The Hartford Courant reports word of which on-air personalities were let go spread fast via social media and phone calls. By late afternoon Connoisseur Media CEO Jeff Warshaw confirmed the names of four on-air personalities who were dismissed: show hosts Mike Stevens, 'Rockin' Ron Sedaille, Floyd Wright and Grahame Winters who also served as program director.
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| Mike Stevens |
“Out at Big D. Been a great 30 years plus,” wrote Stevens on his Facebook page shortly after he learned he would not be staying on. '“Good luck to the new folks”
Hanging on to his WDRC AM show was veteran personality Brad Davis.
A press release distributed late Monday confirmed that representatives of Buckley Broadcasting and the Westport-based company officially closed on the sale for an undisclosed amount Monday before meeting with staff individually. The sale also included other Buckley Connecticut stations WMMW AM in Meriden, WWCO AM in Waterbury and WSNG AM in Torrington.
The release said some Connoisseur employees will be “elevated’’ including Southern Connecticut Connoisseur General Manager Kristin Okesson who will oversee the Hartford stations. Okesson oversees WPLR, WEZN, WFOX, and WYBC. WYBC is owned by Yale Broadcasting;Connoisseur Media operates under a joint sales agreement.
Warshaw would only say that the station’s programming will be classic ‘70s and ‘80s music without disco.
The new lineup of WDRC-FM includes Mike "Lappy" Lapitino in middays. Lapitino will continue his PM Drive shift WPLR. Southern Connecticut MD Allan Lamberti takes over afternoons on WDRC-FM and becomes APD for WDRC-FM & AM and WPLR. Lamberti's previous midday shift on WFOX now belongs to Ed D'Oliveira.
How can you say you play classic hits of the 70's and 80's, but no disco. Very disappointed in the change.
ReplyDeleteThank God they don't play disco! lol
DeleteI know you are expecting it, but you just lost another listener. I already miss Ron's show on Saturday, I really looked forward to it.
ReplyDeleteSorry to see Mike Steves go. He was great in the morning w/Kim. Very disappointed w/the new format. Oldies station was much better. YOu lost 2 more listners. Hope MIke will surface on another station. He was really good. New format is horrible.
ReplyDeleteAnother fine mess in Hartford radio. DRC-FM was my go-to place for the 2000s, but the 2010s not so much. This killed it. Now you have 'voice' jocks filling in from other places. This is killing radio, but it's not about personality anymore - not even the music - bean counters rule the planet. Stations should be ever more nervous as listeners add steaming audio in increasing numbers. It is the legacy of a once mighty medium, reduced to rubble.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely awful!! Thanks for ruining a radio station I've been listening to for 25 years!!
ReplyDeleteWhat about the music of the late 1960's from folk music to groups like the Jefferson Airplane etc.
ReplyDeleteDon't understand the change of format but i saw it coming as DRC FM over the last few years was mixing more current rock into its format.
Bad changes I will look elsewhere car boat home5radios rockin Ron gone lots of mad sad listeners
ReplyDeleteI thought Mike & Kim in the morning were great.
ReplyDeleteDon't like the music change either.
Bye.
I am so disappointed in what you have done. I have listened to this station for more than 20 yrs. I love Mike Stevens and Rockin Ron. Looked so forward to my ride to work with Mike. I get out of work on Saturdays at 11 and would catch the oldies with Ron. I hate your new music. The OLDIES were so much better. There are still some of us who would rather listen to our past music. You have lost a lot of radio fans!!! We love you Mike.
ReplyDeleteNEW doesn't translate into BETTER! Mike and Kim in the morning, as well as all the great music, made a 2 hour daily commute fly. I only hope that they find a home in another CT station! Thanks for the memories!
ReplyDeleteI just don't understand why things were changed when they had such a good thing going with Mike and Kim. I won't be listening to you any more!
ReplyDeleteThis is a huge disappointment! Mike Stevens and Kim were great in the morning. They were knowledgeable, witty and funny. The new music format is horrible. No 60's??, no Beatles and all the rest of the great groups. I understand we have to look forward but that does not mean eliminating all of that great music. I would bet that 90% of your (onetime listeners) enjoy those songs. I now will maybe just listen occasionally versus at one time WDRC was my priority station.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike for the great times, hope to hear you locally again.
Been listening since high school and I graduated in 1965.New format awful!Sad!!!!!
ReplyDeleteMost definitely liked Mike & Kim and the oldies on my way to work in the morning. I don't listen to 102.9 anymore. Very poor decision.
ReplyDeleteOldies...????? Just sounds like PLR now..without all the yelling that goes on every morning...
ReplyDeleteabsolutely do not like the new formatthe classic think of the last 30 to 35 years and not include disco or black music you have lost of Hartford Connecticut listenerclassic music of the last last 30 35 years should include black music also form it was his American music.
ReplyDeleteconniseur is a misnomer...they dont care about what these former listeners say. station has no personality anymore--sterile..
ReplyDeleteYour guys moves to change the format of this radio station SUCKED !!!! You guys hardly ever play the artist well known in the 70's & 80's. I have to shut down the volume half the time because the music is TERRIBLE !!!! Getting rid of your old DJ's was a mistake as well.You are going to lose another listener & many others if you people do not change back to your old music like Rickey Nelson, BJ Thomas , Elton & many others !!!
ReplyDeleteCame home from vacation turned on the radio thought I had the wrong station on in my car. Next morning Mike and Kim did not wake us up. Will be finding a new station to listen too. Thanks Mike for 25 plus years.
ReplyDeleteI too will not listen to this station anymore. Was a faithful fan until now. Goodbye.
ReplyDeleteTruly disheartened by your new format!! Please bring the old format back. From reading the comments you have disappointed several of your listeners. DRC was the go-to station for me because there is so much other garbage on the air.
ReplyDeleteNow Chaz and AJ or on 2 stations in the am at the same time? What was DRC thinking...oh probably to save money. Didn't listen to them on PLR in the morning, they are not very funny an guess what??? Won't be listening to them on DRC either. To bad...
ReplyDeleteI think you've just lost a generation of listeners with the latest changes. Now we get to listen to two ego-maniacs, who think they are hilarious, talk about the same crap that I left PLR for. I will miss the music of the 60's, including Motown. Farewell to a once great radio station, my dial will never land on 102.9 again.
ReplyDeleteHow awful!! I've been listening since I was a child over 30 years, grew up with it. I channel surfed all morning on the way to work thinking it changed stations. PLR HAD their own station 99.1, they should have stayed there! I miss and loved listening to Motown, 60's and disco. It's our History, you can't just Erase History!! So sad. It was a great radio station, hopefully the crew will come together and bring it back somewhere. This can't just be left the way it is!
ReplyDeleteHow come there are no positive responses posted? That's because there is nothing positive about the change. I've been a listener since 1963 but no more. I will just have to get Sirius loaded into my car. Bye!
ReplyDeleteAs all the other posts say...this new format sucks! I miss Mike Stevens and Kim in the morning....good clean humor and very informative news.
ReplyDeleteNothing worth listening to in the a.m. or the p.m either! Boo, Hiss!
And to think, one of the first FM stations on the air in the early 1960s - the first station I listened to as a child; and now all the history is blown away!
I hope all the original WDRC crew comes back on another local station! Miss you all and your music.
As for the new WDRC, you've just lost another listener.
Another great station ruined by the "suits". Goodbye.
ReplyDeleteoh boy,we now get to listen to newer aerosmith,madonna,lynard skynard,journey and wham.just like plr.(no worse)why is it so true nothing good lasts.Always thought this station would stay cool (even with the occasional Frankie valli and doo wop)I can only hope everyone does the right thing and doesn't tune in,thereby not buy products advertised,and let money(or lack of) somehow reverse this heartbraking robbery of true Americana.
ReplyDeleteI liked 99.1 WPLR where it is, I liked 102.9 WDRC the way it was....where is the common sense to have two stations on my dial playing the same exact people and songs? Repetitive---I will listen to 99.1 as I always have, as for 102.9 sadly, changing it to a different song. Hello Pandora here I come...
ReplyDeleteMike Stevens, Floyd Wright, thank you for so many years of wonderful music. Too bad $uits outweigh the view of what people want to hear. More people will swarm to Pandora and other music options as our CT radio stations are starting to really suck.
ReplyDeleteVERY disappointed with the changes. I ech everyone else's sentiments. I will no longer be tuned in to 102.9. Very Very unhappy!
ReplyDeleteI do not like the new show the old one was better I have to find another radio station because this one sucks
ReplyDeleteI hate the new station, After 30 years its time to move on,
ReplyDeleteHorrors. DRC is gone for me, after the last 40 years. Want some good quality music plus oldies? ...without all the horrid commercials, hype, sarcasm and trash? We have enough of it elsewhere. Listen again to Jerry Kristafer, at WJMJ.
ReplyDeleteWhat a way to ruin a good station!!! Miss the morning music - If I wanted AJ & Chaz I'd turn on to WPLR - they suck - all talk - Live on Long Island & get a lot of CT stations & loved the "Big D" - new owners made a "BIG" mistake here - we have enough of "Classic Rock" stations - like the old format @ "Big D" which included ALL songs disco, love & Rock - lost another listener to both WPLR & WDRC - Might want to rethink this one especially with Ipods & car Sirius these days - deleting both stations off all of my presets radios -
ReplyDeleteWell, you've definitely lost another listener! Hate the "new" music format, which in fact is not "new" at all. It's way overkill on the "classic rock" syndrome and the constant chatter is extremely annoying! Bring the oldies back and bring Mike & Kim back. Whoever thought this would be an improvement needs to be the one to go.
ReplyDeleteWhat the frick is wrong with them! This station has made a big D(dumb) mistake. Miss the old DJ gang, really miss the Saturday night call in show. Where's the variety? And don't get me started with the lack of MOTOWN!!!Does anyone know what station carries the closest thing? I have been tuning into the catholic station a little so I can at l hear Jerry, and oh yes ... pray to GOD to bring my station back.
ReplyDeleteI was looking for Mike and Kim as I drove to work and heard the WPLR guys. It's like-what? I don't have 99 rock on. Not that they're bad, but taking Mike and Kim off the air is absolutely crazy. I really hate the music I hear now, and just turn it off. You lost another listener. How could you make a crazy decision like this? I've listened to Big D for years and it was unceremoniously dropped. An era stripped away. Why was this done? Please bring Mike and Kim back.
ReplyDeleteTerrible decision.
My favorite radio station no longer exists. First, Jerry Kristopher was fired, then the music format started to change (no more disco, no more music from the sixties and seventies), and now the icing on the cake by firing Mike Stevens and Floyd Wright. I stopped listening to PLR many years ago because I did not like the on-air personalities and the music selection, and now Chaz, AJ and Lappy have replaced my DRC faves. What a cruel joke this is. Bye bye DRC, you have just lost another longtime devoted listener.
ReplyDeleteWTG, shifted my morning drive to 95.1 if I wanted WPR with CHAZ AND AJ I would be listening to 99.1. Ykur new management and format suck,
ReplyDeleteWow. We used to love this station back in the 80's through about 2005. On visits to the Hartford area we always marveled at how much better it was than WCBS. That's because they played all the fun bubblegum songs that you haven't heard in 30 years with a heavy emphasis on 1960s. It started to get bad when the 80's started creeping into the playlist (I'm a child of the 80's, but Top 40 Eighties just blows for the most part). Still, the Rockin Ron show played garage-type music that WCBS would never have played in a million years.
ReplyDeleteCBS FM in NY did the same bone headed thing and now they are back to oldies (although they were never as good as WDRC because they always played too much 80's and other lame stuff).
If Hartford is lucky, the new owners will realize what idiots they are. Then again, people in general are so lame that they would rather hear the same homogenized crappy songs over and over.
It is a terrible time to be alive.
BTW, there's a Christian station 88.9 which is now better than WDRC. They don't play garage bands, but they do pull out these really obscure 70's pop songs that I forgot about.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to have lost a radio station that I enjoyed so much. We lost the signal for about a week and when we got it back, everything had changed.
ReplyDeleteListening to the station especially on my morning ride is maddening and used to be so enjoyable- Chaz, AJ, etc. Ugh, they are nasty. Done.
Miss Jerry and Mike.
I agree with everthing above, I've been listening to DRC in the morning since Bob Steele retired. I really miss Mike Stevens. Thankfully I got SiriusXM and 60's 0n 6 ect because all the stations around hear play all the same songs, over and over and over....
ReplyDeletePLR should have stated put! Like The Blob, they swallowed my beloved DRC whole, and we got NOTHING GOOD in return. Chaz and AJ, you're just another pair of self-satisfied, self-delusional A-holes! I miss truly independent TV and radio! I DON'T miss the same nation-wide playlist you'd hear in LA as in Portland, Maine or Portland, Oregon! Syndicated sameness sucks the sweat off a dead man's balls! My station pre-sets are changed to exclude this sorry shadow of my once beloved DRC! Good by radio, hello iTunes and LastFM.com!
ReplyDeleteI will not longer tune in. Been listening to Mike Stevens for years. Why change something that wasn't broken? Sounds like you lost a lot of listeners.
ReplyDeleteYou have lost another listener. I miss Mike Stevens and the great music that was played.
ReplyDeleteDo not like the change. I miss Mike Stevens and the great music he played. You have lost another listener.
ReplyDeleteAnother company take over that destroys something great. This was my station that I have been listening to for over 25 years. The station now sounds like WPLR which also sucks. Enough of Led Zeppelin. You just lost another listener.
ReplyDeletedrc sucks, wlng rules...
ReplyDeleteSorry to see the old format go, 70's and 80's rock stations up and down the dial and now there's one just one more. WDRC was a great oldies station, if any one knows of one that is similar to the old DRC please post if for us ALL...
ReplyDeleteRockin' Ron was the best, what a shame, just like everything else in this world, nothing makes sense, thank you mr ceo pip squeek, probably your daddy's bought it for you
ReplyDeleteHorrible, this was my favorite station. It sounds like plr. Sucks. I was wondering why I had to keep changing the station the past couple of days. Bye
ReplyDeletehorrible this used to be my favorite radio station not anymore sounds like plr..... goodbye
ReplyDeleteTotally disappointed in the new station. Loved wplr for over 30 year. Also like the old version of the station. If I want wplr I'd put it on. When I want a chage put 102.9 on. NOT ANYMORE!!!!
ReplyDeletewho wants to litsen to all that talking everyday, I liked all the great oldies drc had and the good dj"s!!!!! I"m going to start listening to my compact disc.
ReplyDeleteDon't care for the new format. Guess it's time to pull out other options. Radio won't be around much longer anyways and the ones who changed the format will be fired. Imagine that.
ReplyDeleteI guess that radio station for rock and roll's good times and great oldies has now retired their business!
ReplyDeleteVery sad times for radio in CT. Growing up in the 90's, DRC was the soundtrack of my life and fostered my love of the oldies. When I started driving myself it was my go to station (even if they played a bit more 80's than I liked), and I loved Mike and Kim in the morning and Rockin' Ron. With their loss and the terrible "new" change in format in the past year, we are at the nadir of CT radio. Here in Danbury we lost the fantastic true oldies channel which helped fill in for the early years of rock and roll when DRC was starting to move past the 60's. Now we have nothing but i95 for classic rock and the robotic/generic shell of the TOC. PLR sucks, nothing but grungy 90's hard rock like alice in chains and smashing pumpkins mixed in with nickleback, PUKE. Chaz and AJ are incredibly dull low lives. I can't believe we all lost a CT and national treasure of a station for the likes of them. I never imagined DRC could go away like that. When will these companies ever learn? I will NEVER tune in to 102.9 or 99.1 ever again. Goodbye DRC It was great while it lasted.
ReplyDeleteFormat bad, and no HD. Why no 1960's music
ReplyDeleteNew station sucks !
ReplyDeleteWDRC AM, why is the receptioon horrid in the evening!? We are not far away and have Bose radios yet the reception is horrid after around 7pm. Are you just being cheap?
ReplyDeleteFortunately it's fine in the AM so we hear Brad...always!
Not listening.........
ReplyDeleteIf anyone wants to get any changes made don't complain to the radio station. They don't care. Call their advertisers and tell them that the station sucks and you won't purchase their product or service. Remember -- MONEY TALKS.
ReplyDeleteanother sign of decline. no more oldies.
ReplyDeleteif the whale is supposed to be clinging to the defunct hockey team. of which I was a season tixs holder. just get over it.
also they use a classic rock is back tag. I never knew it was gone. I already know of several classic rock stations in listener areas. what was different of wdrc was the oldies mixed in.
and how many times on rotation will they play same songs? I like band boston. but not every other hour.
always occurs when new owners come in somewhere. they think they know better and mess it up. and no I will not purchase any of their advertisers products.
I loved wdrc as an historic station for decades. it wasn't like all the others. and now the dial is littered with other rock classic stations in my area. so NO! whale. classic rock was never gone.
but you had to know that right? cause you must have did studies right? come on. did you just graduate from a college? like the tennis great McEnroe once said "YOU CAN NOT BE SERIOUS! PLAY SOME OLDIES YOU MILLENIAL MORONS YOU!
Bring back the oldies of the 50's and 60's not the crap you are playing now.....total elimination of a radio station that used to be tops...hope you go belly up!!!!!
ReplyDelete