City Danbury, Connecticut | Branding 98Q | |
Broadcast area Northwest Fairfield County, Connecticut Slogan Danbury's Hit Music Station Frequency 98.3 MHz (also on HD Radio) Translator(s) 97.9 W250CH (New Milford, relays HD3)
103.7 W279CI (Danbury, relays HD2)
107.3 W297AN (Danbury, relays HD3) | ||
WDAQ (98.3 FM), "98Q") is a Hot AC station licensed to Danbury, Connecticut and serving the immediate Danbury area. The station is owned by Berkshire Broadcasting Corp, along with sister stations WLAD and WAXB. WDAQ broadcasts on 98.3 MHz with 1.3 KW (1,300 watts) ERP (Effective Radiated Power).
Contents
History
WDAQ first signed on in 1948 as WLAD-FM, one of the first Class A FM stations to sign on in the United States and the first to sign on in the Danbury area (over a decade prior to the sign on of the higher powered WINE-FM). Originally, the station was part of the Rural Radio Network as one of two Connecticut affiliates of the New York-based network. This programming would last until the 1950s when WLAD-FM evolved into an extension of its then daytime-only sister station, WLAD.
In the mid 1960s, spurred on by FCC regulations forcing FM stations to create formats separate from their AM sister stations, WLAD-FM upgraded to a stereo signal and flipped to an automated easy listening format. In 1979, the call letters were changed to WDAQ, competing with WEZN from Bridgeport, Connecticut and WHUD from Peekskill, New York for Greater Danbury's easy listening audience. The station gradually shifted to soft adult contemporary. In 1986, the station rebranded itself as "Lite 98" and shed the easy listening instrumentals.
By the late 1980s, WDAQ faced a more crowded market of adult contemporary signals. WEBE108 FM Westport/Bridgeport, Connecticut adopted the A/C format in 1984 and then WEZN contemporized its easy listening format in 1987. Seeing an opportunity between teen formatted WKCI-FM, mainstream A/C WEBE and soft A/C WEZN, WDAQ was reborn as Hot A/C 98Q in September, 1989. The station's initial music mix relied heavily on 1970s titles that had not been played on the radio for several years. Within a year, WDAQ shot to #1 beating sister full-service WLAD and crosstown rocker WRKI.
During its more than 20 years as "98Q," the station has finished first in the majority of Danbury Arbitron market ratings surveys. The station continues to be hyper-focused on Greater Danbury as opposed to the more regional approaches of the other FM stations in the market.
On August 7, 2015, WDAQ upgraded to HD Radio, and launched a new Alternative station on 103.7 MHz, fed by its HD2 subchannel, as "103.7 Danbury's New Rock Alternative", which launched on the 10th at Noon after stunting with loops of songs that changed each hour, with songs like "Rapper's Delight" and "Drunk on a Plane". The first song on 103.7 was "Renegades" by X Ambassadors.
Musical Approach
After drifting towards Adult Top 40 for a couple of years, 98Q has returned to a more straight ahead, 90's based Hot A/C presentation.