WWYZ

WWYZ is a commercial radio station licensed to Waterbury, Connecticut, and serving the Waterbury, Hartford and New Haven areas. It is owned by iHeartMedia, and airs a country music radio format.
WWYZ's studios and offices are located on Columbus Boulevard in Hartford, and its transmitter is in Meriden, on West Peak in the Hanging Hills.

WWW Official Site

History

WATR-FM

The station signed on the air on August 1, 1961, as WATR-FM. It was owned by the Gilmore family, which also owned WATR and WATR-TV.
The call sign stood for the city of license, Waterbury. At first, WATR-FM simulcast the AM 1320 programming. In the early 1970s, it switched to an easy listening format. In 1973, it briefly changed to WENU-FM, before changing again to WWYZ. With the new call sign, the station referred to itself as "The Music Lover's WISE Choice". In 1976, the station moved from Beautiful Music to Adult Contemporary, imaging as "YZ, The Natural 92"; this format finally helped the station become competitive in the Hartford market though it remained based in Waterbury. By the early 1980s the station was known as "Lite 92."

Switch to country

In the 1980s, WWYZ broadcast a mix of formats from country to Top-40. In between late August and early September 1988, it became an all country formatted station. The station reputedly adopted an all-Christmas music format during the 1998 holiday season, three years before the format was introduced nationwide. In July 1999, WWYZ was bought by AMFM, Inc. The following year, AMFM was acquired by Clear Channel Communications, which changed its name in 2014 to iHeartMedia.