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| Broadcast area | Greater Hartford |
| Frequency | 1080kHz |
| Branding | WTIC NewsTalk 1080 |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | News/talk |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WRCH,WTIC-FM,WZMX | |
| History | |
| Founded | December 17, 1924 (1924-12-17) |
First air date | February 10, 1925; 100 years ago (1925-02-10) |
Call sign meaning | Travelers Insurance Company (original owner) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 66464 |
| Class | A |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 41°46′39.36″N72°48′17.35″W / 41.7776000°N 72.8048194°W /41.7776000; -72.8048194 |
| Repeater | 96.5 WTIC-FM HD2 (Hartford) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (via Audacy) |
| Website | www |
WTIC (1080kHz; "WTIC NewsTalk 1080") is acommercialAM radio station inHartford, Connecticut. It airs anews/talkformat and is owned byAudacy, Inc. The station's studios and offices are on Executive Drive inFarmington.[2]
WTIC is aClass Aclear-channel station with a transmitter power output of 50,000 watts, the maximum permitted for U.S. AM stations. Itstransmitter site is a two-tower facility off Deercliff Road inAvon, Connecticut.[3] WTIC has a single tower,non-directional signal in the daytime, providing at least secondary coverage to almost all of Connecticut, as well as large portions of southern Massachusetts and the outer suburbs of New York City. At night, whenAM band signals travel much farther, WTIC uses both towers to create adirectional pattern, primarily to protectKRLD in Dallas, Texas, the other Class A station on1080 AM. Even with this restriction, WTIC can be heard at night over much of the eastern half of North America.
WTIC is the primary entry point (PEP) for theEmergency Alert System (EAS) in Connecticut.
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WTIC is the second oldest radio station in Connecticut, afterWDRC, which went on the air in 1922. WTIC was first authorized, by telegram, on December 17, 1924.[5] The station was founded by theTravelers Insurance Company and itscall sign reflected the initials of that corporation. The original studios were in the Travelers Insurance Building at 26 Grove Street in Hartford. WTIC began a series of test transmissions in late December 1924,[6][7] and began regular programming with a debut broadcast on February 10, 1925.[8][9]
TheFederal Radio Commission (FRC) was formed in 1927. Its reauthorization a year later included theDavis Amendment, which specified a nationwide "equality of radio broadcasting service".[10] The United States was divided into 5 zones, with 8 "clear channel" frequencies assigned to each zone. Zone 1 was in New England, and WTIC was assigned to one of its clear-channel allocations, 1060 kHz. On November 11, 1928, the FRC made a sweeping nationwide reallocation, based on itsGeneral Order 40. WTIC was temporarily assigned to 600 kHz, pending construction of a high-powered transmitter needed for broadcasting on its 1060 kHz assignment.WBAL, in Baltimore, Maryland, was also assigned to 1060 kHz, and this station was close enough to Hartford to require that it and WTIC share time.[11]
WTIC was among the firstaffiliates of theNBC Red Network, carrying its schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows andbig band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio". However, its limitation as a half-time station made its operation uneconomical, and a test of synchronous operation withWEAF on 660 kHz in New York City caused too much interference. An eventual solution, adopted in 1934, moved WTIC to fulltime operation on 1040 kHz, where the nearest other occupant was KRLD in Dallas, Texas, 1500 miles (2400 km) away.[12] In 1941, when theNorth American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) went into effect, stations on 1040 kHz, including WTIC, were moved to 1080 kHz, WTIC's current frequency. WTIC and KRLD were both designated as "Class I-B" clear channel stations, required to use directional antennas at night to mutually protect each other from interference.[13]
In 1940, WTIC began experimenting with FM radio, putting W1XSO on the air on 43.2 MHz. It later became 96.5WTIC-FM, mostlysimulcasting the AM station in its early years. In 1957, a television station was added, WTIC-TV on channel 3. As network programming moved from radio to television in the 1950s, WTIC-AM-FM switched to afull service,middle of the road format of popular music, talk, news and sports. In the 1960s, WTIC-FM started playing blocks of classical music in the afternoon and evening, eventually ending its simulcast of 1080 WTIC. By the early 1970s, WTIC became more of anadult contemporary full service format, with talk shows in the evening.
In the late 1960s, with declining night time listenership, WTIC management decided that there was a market for long-form shows that could be packaged and sold to sponsors. Two of those shows wereThe Golden Age of Radio andA One Night Stand with the Big Bands. They were broadcast monthly through the mid 1970s.
In 1973, Travelers Insurance announced it would divest its broadcasting properties. WTIC-TV channel 3 was sold to Post-Newsweek Stations (now theGraham Media Group) in 1974, switching its call sign toWFSB. WTIC-AM-FM were sold to a group of its managers, doing business as the "Ten-Eighty Corporation".[14] Also in the 1980s, some moretalk shows were added to WTIC's line up. In the 1990s, as fewer listeners tuned to AM radio for music, WTIC added more talk programming, eventually eliminating the music shows.
In 1998,CBS Radio acquired WTIC-AM-FM.[15] The acquisition ended WTIC's 70-year affiliation with NBC Radio. Since then, it has airedCBS Radio News updates. Its former television sister station, WFSB, had been Connecticut's CBS affiliate since 1958.
In December 2008, the station made several programming changes. FormerWTNH-TV anchor Diane Smith was dropped from the morning show she hosted with Ray Dunaway. Smith later joined theUniversity of New Haven journalism department. "Sound Off Connecticut" hosted by conservativeJim Vicevich had an hour added to his show. The station continued to carryRush Limbaugh at noon, but the afternoon drive personality, vocal liberalColin McEnroe, was dismissed and his time slot replaced with a three-hour local and national news roundup.[16]
On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge withEntercom.[17] The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on November 17.[18][19]
Longtime WTIC personalityBob Steele spent 66 years on WTIC, most of them as the morningdrive time host. He joined the station in 1936. At one point, nearly a third of all radios in the Hartford area were tuned to Steele's wake up show. He was also regularly seen on Channel 3, WTIC's former sister television station, hosting programs and delivering a nightly sports report.
In 1991, Bob Steele retired from hosting weekday mornings. Tom McCarthy had already begun doing the early part of the morning shift and took over the entire 5:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. time slot.[20] Steele continued hosting Saturday mornings until his death in 2002 at age 91. In 2011 a section of Grove Street near the WTIC studios was renamed Bob Steele Street.
On weekdays, WTIC features local shows during the day, withsyndicated programs at night, includingErick Erickson,Sean Hannity andCoast to Coast AM withGeorge Noory. On weekends, specialty shows are heard on money, health, real estate, travel, pets and the law, some of which are paidbrokered programming. The syndicated showsCBS Eye on Travel with Peter Greenburg andSunday Nights with Bill Cunningham air on Sunday evenings.
The station is anaffiliate of theBoston Red Sox andNew England Patriots Radio Networks. The station features local newsbreaks, as well as updates fromCBS News Radio. WTIC's newsroom is staffed 24 hours a day with a team of local newscasters and reporters. It shares some news and weather forecasts withWFSB, theCBS TV affiliate in Hartford.
Listeners have been setting their watches to WTIC for many years. The station is known for its historic hourly time tone, theMorse code letter "V", which has been in use since 1943. This makes it one of the oldest continuous broadcastinterval signals in the world. The sequence matches the opening sequence ofLudwig van Beethoven'sFifth Symphony, whose "short-short-short-long" rhythm matches that of the Morse code letter "V", and was selected during World War II to stand for "victory".[21] WTIC employs aGlobal Positioning System (GPS) master clock system that activates the custom-built time-tone generator shortly before the top of the hour, timed so the final tone occurs precisely on the hour (even though everything else heard on the station is on a 10-second delay).
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