WKSS

WKSS

200px
City of license	Hartford-Meriden, Connecticut
Broadcast area	central Conn., southern Mass., and northern Long Island, N.Y.
Branding	Kiss 95.7
Slogan	All the Hits
Frequency	95.7 MHz (also on HD Radio) 95.7-HD2: Dance Music
First air date	December 1947
Format	Top 40/CHR
ERP	16,500 watts
HAAT	268 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	53384
Callsign meaning	KiSS
Former callsigns	WMMW-FM (1948-1960) WBMI (1960-1971)
Owner	iHeartMedia, Inc.
Sister stations	WHCN, WPOP, WUCS, WWYZ
Webcast	Listen Live!
Website	www.kiss957.com

WKSS is an American radio station operated by iHeartMedia, Inc. in the Hartford-New Britain-Middletown, Connecticut radio market (as measured by Nielsen Audio). It broadcasts from its original transmitter site in Meriden, Connecticut and is licensed to two cities, Meriden and Hartford, a rare circumstance in the United States.

Using a mainstream Top 40 format, the station is currently branded as Kiss 95.7 with the slogan "All the Hits." Its studios and offices are co-located in downtown Hartford at 10 Columbus Boulevard with all of the other stations iHeartMedia owns in the market: WHCN, WPOP/WUCS, and WWYZ.

Technical

WKSS transmits with frequency modulation (FM) at 95.7 MHz using a directional antenna with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 16,500 watts. The signal is nulled to the southeast to protect WFOX in Norwalk, Conn. which uses the adjacent frequency 95.9 MHz. The station has a 50 kW equivalent signal at 268 meters above average terrain. The station broadcasts from the West Peak of the Hanging Hills in Meriden on a tower with former sister station WMRQ.

Coverage Area

At 60 dBu, the station's primary contour is contained almost entirely within the borders of Connecticut, covering nearly all of Hartford, Middlesex, and New Haven Counties as well as the adjacent portions of Fairfield, Litchfield, New London, and Tolland Counties.

At 50 dBu, WKSS remains listenable in most of the rest of Connecticut including east into Windham Co. and past Norwich, Conn.; southeast past New London, Conn.; south into the northern portion of Long Island, New York; southwest past Bridgeport, Conn.; to the west past Danbury, Conn. into Dutchess and Putnam Counties, N.Y.; and north over nearly all of Hampden Co., Massachusetts including the city of Springfield and almost all of its suburbs.

At 40 dBu, the fringe of the signal can be traced east into western Rhode Island; most of the eastern half of Long Island to the south; Greenwich, Conn. and Westchester Co., N.Y. to the southwest; west to Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; northwest to Columbia Co., N.Y. and Pittsfield in Berkshire Co., Mass.; north to encompass nearly all of Hampshire Co., Mass; and northeast into Worcester Co., Mass.

Silver City Crystal Co., Manufacturer of Crystal Oscillators for Broadcast Equipment

During World War II, the Silver City Crystal Co., the first licensee of the station that would become WKSS, was one of at least 150 American enterprises that designed and manufactured quartz crystal oscillating devices that use the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material such as quartz to create an electrical signal with a very precise frequency, making the timing of a clock or watch as well as the tuning of broadcast transmitters and receivers consistent and reliable. Since tuned circuits, the predecessor to the oscillating crystal, would allow frequencies to drift by as much as 4 kHz, crystal devices and the broadcast equipment in which they were installed became essential components of the military build-up during the war because they could maintain constant communication and coordination in the field.

Management by the Schultz Family

The principal owner of the Silver City companies was Carl A. Schultz (1895 - 1961), a native of Oslo, Norway and veteran of World War I. His son Carl W. "Buzz" Schultz (1923 - 1982) managed the stations.

First Studios and Offices

Together with WMMW (AM), the station's first main studios and offices occupied the entire fifth (top) floor of the landmark 1870 Palace Block building at 8 1/2 W. Main Street (at the intersection with Hanover Street) in Meriden. They also had a studio at 505 Main Street in Middletown. After the Palace Block burned to the ground on February 26, 1957, the stations were temporarily removed to facilities at the FM transmitter site.

New studios were built in Meriden inside a former pump house at 122 Charles Street at a four-acre industrial site that runs along Parker Avenue. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Meriden Curtain Fixture Company Factory since 1986, the pump house and the adjoining factory buildings were built in 1892 by the Charles Parker Co. When WMMW and WMMW-FM were there, however, the complex was home to the Silver City Glass Co. and its offspring, the Silver City Crystal Co.

Station Origins

As the wartime ban on licensing new stations was lifted, the Silver City Crystal Co. applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for construction permits for AM (amplitude modulation) and FM radio licenses in Meriden. The FCC authorized the station that would become WMMW (AM) on October 8, 1945. And during the week of December 31, 1945 - January 4, 1946, it authorized WMMW-FM, the station that would become WKSS 25 years later.

The launch of WMMW, which is assigned to operate at 1470 kHz, was delayed by hearings before the FCC involving companies that also held licenses for nearby stations that operate on that same regional frequency: a construction permit for WLAM in Lewiston, Maine held by the Lewiston - Auburn Broadcasting Corporation and an existing station, WSAN in Allentown, Pennsylvania, owned and operated by the Lehigh Valley Broadcasting Co. Ultimately WMMW (AM) began broadcasting on June 8, 1947.

It appealed immediately to advertisers, reporting that it was already operating highly profitably with its first monthly billing reaching $135,000, all from local businesses. Within a few weeks, it was busy producing a series of tributes to Connie Mack (1862 - 1956), the celebrated Major League Baseball manager, as he and his Philadelphia Athletics descended on Meriden to honor the sixty-third anniversary of "The Grand Old Man of Baseball" stepping to home plate in his first game as a professional player there (on July 1, 1884) with a parade, banquet, and exhibition game against the Insilcos, the city's semi-pro club.

As typical for the time, finalization of the FM signal lagged behind the priority of getting its AM counterpart up and running. It did not actually sign-on to broadcast until sometime in November or December. But over the years the first broadcast date of the FM station has been conflated with the June 8, 1947 birth date of the WMMW Radio enterprise as a whole, perhaps partly because the precise late autumn date for the launch of WMMW-FM itself has apparently been lost to history.

Simulcasting WMMW

By the start of the new year 1948, however, WMMW-FM was simulcasting the programming on WMMW (AM) with an ERP of 7,000 watts. The stations' schedule had a variety of programs. One was the daily half-hour Polka Time hosted by Jim Dunham who insisted that the residents of "PT Ville" submit their mailed record requests in rhyming verse. (Three letters would entitle the sender to membership in the "Polka Club.") Setting the example, he would open each show with the salutation "greetings, mates! Let's congregate. It's time to polka-palpitate."

Another program was Swap Shop. Monroe "Bill" Benton (1923 - 1997), moderating the show as the shop's "proprietor," would connect listeners who phoned into the program to exchange offers for trades. The show unexpectedly created a sensational story in 1948 when on June 2 a woman named Nellie Wolan (1910 - 1988) called to swap her $14,000 six bedroom house at 125 Pearl Street in Middletown for marriage to a man who must "earn [at least] $5,000 a year, [be] tall, dark, and good looking, and be very affectionate 'because I like a lot of loving.'" Speaking from the studio on June 4, she provided more detailed expectations for her "dream man" and opened two of the letters expressing interest since she first proffered matrimony to eligible bachelors. Benton continued to share further updates with his audience over subsequent days. A United Press International (UPI) report transformed the unemployed typist into an international human interest story, inundating Wolan with over 400 letters, telegrams, and phone calls from suitors across the United States and Canada as well as from Australia, England, France, and Spain.

[She dated several of the men who contacted her after they passed an interview over the phone. "And I'm on a party line," she told the UPI. "The neighbors all listen in. It's embarrassing." Nonetheless, one New London candidate whom she quickly began to favor turned out to be already married to someone else. In fact, none of the applicants would ever receive a proposal. Immediately after her son Howard (1950 - 2001) was born on November 13, 1950 with cerebral palsy, she filed a paternity lawsuit against a traveling salesman from Providence, R.I. By that time, she had determined that offering to swap her house for a husband had been a poor decision. "A girl can't find the right man that way," she told the Bridgeport "Sunday Herald." Her persistent lack of income was also forcing her to consider selling the house itself. In the end, she would never marry anyone. Her grave marker in St. Mary Parish Cemetery in Portland, Conn. remembers her simply as "Nellie S. Wolan, mother."]

The stations also participated in the radio industry's annual campaign to drive contributions to the March of Dimes charity. During one afternoon in 1949 for example, items donated by local merchants were auctioned by telephone to the audience for a total of $1,000. They estimated they received 500 bids.

Functional Music Format

Over the course of 1948 the stations' engineers worked to increase the ERP of WMMW-FM to 20 kW, receiving a few construction permit extensions along the way. At the same time, many other authorized operators were returning their FM licenses to the FCC citing the poor post-war economy and the slow sales of FM receivers to consumers, due partly to the new demand for television sets among the public. But the Silver City Crystal Company was making arrangements to use WMMW-FM for a commercial purpose that would define the station throughout the 1950s.

Muzak Origins of Functional Music

As radio broadcasting got underway in the 1920s, an entrepreneur named George Owen Squier (1865 - 1934), a major general in charge of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, invented a method to deliver music over leased telephone lines on a subscription basis. Founding "Wired Radio, Inc." in 1922 in conjunction with the North American Co., then the country's largest utility company, Squire changed the name to “Muzak” in 1934 shortly before his death. (The name was retired in 2013 when the organization was assimilated by its holding company, Mood Media.) After struggling to find a market in consumers' homes, Muzak eventually determined that its service was better suited for retail, manufacturing, and similar business environments.

Muzak developed its own recording standards that they began to characterize as “functional music.” Functional music was designed for environments such as assembly lines to stimulate and maximize productivity with increases in tempo as well as deliberate periods of silence that would help to keep the workers aware of the music and their rhythms when they returned. Many American factories making equipment for the war effort used the Muzak service in their facilities.

Using telephone lines gave Muzak the freedom to indulge in these pauses and play music without any announcements or other interruptions. They regarded this as a key differentiator from their radio broadcasting counterparts which were obligated by FCC regulations to have licensed operators on duty during all broadcasting hours and air proper legal identification. Furthermore, since radio could not limit its service to paid subscribers, carrying advertising was essential for any station’s financial viability. Radio simply could not match the model that Muzak was able to exploit.

Storecasting Corporation of America

By 1945, an attorney and advertising executive named Stanley Joseloff (1907 - 1989) had become fascinated with the retail operations of grocery stores. In fact, as the concept of the supermarket was introduced and continued to evolve, Joseloff would patent several methods for product displays and checkout processes. He also possessed a deep background in theatrical and radio entertainment, having worked as a lawyer for brothers Lee and Jacob J. Shubert, the founders of Manhattan's Broadway district, and as a producer for the popular radio shows The Life of Riley on CBS and Time to Smile starring Eddie Cantor on NBC. He was also a successful song writer, sharing authorship with Sidney Lippman for the "girl back home number" Dear Arabella, a minor hit for The Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1941.

Joseloff envisioned using Muzak to provide functional music to grocery stores. But unlike the music-only concept in which Muzak had invested itself, he believed in carrying spoken-word announcements to advertise brands and broaden product awareness during the shopping experience. He founded his own business, Storecasting Corporation of America, around this concept.

In 1945, the Storecast service debuted to fifteen First National grocery stores (later renamed “Finast”) in greater Hartford through the local Muzak franchise. Although not without some initial technical difficulties, the service soon expanded to grocery store chains in other major American population centers. Libby's, Coca-Cola, Swift, General Foods, and reportedly sixty other national and regional accounts became satisfied Storecast advertisers. “Our record of advertising renewals is excellent,” Joseloff crowed to the FM Association convention in Chicago on September 28, 1948. “We have increased average sales of all of our accounts by at least 60%.”

Nonetheless, Storecast’s limitation to point-of-sale messaging could not fulfill its advertisers’ needs for reach and frequency. To solve this, Storecast partnered with stations such as The Hartford Times’ simulcast of WTHT (merged with WONS in 1954 to form WGTH, today WPOP) and WTHT-FM (dark since 1950) and Seaboard Radio Broadcasting’s Philadelphia simulcast of WIBG (WNTP today) and WIBG-FM (later WYSP, today WIP-FM) to carry some of its advertisers’ commercials. By this time, Storecast had added the American Stores Co. and the National Tea Co. to its grocery empire of wired sound, reputedly 235 stores in all.

Still, Storecast was frustrated with the Muzak franchise delivery system. Leased lines were expensive, prone to disruption, and not available in all locations. Joseloff had concluded that Storecast should conclude its Muzak operation and migrate to a radio broadcasting model instead.

Joseloff addressed the convention of the FM Association to announce that he had concluded an agreement with WHFC, Inc. to start broadcasting the Storecasting service over its FM station, WEHS (WLUP-FM today). Beginning in October, approximately 100 National (Tea) Food stores around Chicago would access the service using receivers fixed to the 97.9 mHz frequency for WEHS although any listener with a standard FM receiver would, of course, be able to tune it in as well.

Storecast Affiliation

Even as WTHT AM/FM was carrying some of the Storecasting advertising schedules in Connecticut, by December 1948 Joseloff was finalizing arrangements with the Silver City Crystal Company to broadcast the Storecast service over WMMW-FM. By January 1949, Monroe Benton was promoted from news director for the WMMW Radio simulcast to be the first program director of the programmatically independent FM station, coinciding with the power increase to 20 kW on January 10.

Change of Call Letters, Divorce from WMMW, and Transfer to Business Music, Inc.

As part of a process of dissolving the Silver City Crystal Company which would be completed in 1961, starting in 1960 changes were made to both WMMW stations, primarily to keep the FM station within control of the Schultz family. During the week June 16–22, 1960, the FCC authorized the company's request to change the call letters from WMMW-FM to WBMI. On August 30, 1960, Silver City sold WMMW (AM) to Meriden - Wallingford Radio, Inc. And on July 27, 1961, ownership of WBMI was formally transferred to Business Music, Inc. (not to be confused with Broadcast Music, Inc., the music licensing company that commonly uses the acronym BMI), a new firm led by Buzz Schultz.

Conversion to Multiplex Stereo Broadcasting

On May 1, 1962, WBMI became one of the first stations to broadcast in stereo after the FCC standardized the multiplex system.

City of License becomes Hartford-Meriden

On March 21, 1963, Business Music, Inc. applied to the FCC for permission to change the city of license for WBMI from Meriden to the combination of Hartford-Meriden. When the commission granted this unusual request on October 30, 1963, it also waived the requirement that the station's main studio be maintained in Meriden.

Meriden Era Ends with Sale to Communico, Inc., 1971-1977

On May 1, 1971, Communico, Inc. acquired WBMI from Business Music, Inc. for $426,500. Moving quickly, it changed the call letters to WKSS on May 23, 1971 and during the week June 20–26, 1971 relocated the station from 122 Charles Street in Meriden to the 1893 Queen Anne style Borden-Munsill mansion in Hartford which faces the South Green Historic District from 2 Wethersfield Avenue (at the intersection with Wyllys Street).

Insilco Emphasizes Personality Engagement, 1977-1981

On February 17, 1977, Insilco Broadcasting purchased WKSS for $1,689,500 and in 1978 installed Tom Durney as general manager, his first such position. To oversee programming and operations, he recruited Dick Bertel, a broadcaster well known in Connecticut after having worked on-air since 1956 for the formerly combined facilities of WTIC Radio and Channel 3 (then WTIC-TV, now WFSB) in Hartford. Augmenting the instrumental beautiful music with some light vocals, personality-driven engagement, and a news and sports department, Bertel hosted the weekday AM drive program "Good Morning, New England" and filled the schedule with other popular hosts including Jim Perry (also the chief engineer), Mike Ogden, Jon Stevens, Steve Vallensky, Greg Williams, Roxanne Dorey [Flanders], Bob Ellsworth, Jim Austin, Douglas Richards, and Scott Vowinkle (known on-air as Scott Evans), a few of whom were also veterans of WTIC. While Durney and Bertel's strategy included attracting a significant share of the station's audience from market powerhouse WTIC (AM) (which was transitioning from a Middle-of-the-Road (MOR), music and information format into pure news/talk), WKSS' chief rival then was WRCH, another FM outlet playing beautiful music in Hartford.

Marlin Broadcasting Years, 1981-1984

On January 26, 1981, Insilco sold WKSS to Marlin Broadcasting for $2,200,000 and transferred Durney to New Orleans to be the vice president and general manager of WQUE-FM, WGSO, and the Insilco Sports Network (appointing him less than a year later to executive vice president of the company's entire FM division). In response, Marlin's president Howard "Woody" Tanger elevated Bertel to be vice president and general manager of WKSS, a position he held while continuing to host the morning drive program. Adopting the slogans "The Good Music Station with Personality" and "A Kiss is More Than Just a Kiss," WKSS performed well in the ratings and in revenue share while owned by Insilco and Marlin, making it possible in 1982 to move from the mansion to a fourteen-story office building located in downtown Hartford at 60 Washington Street (at the corner of Buckingham Street), occupying street-level offices and state-of-the-art studios that afforded stunning views of the state capitol building. (Built in 1966, the building was imploded by the State of Connecticut on January 28, 2001 due to an asbestos health hazard.)

As A CHR/Top 40 Station WKSS, 1984-Present

While WKSS itself remained competitive in its market, by the early 1980s audience interest in other beautiful music stations across the country was eroding steadily. In October 1984, concert promoter Don Law, Tim Montgomery, and Bob Mitchell, who would later go on to become an influential radio consultant, formed Precision Media to purchase WKSS for $3,430,000 and flip its format to a CHR/Top 40 as "95.7 The New Kiss FM" with their 1st slogan was "Hot Rockin' HitRadio 95.7 The New Kiss FM". In the Fall of 1989 "95.7 Kiss FM" became "The All New Kiss 95.7" and began shifting toward a Dance-leaning CHR format along with their 2nd slogan as "Connecticut's 10 in a row power station, The All New Kiss 95.7 WKSS".

Kiss 95.7 also was famous for the biggest party in the state each year known as the "Boo Bash" which featured artists such as Pink, C+C Music Factory, Rob Base and many more. It was ticket only entrance. Other events like Summer Kickoff followed but never materialized into the annual event that was Boo Bash.

In the early days following the adoption of the CHR/Top 40 format, WKSS airstaffers Jeremy Savage, Marcus Wainwright, Curtis Monday, Jonny Howe, Albie Dee, T.J. "Rock 'N' Roll" Wright, Tommy Callococci-Casey, Sky Michaels, Rockin' Robin King, Paulie Briggs, and the legendary Cadillac Jack were some of the most prominent announcers of the era, while programmers such as Jefferson Ward, Christopher Walsh, Larry Hryb (Currently the Director of Programming for Microsoft's Xbox LIVE service), Johnny Dowd (Jay Beau Jones), Steve McVie, Tracy Austin, Ricky Vaughn and many others have also called WKSS home at one point or another. WKSS is frequently a stepping stone to bigger markets for up and coming jocks.

After several years of a heated CHR war with rival station "WTIC-FM", which included longtime morning host Gary Craig briefly moving to WKSS eventually won the ratings battle, forcing WTIC to flip formats to Adult Top 40. Throughout the 1990s, they had several leans towards other formats, including dance and rhythmic for a time. Friday and Saturday Night Mix Show, "The Kiss Club with Chris Walsh & Robin King" were a staple during this era, but Chris also produced "The Kiss Classics" on Sunday nights which ran from 1987-2001. Clubs such as 2001, Rumors, Avalon, Mirage, Stadium, Polyestas, Safari, etc. were all part of what was an iconic run of live mix shows. When Chris left the station in the fall of 2001, Rudy C. (www.rudyc.com) was giving the reigns as the new mixmaster who can still be heard to this very day Saturday nights 8pm-11pm. In addition, Rudy C. was also known for mixing the 12 Noon Workout with hosts Mike McGowan and then fitness instructor Judy Rodriquez which became a staple at lunch time in the late 90s 1997-2002 playing/mixing classics from the 70's 80's, 90's. Other jocks who made their way through Kiss, Jordon, Skillet, Nate Thomas, and even of course Gina J. who is now on rival WTIC.

The station was consistently top 5 in the 12+ Hartford Arbitron ratings until Infinity Broadcasting changed rhythmic oldies outlet WZMX to rhythmic top 40 as "Hot 93.7".

Kiss immediately fell out of the top 10 in the 12+ Hartford Arbitron ratings, where it stayed until 2005, when the station began to rebound under the strong guidance of Program Director Rick Vaughn and Assistant Program Director Joey"Jojo" Brooks. Stanley "Stan The Man" Priest kept the station strong from 2005-2012 upon his departure heading to Philly which was short lived. He took night man Prolifik with him who had strong ratings at the time upon leaving Hartford for Philly..

In addition to WKCI "KC101" in New Haven, J.B. Wilde programmed WKSS through March 2015 when he was promoted by iHeartMedia to assume the program director role for both KDWB and KTCZ "Cities 97.1" in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Though kiss has changed on air jocks over the years, it still has many recognizable names such as Courtney from Kiss in the Morning, Walmart Jeff, Munchie, and longtime mixer Rudy C.

The station is now being run by Program Director Zac Davis formerly of the Carolina Iheart family.

External links

• Kiss 95.7 website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WKSS
• Radio-Locator information on WKSS
• Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WKSS