WNEZ (WINF)

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WNEZ (WINF)

(This section is under construction. The text below is a draft history, more information is needed. Please contact us with corrections, updates and/or suggestions. Email us at: admin@hartfordradiohistory.com.)

    Originally the 1230 khz. frequency in Hartford was used by WTHT, the radio station of The Hartford Times.
    This station has had the following call letters over the years: WINF, WKHT, WFNS, WLVH, WLAT, WNEZ, WKND, WNEZ.
     WINF, Manchester, came on the air in 1958, with a non-directional signal of 1,000 watts day and 250 watts night. Studios were located in Manchester, CT, which was also the City Of License (COL). Hillis Holt was the chief engineer.
    The late sportscaster, George Ehrlich, left WTIC in the seventies to work at WINF.  Jeff Jacobs also worked at WINF.
    In the spring of 84 1230 became WKHT with a country format, filling the format void left by WMLB's switch to talk as WGAB. Yankees basball was carried.

    Contributor Gene Faltus:  "WNEZ simulcasted with (co-owned) WNAQ (Naugatuck), except for two occasions. That is when Mets games were on. WNAQ carried Mets, while WNEZ continued the country format. At the time, WNEZ was not the call letters, nor were they WINF, I just can't remember what they were right now. Also at night, when there was not Mets games, there was a small studio at WNAQ where someone in Naugatuck would do a local Portuguese show. One board op back in Hartford would run both the country format on WNEZ, and the Mets on WNAQ, on the same console. In order to do that, we had to put in an actual STL from Hartford to Manchester. Before that, both WNAQ and WNEZ got fed using an SCA off of WLVH.

     "When it was decided to carry Mets on WNAQ . . . the board op would run WNEZ on console program, and WNAQ (the sca feed) on Audition. The formats for both stations were country when I was there up until WWYZ switched to country. That blew the AMs out of the water, and they switched to business formats. Hence the call letter switch to WFNS (financial news service), while WNAQ became WFNW (financial news of Waterbury). They brought in a manager for just the AMs. It was a disaster, during the less than one year as financial news, I remember very clearly NOT ONE LOCAL SPOT WAS SOLD, except for a local coin dealer who did a daily 10 minute rare coin and stamp "report". (Management's lack of) caring showed, we would run morning traffic reports, the same ones again in the afternoon, as there was NO afternoon board op.
    "The AM "staff" consisted of a two man morning show with Rick Shea (later at WBIS) and a news person, one sales person . . . and the manager. . .
    "In the 80s, I recall that WNEZ would carry University of Hartford mens basketball games. George Erlich who you mentioned on the website sold, and did the games. Sage sold the station in November of 1989 to a Spanish businessperson who owned a furniture store on Park St. . . He switched the format to Spanish right away and "cherry picked" the staff of WLVH. He kept the studios where they were. WNAQ was sold at the same time, although it was dark, as there had been a fire in the transmitter, and Sage would not buy a new transmitter . . .
     "When Sage Broadcasting bought the station around 1986, it was WINF. They moved the studios to Wethersfield Ave. in Hartford. They changed the call letters from WINF to WKHT. That was to have stood for K(c)country HiTs . . . Then, when they flopped the format to business news, it became WFNS. (When) Dave Pearlman took over WLVH (03.7 FM) he changed the call letters to WZMX. Then Carlos Lopez took the WLVH call letters and put them on WFNS, and then Jeff Dressler changed it to WLAT, when he bought it."

    In the eighties the FCC authorized upping the night time power from 250w to 1000w. The studios were moved to Wethersfield Avenue in Hartford.
    On February 13, 1989 the call letters were changed to WFNS and on August 31, 1989 the call letters were changed to WLVH.
    On October 12, 1991 the call letters were changed to WLAT.
    In 1994 the the station was purchased by Atty. Mark Dressler and the studios were moved to the 4th floor of a building on Cedar Street in Hartford. The station operated with a Spanish language format with the call letters WNEZ. In 1998 Mega's WLAT joined WNEZ on the forth floor location overlooking Hartford.
    Mega Broadcasting, owner of WLAT 910 in Farmington, purchased the station and WNEZ moved again in 2000, this time to 330 Main Street where they joined station WLAT (910) under common ownership with Mega.
     On May 25, 2001 the call letters were changed to WNEZ.
    On August 9, 2004 the call letters were changed to WKND.
    In 2005 Freedom Communications purchased WNEZ and WLAT from Mega. For a brief time in 2004 the call letters were swapped with WKND in Windsor, CT and the latter station's urban talk format was moved to 1230 but 1230 was changed back to WNEZ and resumed Spanish language programming in 2006.
    On March 1, 2007 the call letters were changed to WNEZ.

Above: WNEZ studio at 330 Main St. in Hartford, 2001.

In 2007 the station was LMA'ed by Gois Broadcasting and in 2008 Gois purchased the station, along with WLAT, 910, and moved both stations in a new studio on Burnside Ave. in East Hartford, CT.