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Additional Information

Below is a list of some of what was on the schedule when WAPJ was located at the University of Connecticut’s Torrington campus, most likely between 1997 and 1999.

The list is not complete.

SHOW PRESENTER(S)

Gardening and Travel Barney Laschever

Banking Unplugged Jeff LeLonde and John Janco

Sports Talk Larry Wright and Art Benedict

Cooking With Arthur Arthur Rosenblatt

Coming Home Davyne Verstandig

Unbounded Awareness Jon Benda and Charles Glueck

Around and About Ken Edwards

It’s Your Money Robert and Pat Goldberg

NASCAR Report ?

News from Susan B. Anthony Project ?

Crossworks (World Music) Frank Kramer

Quieting (Soothing Music) Jay Potter

The Blues Blast Leo Ostar

Positive Vibrations (Reggae Music) Mike Roots

Uconn News Adrian Lyon

Sweet Swingin’ Sounds Dave Sweet

The World Beat Show John Long

Breakfast With… Dave Barger

Jazz Spectrum Ken Fuchsman

Jazz Peter McEeachern

Jazzy Mornings Jams Cindy B (Cindy Barbieri)

The Eclectic Styles of Andy Styles Andy Styles

The All-Star Jukebox Mike Polowy

Oliver Wolcott Tech News ?

What’s Happening at NCCC ?

My Favorite Things (Music Mix) Holly Thomen

Health Topics Sue Herbert

Movie Reviews Susan and Shelley Fromme

Mostly Music Ed Parsons

Finance Bob Strawson

The Hour Hour Lani Peck

Morning Elixir John Long

Sal’s Music Box Sal Barbieri

Hold That Girl Jon Benda

Thursday Nite Dance Party Mike Whittaker

Classic Rock Gerry Morzella

Magnetic Northwest Eric Jacklin

Rock with Nate and Box Nate and Box

Torrington Twisters Baseball Art Benedict and Leo Ostar

The Jubilee Praise Hour “The Miracle Man” Robert Hayes and Mike Roots

Big Bands Gerry Morzella

Good Morning Torrington Eric Fabiaschi

Morning Show (title unknown) Rachel Hannon

Conversation With… Dave Sweet

Disky’s Dissertations (segment) Ed Diskovich

History Bites (segment) Mark McEachern

On Broadway (?) Stuart Brown

Hip-Hop/Rap Show Lady ________ (?)

WAPJ - Torrington Community Radio

1990

In 1990, seeing an urgent need for a local radio station to serve the community, Dr. Isadore Temkin and local attorney, Robert Sullivan, decided to try to bring local radio back to the city. After consulting with the FCC and others they convinced the Torrington Board of Education (BOE) to be the licensee of the new station to be located at the high school and on February 7, 1990, a license application was filed for the F.C.C. for a 100w non-commercial educational station. The application included a request for a waiver from the FCC's rules regarding interference as an engineering study indicated that the proposed station would cause a very small amount of interference with Connecticut Public Radio's Meriden station (in fact, less than 0.1% of CPR's coverage area would have been affected).

1992

The FCC denied the waiver request and returned the application. Dr. Temkin quickly realized that if they could move the proposed station's antenna a bit farther away from CPR's tower in Meriden the interference issue would be eliminated so permission was obtained from the Torrington branch of UConn to use an existing tower on their campus for the new station.

1993

On March 26, 1993, the Torrington Board of Ed resubmitted their application using the coordinates of the UConn tower on University Drive.

1995

On July 27, 1995 the FCC issued a Construction Permit (CP) authorizing the construction of a 100 watt, non-commercial FM station on 89.9 MHz
Around this time the Board of Education (BOE) had decided that they were not able to host the radio station studio in the high school as planned. On October 11th the Litchfield County Committee of Higher Education's (LCCHE) board voted unanimously to take over responsibility for the station, pending FCC approval and they arranged to have the Torrington branch of UConn host the station's studio in their building on University Drive.
In some ways the UConn location was ideal, little or no facility cost, access to the student body and school infrastructure, a very supportive staff and faculty and an existing tall tower right behind the building. But the fact that the school building was only open during times when the school was in session would severely limit the ability of station volunteers to access the station. This is one of the reasons it was decided that the programming of WWUH be carried at times when the building was closed and the station would otherwise be off the air. This arrangement allowed WAPJ to remain on the air 24 hours a day.

For the first two and a half years of its existence WAPJ operated out of the Torrington branch of UConn pictures above. The studios occupied space in the faculty office wing and the antenna was mounted on the tower behind the building.

1996

On April 13, 1996, an article ran in the Hartford Courant announcing that "Torrington will have a new radio station by late summer or fall, when WAPJ-FM signs on the air. The station, based at the University of Connecticut Torrington campus, is looking for programming suggestions, said Ken Fuchsman, an UConn faculty member at the Torrington campus and a member of WAPJ's programming committee." The committee was chaired by Ken Fuchsman. "WAPJ needs lots of people," said Ken Fuchsman in the article. "Basically we're taking a list of all the people who want to be on the station," he said. "We're going to do training for everybody . . . then have everybody do demo tapes. The best will be selected for the station's on-air positions."
On July 18, the FCC issued Consent to Transfer the Construction Permit to the LCCHE. This was followed by ten months of intense work, acquiring equipment, conducting auditions, developing a program schedule, placing the antenna on the tower, and building the new studio.

1997

  Current station manager John Ramsey recalls:
   “In 1997 I had been doing broadcast engineering professionally for over 20 years yet I had never had a chance to help put a station on the air from scratch so I offered to build the station for Dr. Temkin pro bono. Scott Baron worked with me and we had a great time building the studio and setting up the transmitter system.
"The first time I visited the campus I was amazed to see a 300 foot tall radio tower right behind the main building so I knew there wouldn’t be any problem finding a place to put the antenna, something that is often a problem for new stations..
"The entire facility consisted of a single small office divided in half by a wall with a sliding glass door. The inner area served as the studio proper while the outer area served as an office. The studio was built around a 10 channel Autogram audio console donated by WHCN in Hartford and the WAPJ antenna was mounted on the tall tower formally used by SNET behind the building.
“We constructed a small wooden building at the base of the tower to enclose the station’s transmitter and associated equipment, and it quickly got the nickname “the outhouse” because it did indeed look like one. The antenna was mounted at the 100 foot level on the air tower, the maximum height allowed by the FCC."
WAPJ signed on the air for the first time at 6 p.m., May 17, St. Patrick's Day, with a ceremony broadcast live from the auditorium of UCONN Torrington. This gala event was held to celebrate the launch of the new station and many area dignitaries were in attendance.
  Isadore Temkin, station co-founder, was in attendance, but co-founder Bob Sullivan wasn't able to be there. He was living the retired life in Florida and though the educational station was his idea, he wasn’t able to make it for the sign-on.
"This is a historic moment . . . for all Litchfield County,'' said Adriane Lyon, the campus director, because it is the first time the county has had a public radio station.” Moments later station engineer John Ramsey turned on WAPJ for the first time and volunteer station manager Dave Sweet announced the sign on in the traditional manner.
"WAPJ-FM, 89.9 Torrington, a community service station with studios at the Torrington University of Connecticut branch,'' Sweet said, his deep voice booming over a radio held to a microphone in the campus theater. He then spun the station's first record, ``The Star Spangled Banner.''
Zena Temkin, a member of the station's programming committee, said the station's goal and primary requirement of its volunteers is to serve listeners and stay within the bounds of common decency.
"We are not Limbaugh or Imus,'' Temkin said, referring to two popular broadcasters, Rush Limbaugh and Don Imus. We aren't looking for controversy.'' She went on to say “Listeners can plan on hearing all sorts of music, poetry, sports and information on topics related to education and other matters of public concern. We hope the station becomes something area residents can count on for important information.”
We have a commitment to purchase remote transmitting equipment as soon as funds were available. The equipment would be set up at city hall or the scene of emergencies to provide residents with vital information. The equipment could also be used to broadcast baseball games and other community events.
In fact, WAPJ has entered into an agreement to broadcast the Torrington Twisters from Torrington's Fuessenich Park this summer.”
Torrington native Sullivan is a former municipal court judge and prominent attorney in the city and, like [Isadore] Temkin, active in community affairs. Temkin explained how the station came to be: "Back in 1989, Bob and I had a little money left over from a project we had done together. I said, `What are we going to do with it?' Bob said, `Let's see if we can start a community radio station.' So here we are, eight years later, ready to go. It is non-commercial and operated completely by volunteers. We hope to sustain it by contributions."
In November the station started advertising for a volunteer station manager.
        The formal license to cover was issued by the FCC on November 7, 1997.
   Ken Fuchsman, UConn’s Continuing Education Coordinator, was quoted in a newspaper article “The format will feature everything from public service programming to classical music. We’ve been gratified by the number of talented people who have stepped forward to lend their time and talents to WAPJ. People in this community and the UConn campus are looking forward to this new voice for Torrington.”
In August, a special program about donating blood was aired.
In September, the station started airing select Torrington High School sporting events beginning with Saturday's football game against Farmington High School.
Station staff: Cindy Barbieri, Sal Barbieri, Jon Benda, Dave Barger, Art Benedict, Jon Benda, Stuart Brown, Ed Diskovich, Ken Edwards, Eric Fabiaschi, Shelley Fromme, Ken Fuchsman, Charles Glueck, Pat Goldberg, Rachel Hannon, Robert Hayes, Sue Herbert, Eric Jacklin, John Janco , Frank Kramer, Barney Laschever, Jeff LeLonde, John Long, Adrian Lyon, Peter McEeachern, Mark McEachern, Gerry Morzella, Leo Ostar, Ed Parsons, Lani Peck, Mike Polowy, Jay Potter, Mike Roots, Arthur Rosenblatt, Bob Strawson, Andy Styles, Dave Sweet, Holly Thomen, Davyne Verstandig, Larry Wright
Mike Whittaker

1998

Some of the special programming aired in 1998 included: An appearance by ex-Met Brogna (February); the broadcast of Torrington Mayor Mary Jane Gryniuk's “State of the City” address at 12:30 p.m. from the Torrington Rotary Club meeting at the Elks Lodge on Litchfield Street (march 6); Blue Oyster Cult founding member Joe Bouchard was the guest on Gerry Morzella's Classic Rock Monday show (April) and also in April, a special program on the school budget was aired.
Both the home and away Torrington Twisters games were aired with Dave Sweet, the station's general manager doing the play-by-play announcing.

1999

The station continued to operate with 100 watts ERP from the UConn location and despite the high tower it had some coverage problems to the north and west due to high terrain around the site. To eliminate these problems the station applied to the FCC on August 4, 1999 to move the antenna to the existing antenna farm on Highland Avenue on the west side of Torrington (the original site of WLCR). The space was made available courtesy of Mr. Hugo Gerby, the site owner.

2000

Eric Jacklin was the station general manager.
A construction permit was secured from the FCC to move the station’s antenna from the UConn campus to the Highland Avenue antenna farm and the move took place in the spring of 2000. The formal FCC license was issued October 18, 2000 and the tower site move was accomplished in one day a few weeks later. Even though the FCC required that the power be reduced to 40 watts at the new location, the increased height of the antenna resulted in a significant improvement in coverage with listeners calling in from as far away as Thomaston, Granby and Winsted.
Mike Whittaker hosted the Thursday night dance party.

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2002

Dave Sweet became general manager.
The first wapj.org website made its debut.
Torrington Twisters home games aired.

2003

In celebration of the station's 6th anniversary on Saturday, March 15, "The Whole Shebang: An Arts, People and Joy Festival" took place. This wide-ranging variety show was held at the Music Church, 59 Barber St. in Torrington, and it included a kids' hour from 3-4 p.m. Orrin Bolton performed songs from his debut album, Freedom. Also appearing were The Fables (an upbeat, rhythmic, folksy party band); Love at Work (warm, bluesy and traditional); Up in the Air (acoustic country blues); and David Maharg and the All-Stars (country swing). Bass extraordinaire Linda Richmond added an avant-garde twist, and so did members of 16 Tons, an experimental jam band from Warren. Spoken word will be provided by Steve Bellwood and poets Sandra Bishop Ebner, Cheryl Della Pelle and Alan DeLarm. The event was rounded out with some other odds and ends of entertainment (a mime, a juggler, accordions …).
The station's format allows volunteer programmers the freedom to play a diversity of music, giving the public access to blues, jazz, country, Zydeco, comedy, polka, Italian music, folk, reggae and rock. WAPJ also offers community programming such as local news, sports and weather, public service announcements, and a calendar of regional events. Feature shows include A Moment with the Mayor and Chamber Chat with JoAnn Ryan.

2004

  On July 2, station licensee, Nutmeg Conservatory, announced that they needed the space occupied by the station’s studios and that they were no longer able to pay $12,000 a year on license fees, equipment and promotion to keep the station operating.   Local programming was discontinued and the station rebroadcast WWUH for the next few months.
The I.B. and Zena H. Temkin Foundation agreed to become licensee and the Federal Communications Commission approved the ownership transfer. The studios were moved to 40 Water Street in Torrington which offered approximately 1,300 square feet of space and included an air studio, a production studio, a performance area and extensive office space.
   The main studio furniture was donated by WWUH and was build in the store front with a large window facing Water Street. . . many stations were located in store fronts back in the forties and fifties so it seemed appropriate for a small town station with a desire to be highly visible to the public.
  Tony Henry was appointed station manager in 2004 and was instrumental in bringing many innovations to WAPJ including election night coverage, live broadcasts from the Memorial Day Parade and expanded sports coverage.

2005

Local programming returned to WAPJ early in the year from the new Water Street studios. The new facility was much larger than the old and included an air studio that had windows onto the street.
Because some listeners had complained about difficulty in picking up the station’s 89.9 signal inside buildings downtown the station applied for a translator on 105.1 MHz The antenna for this new station was installed on top of the studio building on Water St. which resulted in excellent downtown reception..
WAPJ continued to fill in the gaps in the local programming lineup with programming from WWUH and WMNR. On May 15, broadcast live from Main Street and Maiden Lane for the Tour de Connecticut.

2006

On April 16, WAPJ entered into an agreement with the city of Torrington which provided for the town to take over the station’s airwaves in an emergency. A newspaper article on this agreement said:
“This is a test. That's what John Ramsey, of West Hartford-based Ramsey Communications, said on Tuesday, declaring that city leaders now have the ability to use donated communications equipment to interrupt regular radio shows and make announcements in the event of a disaster. Ramsey joined Thomas Vannini, the city's emergency management director, Mayor Ryan Bingham and Fire Chief John Field at a City Hall news conference to say an agreement was reached with local emergency management officials to give access to WAPJ to those officials in time of emergency.
On Sep 27 the station carried special live coverage of the football match up between Torrington High School and Wolcott

2007

On March 27 the new wapjfm.com website went on line. T.J. Burlee, a Thomaston teen who volunteered his time on a sports show that airs Thursday evenings, built the site. The site featured information on radio programming, short biographies on the disc jockeys and station organizer, a list of sponsors, and links to some public and nonprofit organization Web sites.
On May 29 , Robert Sullivan, who along with Isadore Temkin founded WAPJ, died Saturday at his home in Florida. He was 83. While he was in Torrington, the Army veteran Sullivan also spearheaded a tree-planting program in downtown. On a state level, he served as treasurer of the Senate and as chief clerk in the State Legislature.
The Memorial Day parade was carried live on the air.

2008

WAPJ provided local election coverage starting at 5 p.m. on Election Day, including a number of featured programs and guests. Michael Cohen, a local high school student who produces a show called "The Minor's Side of Things," opened up the coverage, which featured young Democrat and Republican students and teachers. Mayor Ryan Bingham made an appearance on the air, as did two former city mayors, Democrat Mary Jane Gryniuk and Republican Dee Donn. Coverage included live reports at the polling booths from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and from City Hall, as well as interviews with all the candidates.

2009

On October, WAPJ hosted the 6th and final mayoral debate. The two candidates challenging incumbent Mayor Ryan J. Bingham continued a line of familiar criticisms of the two-term Republican during the live broadcast. The listener-supplied questions asked during the debate, moderated in the station's studios by "Air it Out" host Larry Wright, focused on the city's disabled population, the viability of moving the UConn-Torrington branch downtown and building the city's reputation as an arts center.

2010

Staff (partial list): Art Benedict, Dave Billus, Michael Ciarlo, John Coloma, Billy Dee, Alan Delarm, Minnie Florio, Tim Gaffney, Sam Grover, Pam Henry, Tony Henry, Krawdaddy K, Gary Lawton, Brian Lillie, Michelle, Mississippi Mudcat, Michelle Pickering, Holly Pond, John Ramsey, Mike Roots, Bob Schuyler, PJ Shelly, Sketch, Jose Sosa, Barrie Soucy, Andy Styles, Damian Vincent, Rich Wasserman, J. Williams, Larry Wright, Chris Z.
On June 20, Register Citizen published a picture of WAPJ's station manager Tony Henry, sports director Art Benedict, P38s general manager Biff Bond and P38s president of operations Holly Pond under the headline "Local baseball on the radio! - If it sounds like a 1940s dream, you might be right, but Torrington's WAPJ-Radio is betting the dream still holds in the 21st century. Starting with a key early-season double header with Avon at 11 a.m. this morning at Fuessenich Park, local baseball fans can listen all summer to Torrington P38 American Legion Baseball home games broadcast live on WAPJ. "We do the Titans games, and it's great that we're bringing baseball to Torrington," said WAPJ Station Manager Tony Henry, making the "local" distinction between Torrington's new college team, a collection of players from across the country, and teams like the P38s that consist entirely of local players. "Our main focus is local interest, and we want to bring local games," said Henry. "We think we'll be serving the community. There are great rivalries between the teams and we just want to be part of it. Our kids will be supremely psyched when they find out they're going to be broadcast," said P38 General Manager Biff Pond. "We've been trying to get on board with a radio station for eight or nine years, but we couldn't work it out. This can only help us; we want to get more people down to our games."
WAPJ Sports Director Art Benedict will do play-by-play, as he does with Tyler Van Dyne at Titans home games.
"I started in sports broadcasting in 1997 with WAPJ's inception," said Benedict, who's broadcast such diverse local sporting events as the Torrington Road Race, Tour of Litchfield Hills and local boxing tournaments, in addition to a regular sports talk show.
"I like other sports but there are two things I really like - baseball and broadcasting," said Benedict. "This (expansion) is a good fit for me."
The move appears well-timed for everyone."

Shows in 2010 included: Wotever Comes Up with Bob Schuyler, Reggae Explorations with Mike Roots, Litchfield County Sports, Nashville Skyline with Mississippe Mudcat, The Sports Reporters with Patrick Tiscia and Rick Wilson, MMMS, Its A Blues Thing, Crescent City Experience, Air it Out Larry, The Folk Show with Barrie Soucy, The X Factor with Art Benedict and Tyler Van Duyne, Sam's Place with Sam Grover, Nonesense, Minnie's Polka Show with Mary Ann Floria, Tuesday Magazine with Pamela Henry.

2011

  In the spring WAPJ started streaming their programming on the web for the first time.
In August, 2011, Dr. Izadore Temkin, the founder of WAPJ and the president of WAPJ licensee Temkin Foundation, decided to donate the station to John Ramsey, who had helped put the station on the air back in 1998 and had served as the station's volunteer chief engineer ever since. An application to transfer the station license to Ramsey's newly formed Torrington Community Radio Foundation was submitted to the FCC in August.
On October 31 the state was hit by a major tropical storm which knocked out power to move than 50% of CT. WAPJ was off the air for five days due to blackout.
  On November 30, 2011, the FCC approved the transfer. The Torrington Community Radio Foundation also received IRS approval as a 501(C)3 tax exempt organization. John Ramsey assumed the position of station manager, Mark Channon, a Torrington resident and experienced Jazz announcer, was appointed operations director and Jacki Gilligan became treasurer.
A staff meeting was held in December at the City Hall conference room. Mark and John introduced themselves to the staff and presented their plans for the future of the station. WAPJ would continue to be a community station based in and dedicated to Torrington. Long time station manager Tony Henry was presented with a plaque for outstanding service to the station. John shared his vision of community radio with the staff and talked about future plans, including a complete renovation of the Water Street space.
A number of CT-based radio and TV stations donated equipment to WAPJ. The equipment that could be utilized by the station was refurbished and put into operation. Equipment that could not be used was sold with the donor’s permission and the proceeds from these sales allow the station to undertake a major renovation of its studios and offices on Water St.
In order for these renovations to take place local programming was suspended in mid December. This allowed both lavatories to be completely redone, new carpet installed on all floors, and for paint to be applied to the ceiling and all of the walls. Staff also took this opportunity to thoroughly clean the station and to remove the office dividers that had separated the station's office area for close to a decade.
The station remained on the air during the renovations initially with an all-holiday music format which ran through Christmas Day. After that, an all-Beatles format took over the airwaves.
Renovations were also made to the air and production studios. In the air studio, a new video security monitor system was installed along with upgraded microphone processors, new monitor speakers, new computer monitors, outside temperature display and an outside speaker. In production, the 30+ year old board was replaced with a new model and the studio was completely rewired.
There were also a number of significant behind the scenes technical upgrades performed in the first few months of the year. Instead of using a leased phone line to get the program audio from the studio to the transmitter site a state of the art, fully redundant microwave system was installed. RDS encoders were placed on both the 89.9 and 105.1 transmitters so that the station's call letters would be displayed on RDS equipped radios. The stream was converted from mono to stereo and new audio processing for the stream was installed.   In addition, a UHF remote pick up system was installed to allow high quality audio from remote locations.
Updates were also accomplished at the station's main transmitter site on Highland Avenue in January. These included upgrading the main audio processor, relocating all of the equipment to a new rack, and improving the remote control system.

2012

  In January, long time volunteer Barrie Soucy was appointed to the position of program director and the Miscellaneous Morning Show, hosted by Barrie and Holly Pond, was expanded from 2 days a week to 5.
In January station management consisted of John Ramsey, general manager, Mark Channon, operations director, Barrie Soucy, program director and Mike Roots, promotions director.
In February we made arrangements for emergency electrical power at our tower site on Highland Avenue. Getting emergency power for the studio site has been problematic since there is no budget for a generator and no outside space to install one.
  Live programming resumed in early January with a lineup of approximately 10 hours a day of local programming.
In February the station applied for a grant for new equipment from the Community Foundation of NW CT which resulted in a $3000 matching grant award.
An open house was held in the fall.
Mayor Bingham appeared on Jacques program, Titans and P38 home games were broadcast. WAPJ continued the tradition of airing the Memorial Day parade and the following dedication ceremony.
Volunteer Peter Rost redesigned the web site and the domain name was changed to wapj.org.
WAPJ became a member of the downtown merchants association and hosted a meeting at the station on September.
July WAPJ broadcast live from the Child Safety Day event in Winsted. Art Benedict and Tony Henry were the on air hosts. Guests included Winchester Mayor Welcome, a Life Star pilot, representatives from Dept. of Child and Family Services, Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection, CT State Police and the Winchester Fire Department.
On August 15 Congressional Outreach Team Leader Wayne Coste appeared on the WAPJ morning show to talk about the upcoming showing of the movie "Explosive Evidence - Experts Speak Out".
  On August 20, CT radio veteran and Torrington native Dan Lovallo joined the WAPJ team and started doing a weekday 3-5pm talk program called CT Talking. Guests included: Owen Calfield, Matt DeRienzo, editor, or another writer or editor from the Register Citizen, Dr. Barry Feldman, Director of Uconn Torrington, State Senator John Kissell, Jay Case, a candidate for the 63rd District General Assembly District and State Sen. Kevin Witkos. In order to accommodate telephone calls WAPJ reached out to the broadcasting community and was able to have a profanity delay donated by WOR in NYC.
In August one entire segment of the Miscellaneous Morning show was devoted to male breast cancer. A guest, former WAPJ volunteer Bob DeVito discussed his diagnosis, treatment options and prognosis. Sources of help were discussed and we posted a self-exam video on the WAPJ Facebook page.
Torrington High School sports were aired in the fall.
  On September 15 the station broadcast live from Prime Time House in Torrington to cover their fund raising tag sale.
  In part in response to a $3000 matching grant received from the Community Foundation of NW CT, WAPJ kicked off their first ever over the air fund drive on September 17th with an ambitious goal of $5000. By week's end $5400 was raised from 104 donors! Premiums included station hats, shirts and jackets as well as donated copies of two books about broadcasting history. The funds from Marathon, combined with the $3000 foundation grant, allowed the station install a new air board, a new audio processor for the 89.9 transmitter and new studio mics.
In October a new PC for the air studio and purchased.
On October 16 the station broadcast the 5th District Rorabeck/Estie debate live from the Warner Theater. Dan Lovallo was the host. In November the station accomplished its first live music broadcast when it aired the US Air Forces "Blue Steel" rock band live from the Warner. Art Benedict was the host.
In the fall the Litchfield County Sports Program was aired live on WAPJ from the studios of ESPN in Orlando, Florida.
Barrie Soucy, Art Benedict and Tony Henry hosted a broadcast from the Winsted Octoberfest on October 6. Mayor Welcome appeared on the air several times along with Bonie from Bonie’s Tavern.
Art and the sports crew hosted a special live broadcast on Thanksgiving morning from Torrington High School.
We aired a special program to coincide with our co-sponsoring a Food and Toy Drive for the Friendly Hands Food Bank. Representatives from the food bank, from the Drakeville Volunteer Fire Department (our co-sponsors) appeared on the air discussing those who are in need of help this holiday season. We also interviewed over a dozen listeners who had stopped by to donate items to the drive. At the end of the drive we had raised over $900 in cash for the drive along with two car loads of food and toys.
A staff holiday party was held in December.
New shows in 2012 included CT Talking, Lion Around CT, The KO Show, Conversations on Healthcare, The Mike Ciarlo Show, Dance Tracks and Blues Uptown.

2013

  In February the station applied for a grant from the Community Foundation of NW Connecticut which resulted in a $3000 2:1 matching grant award.
WAPJ once again partnered with the Titans to carry all of their home games.
       Five Torrington High School football games were broadcast in the fall.
Tony Henry and Art Benedict provided a play-by-play of the annual Memorial Day Parade, joined this year by Jen Plasky. The station also broadcast the dedication ceremony from Coe Park that followed.
In July WAPJ broadcast from the Drakeville Volunteer Fire Dept tag sale. Jen Plasky, Tony Henry and Art Benedict were the MCs.
A new show, the Plant Palette made its debut.
       The station's Facebook page received it's 1,000 "like" in August.
The Sunken Garden Poetry Festival programs started airing in the fall.
       "Sunday Funday", a new sports talk show, debued in October.
       On election night WAPJ provided extensive coverage of the local races. In studio hosts Larry Wright and Dan Lovallo were joined by Art Benedict and Tony Henry (at party headquarters). Mark Hart and Chris Lovallo assisted at the studio.
       In December WAPJ co-hosted the 2nd annual food, toy and coat drive along with Drakeville Fire Dept to benefit Friendly Hands Food Bank. Over $800 was raised along with many boxes of food, dozens of toys and sixteen coats.
Staff: Karen Albreada, Kerwin Anders, Kathleen Arndt, Vinnie Basquin, John Basso, Mike Bayette, Art Benedict, Mark Channon, Elaine Channon, Peter Cianciolo, Mike Cairlo, Carolyn Ciccarelli, Jenny Cormier, Michelle Curry, Mark Cellavalle, Bob DeVito, Tim Gaffney, Gail Giles, Rob Gilligan, Jacqueline Griffin, Gwenythe Haevey, Mark Hart, Tony Henry, Abby Jones, Gary, Brian Lilly, Ron Lindner, Dan Lovallo, Dave Masotta, Zach McCabe, Jen Plasky, Holly Pond, John Ramsey, Mike Roots, Peter Rost, Krystle Sollars, Barrie Soucy, Paul Summers, Ken Thomas, Jacque Williams, Larry Wright, Daniel Yanok, PJ Shelly, Stacey Soucy.

2014

  In February WAPJ held its second fund raising Marathon with an ambitious goal of $7,500. By week’s end $5,500 was pledged by donations continued to come in and by the end of March at total of $7,550 had been raised.
The windfall from the fund drive allowed the station to purchase bumper stickers in large quantities for the first time.
In April WAPJ served as the flagship station for the One Town One Book Literacy Initiative. Numerous local VIPs including State Senator Steve Witkos appeared on WAPJ reading excerpts from the book "Marley and Me".
       In May the station once again covered both the Memorial Day Parade and the memorial ceremony from Coe Park. For the first time ever the station had a vehicle in the parade, a CRV with WAPJ license plates and banners along with four American flags. Art Benedict, Tony Henry and Jen Plasky covered the event and Stacy, Michelle and others either walked or rode in the parade.
       The station arranged to cover all of the Torrington Titans home game and six of the P38 games. This was possible to the greatly expanded WAPJ Sports Department, under the direction of Art Benedict.