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 traffic reports. And… WTIC-FM uses JINGLES here! I thought that jingles went away with the old CHR format.
Overall, this is a great sounding station, proving that just because computer automation, music on hard drive and corporate consolidation are the norm these days, radio DOESN’T have to sound bland. ‘Corporate Radio’ was the order of the day in 2002, and this aircheck bucks the trend of the time – its GREAT radio, and deserves to be featured on this website!
Damon Scott still is one of the better entertainers on air anywhere. TIC is a wonderful gem of a station.