WATR

WATR
City Waterbury, Connecticut
Branding WATR 1320
Slogan "News, Talk and Entertainment"
Frequency 1320 kHz
Translator(s) 97.7 W249DY (Waterbury) (soon)
First air date 1934[1]
Format News/Talk/Sports/Classic Hits/Great American Songbook/Jazz
Power 5,000 Watts (day)
1,000 Watts (night)
Class B
Facility ID 71102
Transmitter coordinates 41°32′12″N 73°01′52″W / 41.53667°N 73.03111°W / 41.53667; -73.03111
Callsign meaning WATeRbury
Owner Estate of Harold Thomas
(WATR, Inc.)
Website www.watr.com

WATR (1320 AM) is a radio station licensed to serve Waterbury, Connecticut and the Naugatuck Valley. The station is owned by WATR, Inc. It airs a full-service News/Talk/Sports plus Classic Hits music format.[2] It is the oldest privately owned station in the state of Connecticut, never having been sold outside the family of its founder, Harold Thomas (1902–1968).

The station is host to the long-running "Tom Chute & You," the weekday morning drive program (6-9:30 a.m.) hosted by general manager and program director Thomas J. Chute with News Director Christopher M. Fortier anchoring news reports through the noon hour. It is the fourth-longest continuously running morning drive radio program in Connecticut, having debuted on Jan. 2, 1986.

Barbara Hart Davitt, who marked 54 years at the station on Nov. 22, 2017, hosts "Coffee Break" from 9:30 to 10 a.m. Monday through Thursday. Debuting in the mid-1960s, it is one of the longest-running radio shows in the U.S. Davitt was the first Waterbury-area radio personality inducted into the Connecticut Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame on Oct. 11, 2018.

Steve Noxon hosts "Talk of the Town," WATR's flagship talk show since the early 1970s focusing on local and national issues, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Previous hosts include Larry Rifkin, Ed Flynn, James Senich and Jay Clark. Fortier serves as the program's executive producer.

The daily programming lineup also includes syndicated Fox News talk shows from 1 to 8 p.m. and Fox Sports Radio from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Weekend programming includes the traditional and contemporary sounds of Polish music on Sunday morning's "The Zembruski Family Polka Hour." The show's predecessor, "The Polish Eagle Show," originated in 1934 on WATR by bandleader Victor Zembruski (1912–1976). His widow, Sophie Zembruski (1918–2010), hosted the show from 1976 to 2008, at which time the couple's daughter, Loretta Hoxie, took over hosting duties. The current show, hosted by Nathaniel Zembruski, succeeded Hoxie shortly after she retired in 2013. Other weekend programming highlights include the Saturday night "Music Museum" hosted by Jay Crawford; and Sunday morning's "Carosello Italiano," a program hosted by Joe Costa featuring music and news from the Italian community.

The station also maintains a decades-long tradition of broadcasting play-by-play of local high school sports. In 2018, WATR joined the University of Connecticut sports radio network. The first football game was broadcast Aug. 28, 2018.

WATR once had sister FM and television stations: WATR-FM, established in 1961, now Country 92-5 WWYZ, and WATR-TV, established in 1953, later WTXX TV 20 and now WCCT-TV.

The station has been assigned the WATR call letters by the Federal Communications Commission since it was initially licensed in 1934.[1][3]

Translator (soon)

Broadcast translators of WATR
Call signFrequency
(MHz)		City of licenseFacility
ID		ERP
W		ClassTransmitter coordinatesFCC info
W249DY97.7Waterbury, Connecticut203226250D41°33′47.00″N 72°50′42.00″W / 41.5630556°N 72.8450000°W / 41.5630556; -72.8450000 (W249DY)FCC


References

  1. 1 2 Collins, Michael. "Time Line For Connecticut Broadcasting". Connecticut Broadcaster's Association.
  2. ↑ "Winter 2008 Station Information Profile". Arbitron.
  3. ↑ "Call Sign History". FCC Media Bureau CDBS Public Access Database.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.