Broadcast area Hartford, Connecticut HAAT 268 meters Facility ID 74205 City of license Waterbury Owner iHeartMedia Inc Branding Country 92-5 | ERP 17,000 watts Class B Frequency 92.5 MHz Format Country music Area Hartford | |
First air date August 1, 1961 (1961-08-01) Slogan Hartford's Country Music Station | ||
WWYZ is a country music station licensed to Waterbury, Connecticut, broadcasting at 92.5 FM. It is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., and was previously locally owned by the Gilmore family as a sister to WATR and WATR-TV (now WCCT-TV). Studios are at 10 Columbus Boulevard in Hartford, Connecticut, and the transmitter site is in Meriden, Connecticut.
In the early 1970s, WWYZ was called the "Music Lover's WISE Choice", trailing among many easy listening stations blanketing much of Connecticut. In June 1976 under program director Bob Craig, WWYZ switched to "YZ the Natural 92 FM" as a "laid back and mellow" soft rock station. The format outlasted its N.Y. City counterpart WKTU (which went disco) and served WWYZ well for about five years. Various attempts to meet new competitors in the adult contemporary arena fell short between 1981 and 1988. In 1988, the station switched to a country music format, making it the only FM station in Connecticut with a wide reach to adopt this format full-time. The station has had considerable success with this format and through 2007 remains the only FM country music station in the Hartford and New Haven areas, carrying programs both national and local in origin.