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WMRD (1150 AM) is a radio station licensed to serve
Middletown, Connecticut Middletown is a city in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. Located along the Connecticut River, in the central part of the state, 16 miles (25.749504 km) south of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. Middletown is the largest city in the L ...
, serving the
Greater Hartford Greater Hartford is a region located in the U.S. state of Connecticut, centered on the state's capital of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. It represents the only combined statistical area in Connecticut defined by a city within the state, being b ...
area. The station is owned by Crossroads Communications, LLC. It airs a
talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...
and
adult standards Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations. Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...
format,
simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...
with
WLIS WLIS (1420 AM) is a radio station licensed to serve Old Saybrook, Connecticut. The station is owned by Crossroads Communications of Old Saybrook, LLC. and airs a talk radio–adult standards format. The station is also simulcast on WMRD in Middl ...
in
Old Saybrook Old Saybrook is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. The population was 10,481 at the 2020 census. It contains the incorporated borough of Fenwick, an ...
.


History


WCNX

On August 4, 1948, the Middletown Broadcasting Company received a
construction permit Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...
from the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
(FCC) to build a new 500-watt daytime-only station in Middletown. ( Guide to reading History Cards) Broadcasting began December 12, 1948. Originally established as a partnership between the O'Brien brothers and Elmer Hubbell, publisher of ''
The Middletown Press ''The Middletown Press'' is a daily newspaper based in Middletown, Connecticut that is the main newspaper of Middletown and its surrounding area in Middlesex County, Connecticut. History It was founded in 1878 as the Middlesex Monitor, a dail ...
'' newspaper, William J. and Richard O'Brien became sole owners in 1953; William later became the first Democratic speaker of the
Connecticut House of Representatives The Connecticut House of Representatives is the lower house in the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The house is composed of 151 members representing an equal number of districts, with each ...
in 82 years and also served on the state Liquor Control Commission. In 1964, after four years pending at the FCC, an application was approved to upgrade the station from 500 to 1,000 watts. WCNX was sold in 1976 from the O'Brien brothers to David E. Parnigoni, who owned a station in
Brattleboro, Vermont Brattleboro (), originally Brattleborough, is a New England town, town in Windham County, Vermont, United States, located about north of the Massachusetts state line at the confluence of Vermont's West River (Vermont), West River and the Connec ...
. In September 1980, Parnigoni sold WCNX to Radio Middletown, Inc., a subsidiary of the Berkshire Broadcasting Company of Massachusetts; the next year, the new ownership shifted the station from
adult contemporary music Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, sou ...
to an
oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...
format syndicated by TM Programming, retaining the local air staff. In addition to its music, WCNX also began airing weekly programming in Italian; in 1981, Middletown's two candidates for mayor—both of them of partial or full Italian heritage—agreed to be interviewed in Italian on the program. Radio Middletown sold WCNX to Jan Peek Communications in 1984; the group included former general manager Edward Creem. Citing competition from FM music stations, WCNX dropped its music programming and changed to an all-talk format in 1990. The next year, former owners Radio Middletown sued Jan Peek for money owed on the $405,000
promissory note A promissory note, sometimes referred to as a note payable, is a legal instrument (more particularly, a financing instrument and a debt instrument), in which one party (the ''maker'' or ''issuer'') promises in writing to pay a determinate sum of ...
that had been used to acquire the station seven years prior. Jan Peek responded that, prior to the sale, Radio Middletown had overstated the station's profit-making potential and misrepresented its reasons for selling. In 1993, a judge ruled in favor of the former owners; Jan Peek then announced it could not meet a deadline to pay $275,000 or lose WCNX. On December 5, 1993, Jan Peek ceased operating the station; Radio Middletown had reached a deal with Instant Traffic, Inc., a North Haven-based provider of traffic information to radio stations, and the station continued broadcasting its existing talk programming after a day of silence until Instant Traffic was ready to take over operations the next week. Advertising revenues were low enough at WCNX that Instant Traffic backed out of a planned purchase of the station, and Radio Middletown temporarily took over operations and reinstated the old format in October 1994, dropping the format of traffic information every 5 minutes. A new buyer stepped up: Sonny Bloch, a financial talk show host who also ran the Independent Broadcasters Network (formerly known as Sun Radio Network) of
Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city and the county seat of Pinellas County, Florida, United States, west of Tampa, Florida, Tampa and north of St. Petersburg, Florida, St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies T ...
, which had supplied WCNX's national talk programs from 1990 to 1993 and again after Instant Traffic ceased operating the station. Even while the station sale awaited federal approval, Bloch began leasing WCNX and started construction on improvements to its studios; plans included a national studio to allow programs from Middletown to be syndicated nationally. By January 1995, Bloch estimated that he had invested $500,000 in the WCNX physical plant, including a new
tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...
and a new roof. However, his financial dealings soon came under heavy scrutiny. In May 1995, federal authorities unsealed a 35-count indictment against Bloch and an arrest warrant for defrauding investors, including by selling "memberships" in WCNX. After Bloch was arrested, a court appointed Michael Eskridge, the founder of
CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...
and a former NBC radio executive, as a receiver to manage the station's affairs, while Sonny's son Paul and the president of Independent Broadcasters formed a group that sought to acquire WCNX itself.


WMRD

Radio Middletown's fourth attempt at selling WCNX since 1984 would be successful. In 1996, Donald DeCesare, an executive at
CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...
, announced his plans to purchase WCNX through Crossroads Communications and restore local news and sports coverage for the Middletown area that had suffered amidst the parade of owners and operators. The purchase closed in April, and WCNX became WMRD (for "Middletown Radio"). WMRD would not be alone for long.
WLIS WLIS (1420 AM) is a radio station licensed to serve Old Saybrook, Connecticut. The station is owned by Crossroads Communications of Old Saybrook, LLC. and airs a talk radio–adult standards format. The station is also simulcast on WMRD in Middl ...
in
Old Saybrook Old Saybrook is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The town is part of the Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region. The population was 10,481 at the 2020 census. It contains the incorporated borough of Fenwick, an ...
, the only other commercial radio station in Middlesex County, was sold to Crossroads Communications later that year, forming a regional simulcast that strengthened both stations. A longtime fixture of WCNX and WMRD, Ed Henry's Sunday polka show, began in 1950 and remained on the air for 65 years until Henry died in 2015.


Translator


References


External links


WMRD official website
* {{News/Talk Radio Stations in Connecticut 1948 establishments in Connecticut Middlesex County, Connecticut Middletown, Connecticut News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1948 MRD