96.5 WTIC-FM
Mike Raub, 96.5 WTIC-FM Hartford | Undated
Recording Date: Unknown Station: 96.5 WTIC-FM Hartford (Wikipedia) (Website) Format: Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) Branded: 96 TIC-FM Featured Air Personality: Mike Raub (WTIC-FM/WELI/WKCI/WSTC/WNLK/WCTZ/HitOldies/The Pop Culture Channel/PC Upload) Contributor: Daniel Coulombe Curator’s Notes: Sent in by our good friend Daniel Coloumbe in Canada, here’s Mike Raub (HitOldies) on 96 TIC-FM. This sounds like it was from sometime in the early to mid 90s. Raub was the former Program Director of 96.7 The Coast (Gold Based AC) and 95.9 The Fox (Classic Rock) in Stamford CT, along with the WSTC/WNLK News Talk simulcast which ended in 2013 when then-owner Cox Communications donated the two AM stations to Sacred Heart University.
Chuck Wagner, 96.5 WTIC-FM Hartford | 1981
Date of Recording: 1981 (Exact Date Unknown) Station: 96.5 WTIC-FM Hartford, Connecticut, USA Format: CHR Station Slogan: “96 TIC FM“; “Your Music Connection” Featured Air Personality: Chuck Wagner (WWCO/WTIC-FM) Contributor: Paul DiMarco Total Time: 4:19 Airchexx Entry: 1,519 Mike West is gonna be back from vacation… He’s been doing his exercises, speaking with a rubber band attached to his chin Curator’s Notes: Sometimes there are interesting coincidences in this world of radio history. Here’s a couple. Chuck Wagner, heard here, is Charlie Wagner from 1240 WWCO Waterbury. Click “WWCO” in the description above. The voice is exactly the same. 96-TIC-FM, by the time of this aircheck, had stopped using the “Hot Hits ™...
LearJet, 96.5 WTIC-FM Hartford | 1992
Date of Recording: 1992 (Exact Date Unknown) Station: 96.5 WTIC-FM Hartford, Connecticut, USA Format: CHR Featured Air Personality: Learjet Contributor: Robyn Watts Airchexx Entry: 1,462 “Today’s Best New Music First, 96-TIC-FM“ Comments: Two years before PD Paul Cannon would take the station to Adult Contemporary, the intensity of this mostly Dance/R&B CHR mix is here for all to hear in a VERY short scope of a jock known as “Learjet”. By 1992, TIC-FM shared the CHR format with KISS 95.7 (WKSS) and KC-101 (WKCI 101.3) in nearby New Haven. Connecticut is a small state and markets overlap. Still, at this point in time, WTIC-FM was the heritage Top 40 station, having been in the format longer than it’s two competitors. Click to Donate Now!
Composite: WTIC-FM “96-TICS” Hartford | July 22, 1978
Contributor Steve McVie says this is the one WTIC-FM Hot Hits ™ aircheck he’s most proud of. The audio quality is stunning in this exactly 30 minute long scope showing off consultant Mike Josephs genius as heard in Hartford, Connecticut. Our contributor has a great website which highlights the Hot Hits ™ format and includes aircheck samples from each market it was heard in. Go Here. We’re not sure where Gil Andrews and Bobby McGee went after TIC-FM, But Bill Lenke hit the big time after Hartford, going to every jock’s dream playground, 610 KFRC San Francisco. And of course, it was on to New York after that. Today, ‘Broadway’ Bill Lee is heard on 101.1 WCBS-FM. As the 1980s wore on, The CHR mantle would rest on what became 95.7 WKSS “Kiss-FM&#...
Format Change: CHR 96 TIC-FM Becomes Hot AC 96-5 TIC-FM | June 15, 1994
Program Director Paul Cannon launches this ‘new’ incarnation of WTIC-FM with a few words, and a produced history lesson. “The Rap is gone. Forever.” Today, CBS Radio O&O WTIC-FM shares the same building with it’s AM counterpart, dinosaur WTIC AM 1080, Lite 100.5 WRCH and a few others. The station…. pretty much your typical Hot AC now, and FAR from it’s CHR glory days. For those who remember (and even those who don’t or don’t care to), here’s what it sounded like over a dozen years ago from the Insurance Capital of the World…. Courtesy of Peter Q. George from Massachusetts.
Bill Lenke, WTIC-FM Hartford | December, 1978
Bill (Lenke) Lee holds down one of the most envious jobs in all of radio – as the afternoon jock on New York’s 101.1 WCBS-FM, and around the world on CBS’ “Radio” app for mobile phones (yeah, its a modern technology thing…). Lee has always been one of our favorites! Bill uses his REAL name at 96-Tics, the Mike Josephs consulted Hot Hits! ™ formatted top 40 that got the ball rolling on hit music on the FM band all those years ago. Don’t know the exact date, but the Christmas commercials can get us close. Lee was the slammin’ night man on TIC-FM during some of the best of the top 40 years and he never misses a beat. From here, Lee went on to KFRC and some of the best radio ever heard anywhere before eventually ending up in the Big Apple a...
Bobby McGee, WTIC-FM Hartford | 1978
…it’s so hot today, I saw a chicken plucking itself “Hitman” Bobby McGee…. did he work at any other New England radio stations? Well, no matter. Here’s another great Hot Hits! ™ jock who fit in perfectly with Mike Josephs’ Hartford format affiliate! Know any La-Hues? Tell em to call TIC-FM to win! (Okay, you have to listen to the aircheck)
Lee Roberts, WTIC-FM Hartford | 1978 #2
More Lee Roberts, who was a staple of the early Hot Hits! ™ sound of WTIC-FM in the late 70s. You’ll love the music, but it’s the formatics that always got me! And the most unique set of jingles (made, of course, by TM Century) heard anywhere! Thanks again to Steve McVie, who has amassed a huge collection of Hot Hits! ™ station airchecks at his site, www.stevemcvie.com! Please visit, and be sure to tell him you found out about it right here at airchexx.com!
Lee Roberts, WTIC-FM “96 TICS” Hartford | 1978
Thanks to Steve McVie out on Cape Cod, one of my all-time favorite stations. Mike Josephs “Hot Hits” ™ formatted CHR WTIC-FM. There are a number of “Hot Hits” stations profiled here and at other web sites, but none quite capture the engergy and creativity of TIC-FM. Prior to flipping to Top 40 in 1977, WTIC-FM was a Classical station – the FM sister station to one of America’s original 50kw AM stations WTIC 1080. When it flipped, TIC-FM was an immediate ratings winner. Lee Roberts was heard on WAVZ and WKCI New Haven prior to moving to WTIC-FM.
Bill Lenke on WTIC-FM Hartford | 1979
Broadway Bill Lee is caught on tape once again at the station that made him famous! WTIC-FM was in it’s “Hot Hits” ™ era, before WKSS arrived and took the CHR format to new heights. Here in 1979, 96 TICS is on FIRE! Lee used his real name in Hartford, before moving on to a great run in San Francisco at KFRC. Today, he’s legendary at 101.1 WCBS-FM! Courtesy of longtime Contributor Steve McVie!
The Damon Scott Show, 96-5 WTIC-FM Hartford | March 5, 2002
From the new Doug North collection, here’s a different look at a former Hot Hits ™ station that outgrew its old Top 40 roots. 2002 is not that long ago, but WTIC-FM is a heritage hit music station, and although these days there’s lots of voice tracking and nighttime syndication with the Billy Bush show, even a decade ago this was still a local personality oriented adult hit music station. Damon Scott is a great talent. Listen for some great bits and a couple of great contests. It takes talent to really ‘work the phones’, and Scott has it mastered! One of the main features of afternoon drive, on this tape, is Mark The Shark, the traffic guy. I love how they did remixes of popular songs inserting ‘Mark The Shark’ lyrics and the song beds for his traf...
