WTIC (AM)
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| City | Hartford, Connecticut |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Hartford, Connecticut |
| Branding | NewsTalk 1080 |
| Slogan | Connecticut's Local Radio Station |
| Frequency | 1080 kHz (also on HD Radio via WTIC-FM-HD2) |
| First air date | February 10, 1925 |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
| Class | A (clear-channel) |
| Facility ID | 66464 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°46′39″N 72°48′19″W / 41.77750°N 72.80528°W |
| Callsign meaning |
We're the Travelers Insurance Company (former owners) |
| Affiliations |
CBS News Channel 3 (CBS) |
| Owner |
CBS Radio (sale to Entercom pending) (CBS Radio Stations Inc.) |
| Sister stations | WRCH, WTIC-FM, WZMX |
| Webcast | player.radio.com |
| Website | wtic.com |
WTIC (1080 AM) is a 50,000-watt radio station operating from Hartford, Connecticut, broadcasting news and talk radio. Its signal, located at 1080 kHz, can be picked up throughout Southern New England by day and over much of the eastern half of the United States and Canada by night. It is currently operated by CBS Radio. Its transmitter is located in Avon, Connecticut, and has studios located at 10 Executive Drive, all in Farmington, Connecticut.
WTIC, a class A station on a clear channel, is known for its historic time tone, which is a broadcast of the Morse code letter "V" every hour on the hour since 1943. This makes it one of the oldest continuously broadcasting radio time tones in the world. WTIC employs a GPS master clock system that fires the custom-built time-tone generator shortly before the top of the hour, timed such that the final tone of the sequence occurs precisely on the hour (Even though everything else heard on the station is on a 10-second delay), and listeners have been setting their watches to WTIC for many years. The notes of the sequence were pitched to mimic the famous opening sequence of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, whose "short-short-short-long" rhythm matches that of the Morse code letter "V". The Morse code letter "V" for Victory was selected during the height of World War II.
It was founded in 1925 and transmitted on 500 watts for the first four years. The 1929 program announcing the retirement of its first transmitter is available online. WTIC began 50,000 watt operation on August 2, 1929 making it one of the first few stations in the world to achieve that power level. The transmitter, referred to as "old number one" was the first 50,000 watt transmitter ever manufactured by RCA and has serial number 001. This RCA 50 transmitter was the first high power commercial transmitter to use 100-kilowatt tubes, the first to use mercury-vapor type rectifiers throughout, and the first capable of true 100 percent modulation of its full rated 50-kilowatt carrier output.
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