Thanks to Contributor Mike Raub.
What happens when you get a phone call that says essentially, “Turn it off, now”? This recording, that’s what!
This is all that’s left of a station that once occupied the 96.7 frequency licensed to Stamford, CT. The station was sold and as part of the agreement, Cox radio built the new transmitter site before turning it over when the sale consumated. It was assumed that when WCTZ signed off, WKLV would begin immediately and there’s be some sort of ‘format change’, but in the end, WCTZ simply was shut off and there was a bit of a gap between one sign off and the new station’s sign on, which occurred on May 30, 2011.
Somewhere in your webmaster’s collection, there’s an Aircheck of moi on “The Coast” that might make it’s way online. Or, maybe not.
A number of well known radio personalities were heard on this radio station, either in it’s Oldies incarnation as “Cool 96.7” or as The Coast, such as Dick Bartley, Pete Salant (Nine!), Peter Bush and others whose names escape me at this point.
Click HERE for a sample of Oldies WKHL “Cool 96.7”
The current signal on 96.7 is owned and operated by the Educational Media Foundation as WKLV. The format is a simulcast of the national Contemporary Christian music network of K-Love. It is marketed to the city of New York, although licensed to Port Chester, NY and is in no way related to the station which was licensed to Stamford, CT featured here.
FYI, the montage at the end includes jingles from the station when it had the calls WKHL and was an Oldies format for some 15 years. CTZ (The Coast) was more of an AC-Oldies hybrid. Songs on the check like Runaway and Light My Fire were not typical of the Coast’s format.
As a friend of mine put it, the Coast was a sale waiting to happen.
The Coast was in competition with Star 99.9 owned by Cox which also owned the Coast. There other competitor was WEBE owned by Cumulus. They were both AC stations located in Bridgeport, CT. They had a better signal than WCTZ as they were located at higher transmitter locations and in the case of WEBE, ran 50,000 watts and had a longer history. WEBE had been doing AC since 1984 and Star 99.9 had been around since 1997. whereas the Coast began in 2006.
I was not surprised when Cox sold the Coast but I was unhappy to see that it was replaced by K-love and in the end, Connecticut lost a radio station.
I am Brazilian and I live in Brazil. I’ve been living here a season in Stamford and loved listening to the radio 96.7. I wonder if it does not. I miss …. what a shame.