Broadcast area New Haven, Connecticut Power 1,000 Watts Facility ID 11920 City of license New Haven Owner iHeartMedia Inc Branding ESPN Radio 1300 | First air date 1947 Class B Frequency 1300 kHz Format Sports radio Area New Haven Slogan New Haven's Sports Leader | |
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Callsign meaning WAVZ= Waves (previous handle) (Also, New Haven is on Long Island Sound) | ||
WAVZ (1300 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Sports Talk format. Licensed to New Haven, Connecticut, United States. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc.. The station switched formats in time for Super Bowl XLI on February 4, 2007.
The station, then owned by Kops-Monahan Communications, Inc. was formerly known as the New Waves, or Lucky 13 WAVZ (pronounced "waves") and was a popular Top 40 radio station in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1950s the station used a jingle with the following lyrics:
"There are waves in the navy and waves in your hair, and people wave their hands when they're going anywhere, but the greatest waves there can be are the radio waves on WAVZ"
During the 1960s, WAVZ competed with WDEE (1220, now WQUN), and later with WNHC (1340, now WYBC) for radio listeners. WAVZ generally won most of the rating "books."
As FM radio became more popular, the station's rock music format was shifted to sister FM station WKCI in 1979 by Curtis Hanson and Pete Salant. WKCI had been an easy-listening station but in the summer of 1979 became "KC-101" and began playing adult contemporary music using many of the then current WAVZ personalities. Due to the success of KC101, Pete Salant a/k/a Pete Stone on WAVZ, left New Haven, Connecticut in 1981 to program WYNY in New York City. WAVZ became one of the first Music of Your Life stations, airing big band and adult standards. WAVZ and WKCI were sold to Eastern Broadcasting of Washington, D.C. on June 5, 1982 [1] Upon the sale of the radio stations, Curtis W. Hansen left in 1982 to create WEBE in Westport, Connecticut
More recently, the station was a progressive talk radio station affiliate with Air America Radio.
More information about WAVZ can be found in an ebook by former WAVZ program director John Long at www.oidar.com.