David Webster and Kurt Jackson’s WATR Radio LLC’s 1320 WATR/97.7 W249DY Waterbury CT have dropped syndicated talkers from their lineup moving to music from 12pm to 6am.
WATR will continue to feature the local morning show hosted by station manager Tom Shute from 6 to 9:30am and Barbara Davitt from 9:30 to 10. The station’s “Talk of the Town” has been cut back from three hours to two to run from 10am to 12pm but host Steve Noxon has exited not wanting to have the reduced schedule according to the Waterbury Republican-American. Fill-in host Tom Hill is currently hosting the show.
The station has dropped Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade, Guy Benson and Fox Across America shows that had been running from 1 to 8pm, Fox Sports Radio, which aired from 8pm to 6am, and Fox News Radio’s newscasts. In its place, the station is featuring a Gold based AC playlist and ABC News.
Co-owner David Webster told the Waterbury Republican-American, “It was partly a budgetary decision and an attempt to shake things up. We had to make some adjustments to not be a skin-of-our-teeth operation, but I wouldn’t have bought the station if I didn’t think there was something here. Format changes and adjustments have gone on throughout WATR’s history.
We gauge the pulse of the public and try to reach a wider audience. We want to broaden the tent. Bring more people inside.” He also said that he was concerned over the station running mostly Conservative programming in an area where the downtown population is “90% blue, sending a signal over their heads, and they just aren’t interested in tuning in.”
Webster and Jackson purchased WATR last year for $320,000. He also owns Trignition Media that owns Spanish Tropical “Viva Radio” 1240 WWCO/106.3 W292FI Waterbury and 840 WRYM/107.3 W297BT New Britain CT, while Jackson owns multiple AMs in Massachusetts.
