In December 1976 I was just wrapping up college in Keene, New Hampshire and needed a job back in Connecticut. David Parnigoni, the owner of the station where I'd been working part-time - WKVT in Brattleboro, VT - had just bought 1150 AM WCNX in Middletown, CT. I landed the music director and midday host position. Since I grew up 20 miles from WCNX, I already knew it wasn't a big-time sounding flamethrower even though its signal blanketed a good chunk of Connecticut. What I walked into reminded me of the sleepy, complacent atmosphere that greeted Andy Travis, the new program director (and my hero) on WKRP in Cincinnati. WCNX had been underperforming on so many levels. Before Tom McCormack was hired as news director, local news was just read straight out of the Middletown Press. The music format varied depending on who was on the air. The most exciting part of the presentation was the Ed Henry Sunday Polka Show, which continues to this day. The scene was set for some excitement to hit central Connecticut that wasn't emanating from Hartford or New Haven. After putting a consistently upbeat adult contemporary music format together, they added program director to my duties. We added jingles. Billboards with a big "X" popped up around town. The audio got cleaned up. We pushed the phone lines and they lit up. Ad rates had to be raised as we sold out. General manager Ken Smith summed it up as a "regional sound with local information." Eager staffers like this young program director often cringed at what junk passed for local, and I eventually let my idealism get the best of me. All in all, WCNX in 1977 was a worthy effort, and I met some terrific people. I was now headed for a big-time FM!
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