WICC (600 kHz) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequo ...

, owned by

Connoisseur Media Connoisseur Media LLC is an American media company. It is based in Westport, Connecticut and led by Jeff Warshaw. Connoisseur operates radio stations and digital assets in markets across the U.S. cities of Billings, Fredrick, Maryland; Bay Shore, H ...

. It airs as a talk

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when radio was compelle ...

featuring local shows with Melissa Sheketoff,

Lisa Wexler Lisa Wexler is a Connecticut Probate Judge, an attorney, an award-winning talk radio host and the creator and executive producer of The Lisa Wexler Show, which airs weekdays 10 a.m. - noon on WICC 600, a Connoisseur media station. Lisa Wexler i ...

and Paul Pacelli.

Nationally syndicated Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...

programs include

Dave Ramsey David Lawrence Ramsey III (born September 3, 1960) is an American personal finance personality, radio show host, author, and businessman. An evangelical Christian, he hosts the nationally syndicated radio program ''The Ramsey Show''. Ramsey ha ...

Ben Shapiro Benjamin Aaron Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American attorney, businessman, columnist, conservative political commentator, and media personality. At age 17, he became the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the United States. ...

and

Red Eye Radio ''Red Eye Radio'' is a talk radio program currently hosted by Eric Harley and Gary McNamara. The program is syndicated nationwide by Westwood One, and originates from WBAP in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The show traces its history throug ...

. Weekends feature shows on safe money,

Italian music The term ''Italian music'' is ambiguous and may refer to several topics: *The music of Italy *The folk, popular, classical (especially opera) musics of Italy and the Italian people , flag = , flag_caption = The national ...

, and the Oh Wow Oldies Show, featuring DJs Rob Ray ("the Music Professor"), Chris Williams, Storm N. Norman, and Andy Madison. Most hours begin with world and national news from

NBC News Radio NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

. WICC was formerly a member of the New York Yankees Radio Network and formerly aired

Sacred Heart University Sacred Heart University (SHU) is a private, Catholic university in Fairfield, Connecticut. It was founded in 1963 by the Most Reverend Walter W. Curtis, Bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Sacred Heart was the first Catholic uni ...

athletics. The WICC

studios A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery ( ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

are located on Wheelers Farms Road in Milford; the station's

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

is on

Pleasure Beach Pleasure Beach is the Bridgeport portion of a Connecticut barrier beach that extends westerly from Point No Point (the portion in the adjoining town of Stratford is known as Long Beach). Prior to June, 2014, when Pleasure Beach re-opened, the ...

in Bridgeport on a peninsula extending into

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...

. WICC's signal is heard in much of

Southern Connecticut Greater New Haven is the metropolitan area whose extent includes those towns in the U.S. state of Connecticut that share an economic, social, political, and historical focus on the city of New Haven. It occupies the south-central portion of the sta ...

and reaches into

Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18t ...

. Programming is also heard on

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tra ...

107.3 W297CP, and using an

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

, on

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

s 107.9 WEBE-HD2 and 99.1

WPLR WPLR-FM (99.1 MHz, also known as "99.1 PLR" or Connecticut's #1 Rock Station). licensed to New Haven, Connecticut, is a classic rock station owned by Connoisseur Media as of May 10, 2013. The station's playlist includes Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppe ...

-HD2.

History

WICC is Bridgeport's first radio station and one of the first in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...

. It

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature, placing one's name on a document * Signature (disambiguation) * Manual communication, signing as a form of communication using the hands in place of the voice * Digital signature A digi ...

the air on . Its

call letters In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

stand for "Industrial Capital of Connecticut," which described Bridgeport throughout the early and mid-20th century. In the early days, as radio assignments were being formalized, WICC broadcast from various places on the AM dial, including 1060 kHz, 1400 kHz, 1130 kHz, 1190 kHz and 1430 kHz until finally settling at 600 kHz in 1930. Before March 1932, WICC affiliated with the

Yankee Network The Yankee Network was an American radio network, based in Boston, Massachusetts, with affiliate radio stations throughout New England. At the height of its influence, the Yankee Network had as many as twenty-four affiliated radio stations. The ...

. The station became an affiliate of the

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. ...

on September 25, 1932. When network programming shifted from radio to television in the 1950s, WICC became a

full service Full service or Full Service may refer to: * Full-service radio, a wide range of programming * Full Service Network, a communications company Entertainment * "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block from their album ''The Block'' * Ful ...

, middle of the road station, featuring popular music, news, talk and sports. Notably,

Bob Crane Robert Edward Crane (July 13, 1928 – June 29, 1978) was an American actor, drummer, radio personality, and disc jockey known for starring in the CBS situation comedy '' Hogan's Heroes''. Crane was a drummer from age 11, and he began his en ...

was a host and

Disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobil ...

from late 1951 through 1956. In the 1970s and 80s, the music moved closer to an

Adult Top 40 The Adult Pop Airplay (formerly known as Adult Pop Songs and Adult Top 40) chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and ranks "the most popular adult top 40 as based on radio airplay detections measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems ...

sound. Over time, as music listening shifted from AM to FM radio, WICC added more talk programming, becoming an all-talk station in the 1990s. In 1992, WICC was acquired by

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 8 ...

, which became one of the largest owners of radio stations in the U.S. On April 15, 2019, Cumulus Media announced that WICC and co-owned 107.9 WEBE would be swapped to Connoisseur Media, which began operating the stations under a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...

(LMA) on May 1.Cumulus Media Sells KLOS To Meruelo Media Swaps Bridgeport To Connoisseur For Allentown
/ref> The swap was consummated on June 26, 2019.

References

External links

WICC600 official website
* * {{Authority control ICC (AM) Mass media in Bridgeport, Connecticut Mass media in Fairfield County, Connecticut RKO General News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1926 Connoisseur Media radio stations 1926 establishments in Connecticut