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WATX 1220 AM Hamden formally WQUN. Brian Smith

A

albertco2000

I was down in Hamden today.
Waiting for the wife for her eye doctor appointment.
So I took a break from Pat ST John on 60s gold SiriusXM .
Turned on 1220 AM which is a much weaker signal than the WQUN days since they sold the original tower site and shut the station down.
Before the new owner bought 1220.

Anyway, the main reason for the post . I was pleasantly surprised to hear Brian Smith .
Brian Smith was the afternoon jock when Quinnipiac university shut the station down a few years back. Brian also did an early afternoon general topic talk show on WICC going back quite a few years and of course Smith & Barber of WPLR over 20 years ago .
Glad to hear Brian Smith back on the air.

I also went to their website and they stream through live 365. The sound quality was as good as the SiriusXM app.

To bad Clark Schmidt couldn't buy WATR 1320 as their 97.7 translator gets in Hamden, North Haven. Would have been a great line up.
Tom Chute mornings, Pam Landry midday and Brian Smith afternoon drive.
Live local community oriented Classic hits oldies soft AC hybrid. I think you could get local advertisers .
 
albertco2000 said:
I was down in Hamden today.
Waiting for the wife for her eye doctor appointment.
So I took a break from Pat ST John on 60s gold SiriusXM .
Turned on 1220 AM which is a much weaker signal than the WQUN days since they sold the original tower site and shut the station down.
Before the new owner bought 1220.

Anyway, the main reason for the post . I was pleasantly surprised to hear Brian Smith .
Brian Smith was the afternoon jock when Quinnipiac university shut the station down a few years back. Brian also did an early afternoon general topic talk show on WICC going back quite a few years and of course Smith & Barber of WPLR over 20 years ago .
Glad to hear Brian Smith back on the air.

I also went to their website and they stream through live 365. The sound quality was as good as the SiriusXM app.

To bad Clark Schmidt couldn't buy WATR 1320 as their 97.7 translator gets in Hamden, North Haven. Would have been a great line up.
Tom Chute mornings, Pam Landry midday and Brian Smith afternoon drive.
Live local community oriented Classic hits oldies soft AC hybrid. I think you could get local advertisers .
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Even with a full-powered AM signal, the audience would still be almost completely 55+, and the younger end of 55+ is probably settling for the River or WRCH or SiriusXM rather than listening to any music on AM. Without a translator, this station won't even attract mom-and-pop businesses as advertisers. This is a Clark Smidt retirement plaything, not a commercial radio station. Its current technical setup, though, is an audience killer. How long he can continue paying his air talent is a big question.

WJMJ plays much the same music with a lineup of familiar local talent (mostly WDRC alumni) and does very well, thanks to a big FM signal and two translators.David Eduardo, who has access to info on Nielsen non-subscribers like WJMJ, wrote in another thread that WJMJ actually was sixth overall in a recent Hartford book. I doubt WATX even gets a "participation trophy" 0.1 in New Haven.
 
CTListener said:
Even with a full-powered AM signal, the audience would still be almost completely 55+, and the younger end of 55+ is probably settling for the River or WRCH or SiriusXM rather than listening to any music on AM. Without a translator, this station won't even attract mom-and-pop businesses as advertisers. This is a Clark Smidt retirement plaything, not a commercial radio station. Its current technical setup, though, is an audience killer. How long he can continue paying his air talent is a big question.

WJMJ plays much the same music with a lineup of familiar local talent (mostly WDRC alumni) and does very well, thanks to a big FM signal and two translators.David Eduardo, who has access to info on Nielsen non-subscribers like WJMJ, wrote in another thread that WJMJ actually was sixth overall in a recent Hartford book. I doubt WATX even gets a "participation trophy" 0.1 in New Haven.
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I now attend Quinnipiac University again after all these years so drive to Hamden and listen to the radio there very frequently. My first choice is tuning in 92.1 WLNG from Sag Harbor, which still comes in pretty well in Hamden. My second choice is Clark Smidt's 1220 project but because the audio is on the AM dial and not in crystal clear FM stereo, that knocks it down on my list of favorites. 88.9 WJMJ's signal goes away right about when you hit North Haven driving on I-91 South so they aren't really an option once you get to downtown Hamden.
 
FTRlistenerAM said:
I now attend Quinnipiac University again after all these years so drive to Hamden and listen to the radio there very frequently. My first choice is tuning in 92.1 WLNG from Sag Harbor, which still comes in pretty well in Hamden. My second choice is Clark Smidt's 1220 project but because the audio is on the AM dial and not in crystal clear FM stereo, that knocks it down on my list of favorites. 88.9 WJMJ's signal goes away right about when you hit North Haven driving on I-91 South so they aren't really an option once you get to downtown Hamden.
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Doesn't WJMJ's 93.1 translator, W226AG, cover Hamden? I remember hearing it between exits 12 and 8 on I-91 when I lived in Connecticut.
 
CTListener said:
Doesn't WJMJ's 93.1 translator, W226AG, cover Hamden? I remember hearing it between exits 12 and 8 on I-91 when I lived in Connecticut.
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I forgot about that, thanks for letting me know. How strong is their translator's signal though?

The one and only drawback to listening to WJMJ is having to hear the five minute news updates at the top of every hour, and the five minute Catholic specific news breaks at the bottom of some hours in addition to that (like at 11:30 for example). A very short news update at the top of the hour like Kool Radio does is fine, but 5+ minutes is a bit much. As Ron Sedaille says on FTR before he approaches the top of the hour: "There is no mutual news on this Fun Tower Radio station."
 
FTRlistenerAM said:
I forgot about that, thanks for letting me know. How strong is their translator's signal though?

The one and only drawback to listening to WJMJ is having to hear the five minute news updates at the top of every hour, and the five minute Catholic specific news breaks at the bottom of some hours in addition to that (like at 11:30 for example). A very short news update at the top of the hour like Kool Radio does is fine, but 5+ minutes is a bit much. As Ron Sedaille says on FTR before he approaches the top of the hour: "There is no mutual news on this Fun Tower Radio station."
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You forgot to mention the bits of dogma thrown into the mix a couple of times an hour: sometimes a lengthy reflection on an aspect of Catholicism or a specific day on the Catholic calendar, sometimes the slightly shorter "Saint of the Day" feature. One would expect these, and the bottom-of-the-hour Catholic News, on a station operated by the Archdiocese, though. One thing I've noticed is that the schedule becomes increasingly interrupted by these non-music elements during the Easter and Christmas seasons -- again, perfectly logical, but an annoyance to listeners attracted by the unique music mix.

As for the Hamden translator, I never had any reason to visit downtown Hamden in my 40 years in Connecticut. I just passed through the town on 91 or the Wilbur Cross occasionally. I can't say anything about its signal strength anywhere else.
 
CTListener said:
As for the Hamden translator, I never had any reason to visit downtown Hamden in my 40 years in Connecticut. I just passed through the town on 91 or the Wilbur Cross occasionally. I can't say anything about its signal strength anywhere else.
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I can say something about its signal strength now that I've given it a try. The translator has a very weak signal. Even right on Quinnipiac's campus, there were some spots where 93.1's signal was shaky and would go away briefly then return. And as I traveled northeast on Mt. Carmel Avenue towards the North Haven and Wallingford town lines, there was so much interference from other stations (possibly Mix 93.1 from as far north as Springfield- not sure about that but I heard Uptown Funk which would probably still be on their playlist) that listening to the translator became unbearable.

There are lots of reasons to visit downtown Hamden- concerts on the town green (they used to be able to attract pretty big names like The Turtles and Herman's Hermits who performed there around 2009-10 but not really anymore), Eli's On Whitney, and Ashley's Ice Cream to name a few.
 
CTListener said:
WJMJ plays much the same music with a lineup of familiar local talent (mostly WDRC alumni) and does very well, thanks to a big FM signal and two translators. David Eduardo, who has access to info on Nielsen non-subscribers like WJMJ, wrote in another thread that WJMJ actually was sixth overall in a recent Hartford book. I doubt WATX even gets a "participation trophy" 0.1 in New Haven.
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Musically the two stations aren't exactly identical. 1220 WATX is pure solid gold oldies whereas WJMJ is a mix of mostly oldies but also songs from the '80s, '90s and 2000s and other religious songs. I even heard "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof on WJMJ earlier this year, which certainly qualifies as a break from tradition in terms of what most other radio stations would typically play! So even show tunes are part of their repertoire.

Another somewhat ironic thing I heard on WJMJ in 2022: First they played their frequent one-liner "Finally, a station the whole family can listen to" and then immediately afterward they played One Toke Over the Line by Brewer and Shipley, a song with obvious drug references in the title and lyrics and one that also references Mary and Jesus but certainly not in the way that WJMJ would prefer. A bit surprised that one made their playlist (although I have always liked the song regardless of its meaning).
 
I had WATX on the car radio while parked in a shopping center in Cheshire today. I heard CBS News at 1:20PM. There was a female whose name I didn't catch on with Brian Smith. They gave the local weather and temperature and discussed tonight's UCONN game. They gave out the new phone number of the radio station. It's 203-265-7333. It's a Wallingford number, but that doesn't really mean anything since Auday has Hartford call-in numbers for WTIC AM/FM and their studios are in Farmington. And Full Power Radio kept the Glastonbury numbers for Radio 104.1 and Bomba even after moving to Bloomfield 5 years ago.
 
MarcB said:
I had WATX on the car radio while parked in a shopping center in Cheshire today. I heard CBS News at 1:20PM. There was a female whose name I didn't catch on with Brian Smith. They gave the local weather and temperature and discussed tonight's UCONN game. They gave out the new phone number of the radio station. It's 203-265-7333. It's a Wallingford number, but that doesn't really mean anything since Auday has Hartford call-in numbers for WTIC AM/FM and their studios are in Farmington. And Full Power Radio kept the Glastonbury numbers for Radio 104.1 and Bomba even after moving to Bloomfield 5 years ago.
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The WATX studios are at toyota of Wallingford
 
CTListener said:
Permanently? Why? Is Clark Smidt connected to the dealership or is he paying some sort of rent?
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Permanently, and theyre nice studios too.

i'm betting TOW is some kind of sponsor or someone who works with WATX works at TOW or something.
 
Scott Fybush reported this week that Clark Schmidt has bought an FM translator for WATX. The 102.1 signal will be directional from Booth Hill in Trumbull to serve the Bridgeport area.
 
Bill-in-CT said:
Scott Fybush reported this week that Clark Schmidt has bought an FM translator for WATX. The 102.1 signal will be directional from Booth Hill in Trumbull to serve the Bridgeport area.
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I wanna know how Clark is affording $260,000... thats alot.

The 102.3 in new haven was originalyl filed for on 102.1 years ago and had originally proposed to use one of the WQUN towers
 
Retro muse ....
It was 1964 one still-dark sunrise back in Queens, when the overnight WGAR Cleveland was being bothered by some pop-music station playing the Shoop Shoop song. The taped sequence is long lost, but it was a weak but steady WDEE from Hamden.
I'd save up paperboy money and go on the hook every so often. One bus trip was to New Haven (heck, you could take a bus to Madagascar and it was okay as long as you were home for dinner). Off the transistor, WDEE at the time didn't come in very well through New Haven. WAVZ and WNHC were much louder.
 
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