSKP is 1800 watts daytime only.

[ynkeesfn82]

Redwolf Broadcast the new owner of OLDIES Kool Radio WXCT 990 Southington, Connecticut will be conducting an engineering study to determine if they can boost WXCT's daytime signal from 2500 watts to 5000 watts. This may be possible with the death of and deletion of 990 WALE in Rhode Island.  Night time signal will remain at 80 watts for now.


Some time down the road they will be doing an engineering study to determine if they can boost the night signal. There is talk they may be able to go up to 250 watts at night, but they would probably have to build a 3rd tower to do so. If a 3rd tower is needed 250 at night won't be happening. The people who live near the station would be opposed to a 3rd tower being built.

[TheFugitive]

If a 3rd tower is needed 250 at night won't be happening. The people who live near the station would be opposed to a 3rd tower being built.

Sounds just like when WPXI-TV moved their studios off of Rising Main Ave. (which they had managed to
rename Television Hill) to a brand new facility just off of I-279 North.  Original plans called for the tower
to move with them, but this was nixed by objections from neighbors (the tower remains back on Television
Hill where new housing is being built around it).

The odd part of that is that the towers for WPGH-TV and KDKA-TV are quite literally within
rock-throwing distance of that new studio, and have been since the 1950's.

[ynkeesfn82]

What gets me is that the people think they have the right to complain. The radio station and its tower(s) were built long before the houses were. The station was built in the late 60s and signed on in September 1969. The road in question - Nunzio Drive the first of the houses weren't built until the mid-1980s.

[TheFugitive]

Same reason they built airports 20 miles from town, only to have people move out there and start building houses around them and flood authorities with noise complaints two decades later.

In Toledo, Ohio the former Mayor actually made a proposal to buy up houses of residents
near the airport who had made noise complaints and re-sell them to the deaf!  No, really....
he said that!

[ynkeesfn82]

KOOL Radio has fired my friend Larry Kratka who was doing mornings. I'm no longer supporting this radio station. Too much stupidity going on lately on Sylvan Street in West Springfield.

[TheFugitive]

Sorry to hear about that.   My friends who were doing radio are all doing
other things now.  Their business model has collapsed.