City Burlington, Vermont Branding News/Talk 620 WVMT First air date May 20, 1922 | Broadcast area Champlain Valley Frequency 620 kHz | |
Slogan Burlington's #1 for News & Talk Similar WCPV, WXZO, WVTK | ||
WVMT (620 kHz) is an AM radio station licensed to Burlington, Vermont, and serving the Champlain Valley of Vermont and New York.
Owned and operated by local businessman Paul S. Goldman, WVMT broadcasts with a power of 5,000 watts as a class B station, using a directional antenna with slightly different daytime and nighttime directional patterns in order to protect other stations on the AM 620 frequency.
The station has a news/talk format. Most of its programming consists of carrying nationally syndicated politically conservative talk shows, and sports broadcasts, including New York Yankees baseball and University of Vermont hockey and basketball. The morning show, hosted by Charlie Papillo, Ernie Farrar and Lisa Nagle, is produced locally. Weekday national shows include Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Jim Bohannon, America in The Morning and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. Boston-based Howie Carr is heard on weekday afternoons. WVMT is an affiliate of ABC News Radio.
WVMT's easily identifiable triple towers are shown on Lake Champlain navigation charts. They are located in Colchester, Vermont near Malletts Bay, along with the studios and offices.
History
WVMT is the oldest radio station in Vermont, going on the air May 20, 1922 as WCAX under the ownership of the University of Vermont (UVM). In its early years, WCAX largely operated on an experimental basis, and it was not until October 10, 1924 that the station formally signed on. WCAX was run by UVM students, with most of its programming consisting of farming information from the University's Extension Service; although the call letters have been claimed to stand for College of Agriculture Extension in recognition of this service, the station's license was granted, and the call letters assigned, on May 13, 1922, in close proximity to stations such as WCAU (now WPHT) in Philadelphia and WCAY (now WTMJ) in Milwaukee. Initially operating at 833 kHz (as most stations did at that time), it had moved to 1200 kHz by 1925, to 1190 kHz in 1926, to 1180 kHz in 1927, and then back to 1200 in November 1928.
By 1931, the University of Vermont did not have the funds to continue its operation of WCAX, largely due to the need to purchase newer equipment required by the Federal Radio Commission, and on June 17 it sold the station to the Burlington Daily News; at that time, the newspaper was controlled by Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson, the first person to drive across the country in a motor car. The Daily News relaunched WCAX as a commercial station on November 4, 1931; however, under the terms of the sale, UVM continued to broadcast its programming on the station. Charles Hasbrook bought WCAX and the Daily News in 1939; the following year, the station joined the CBS Radio Network. The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement moved the station to 1230 kHz in 1941; the following year, WCAX moved to its current position at 620 kHz, and the Daily News was sold off, with Hasbrook retaining the station through the WCAX Broadcasting Corporation. (The 1230 frequency is now occupied by WJOY.) A television station, WMVT, was launched on September 26, 1954; it would be renamed WCAX-TV two years later. By 1960, WCAX had switched from CBS to NBC Radio, even though WCAX-TV 3 remains a CBS TV network affiliate.
Hasbrook sold WCAX to James Broadcasting, a company controlled by Simon Goldman that also owned WJTN in Jamestown, New York, in 1963, and the call letters were changed to WVMT. (The previous call letters remain on WCAX-TV, which is still owned by the family of Hasbrook's stepson, Stuart T. Martin Jr.) By 1971, WVMT had a middle-of-the-road music format. The station had placed more of an emphasis on oldies by 1980, but largely remained middle-of-the-road; by 1984, the station had shifted to an adult contemporary format, which, by 1986, also emphasized oldies. WVMT gained an FM sister station in 1990, when James Broadcasting purchased 95. 5 WXXX from Atlantic Ventures.
By 1994, WVMT had shifted its music programming entirely to oldies, and had also incorporated some talk shows; by 1999, the station had formally moved to a talk format. Paul Goldman's company, Sison Broadcasting, purchased WVMT and WXXX in 1997.