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| Broadcast area | Champlain Valley |
| Frequency | 620kHz |
| Branding | News/Talk 620 WVMT |
| Programming | |
| Format | Talk radio |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| Operator | Vox AM/FM, LLC |
| History | |
First air date | October 10, 1924; 101 years ago (1924-10-10) (experimental 1922-1924) |
Former call signs | WCAX (1922–1963) |
Former frequencies |
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Call sign meaning | Vermont[2] |
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 29923 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 5,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 44°32′4.17″N73°13′13.46″W / 44.5344917°N 73.2204056°W /44.5344917; -73.2204056 |
| Translator | 96.3 W242BK (Colchester) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | www |
WVMT (620AM) is acommercial radio stationlicensed toBurlington, Vermont, and serving theChamplain Valley ofVermont andNew York. WVMT issimulcast onFM translator station W242BK at 96.3MHz. The translator's owner, Vox AM/FM, LLC, operates WVMT under alocal marketing agreement (LMA). The radio studios and offices are withinFort Ethan Allen inColchester, with Vox's other stations.
WVMT’s transmitter power is 5,000 watts, as aClass B station, using adirectional antenna with slightly different daytime and nighttime directional patterns in order to protect other stations on theAM 620 frequency, principally,WTMJ inMilwaukee. Its daytime signal covers most of Northern Vermont, Northeastern New York and part ofQuebec, Canada. At night, the station adjusts its coverage to concentrate the signal around the Burlington andPlattsburgh, New York, areas. WVMT's easily identifiable three-tower array is shown onLake Champlain navigation charts, located in Colchester, near Malletts Bay.[4]
Weekdays begin with a local news and information show,The Morning Drive, hosted by Kurt Wright and Anthony Neary. The rest of the weekday schedule is made up ofnationally syndicated shows,Brian Kilmeade, Jimmy Failla, Howie CarrThe Ramsey Show with Dave Ramsey, andCoast to Coast AM withGeorge Noory.[5]Boston-basedHowie Carr is heard on weekday afternoons.
Weekends feature shows on money, health, home repair, cars, pets, law, dining, wine and beer. Weekend syndicated shows includeGlenn Beck,At Home with Gary Sullivan,Bill Handel on the Law,The Pet Show with Warren Eckstein,Leo Laporte, The Tech Guy,Ron Annanian, The Car Doctor andSomewhere in Time with Art Bell. Bruce Newbury hosts the "Food Dude" show along with The Bruce Newbury talk show. WVMT carries UVM Men's Hockey and Women's Basketball. Most hours begin withABC News Radio.
WVMT is the oldest radio station in Vermont.[6] It began test transmissions on May 20, 1922.[7] Thecall sign was WCAX, and it was owned by theUniversity of Vermont (UVM).[8]
In its early years, WCAX largely operated on an experimental basis,[9] and it was not until October 10, 1924, that the station formallysigned on.[10] WCAX was run by UVM students and faculty.[10][11] Most of its programming consisting of farming information from the University's Extension Service.[12] Some reports say thecall letters stood for "College of Agriculture Extension" in recognition of this service.[12]
The station's license was granted, and the call letters assigned, on May 13, 1922.[9] That assignment was around the same time as WCAU (nowWPHT) inPhiladelphia and WCAY (now WTMJ) in Milwaukee, an indication that the call letters were randomly assigned from a sequential list of available call signs. Initially operating at 833 kHz (as most stations did at that time).[8] It moved to 1200 kHz by 1925,[13] to 1190 kHz in 1926,[14] to 1180 kHz in 1927,[15] and then back to 1200 in November 1928.[16]
By 1931, the University of Vermont did not have the funds to continue its operation of WCAX, largely due to the need to purchase newer equipment required by theFederal Radio Commission. On June 17, it sold the station to theBurlington Daily News.[9][17] At that time, the newspaper was controlled byDr. Horatio Nelson Jackson, the first person to drive across the country in a motor car.[11] TheDaily News relaunched WCAX as a commercial station[11] on November 4, 1931.[17] However, under the terms of the sale, UVM continued to broadcast its programming on the station. On August 19, 1937, the station'stower was struck by lightning during a severe storm.[9] Charles Hasbrook bought WCAX and theBurlington Daily News in 1939. The following year, the station joined theCBS Radio Network.[11] WCAX carried CBS dramas, comedies, news, sports, game shows, soap operas andbig band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio".
TheNorth American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) required the station to move to 1230kilocycles in 1941.[18] The following year, WCAX moved to its current frequency, 620 kHz.[19] Also in 1941, theDaily News was sold off.[20] But Hasbrook retained the station through the WCAX Broadcasting Corporation.[19] (The 1230 frequency is now occupied byWJOY).
A television station, Channel 3 WMVT, was launched on September 26, 1954. It was renamedWCAX-TV two years later.[20] By 1960, WCAX Radio had switched from CBS toNBC Radio, even though WCAX-TV 3 remains aCBS TVnetwork affiliate.[21] The two stations maintained one of Vermont's largest broadcast news departments.
In 1963, Hasbrook sold WCAX to James Broadcasting, a company controlled by Simon Goldman, that also ownedWJTN inJamestown, New York. The call letters for 620 AM were changed to WVMT.[22] (The previous call letters remain on WCAX-TV, which, until 2017; was owned by the family of Hasbrook's stepson, Stuart T. Martin Jr.)[20] From the 1960s through the 1980s, WVMT had amiddle-of-the-road music format.[23] The station had placed more of an emphasis onoldies by 1980, but largely remained middle-of-the-road.[24] By 1984, the station had shifted to anadult contemporary format.[25] A few years later, in 1986, it also incorporated some oldies titles.[26] WVMT gained an FMsister station in 1990, when James Broadcasting purchasedtop 40 outlet 95.5WXXX fromAtlantic Ventures.[27]
By 1994, WVMT had shifted its music programming entirely to oldies, and had also incorporated some talk shows.[28] By 1999, the station had formally moved to an all-talk format.[29] Paul Goldman's company, Sison Broadcasting, purchased WVMT and WXXX in 1997.[27][30] In October 2018, the sale of WVMT and WXXX to Vox AM/FM LLC was announced, pending FCC approval. Vox took over the stations under alocal marketing agreement (LMA) on January 1, 2019.[31] No FCC application was filed, and the stations remain in the hands of Sison Broadcasting.
| Call sign | Frequency | City of license | FID | ERP (W) | HAAT | Class | Transmitter coordinates | FCC info |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W242BK | 96.3 FM | Colchester, Vermont | 140407 | 25 | 32.8 m (108 ft) | D | 44°30′22.2″N73°8′58.5″W / 44.506167°N 73.149583°W /44.506167; -73.149583 (W242BK) | LMS |
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