WATR is a radio station licensed to serve Waterbury, Connecticut and the Naugatuck Valley. The station is owned by WATR, Inc. It airs a full-service News/Talk/Sports plus Classic Hits music format. It is the oldest privately owned station in the state of Connecticut, never having been sold outside the family of its founder, Harold Thomas. It was announced on Feb. 24, 2020, that the station is up for sale. The station is host to the long-running "Tom Chute & You," the weekday morning drive program from 6:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. hosted by general manager and program director Thomas J. Chute with News Director Christopher M. Fortier anchoring news reports through the noon hour. It is the fourth-longest continuously running morning drive radio program in Connecticut, having debuted on Jan. 2, 1986. Barbara Hart Davitt, who marked 56 years at the station on Nov. 22, 2019, hosts "Coffee Break" from 9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Monday through Thursday. Debuting in the mid-1960s, it is one of the longest-running radio shows in the U.S. Davitt in 2018 was the first Waterbury-area radio personality inducted into the Connecticut Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame. Steve Noxon hosts "Talk of the Town," WATR's flagship talk show since the early 1970s focusing on local and state issues, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Previous hosts include Larry Rifkin, Ed Flynn, James Senich and Jay Clark. Fortier serves as the program's executive producer. The daily programming lineup also includes syndicated Fox Newstalk shows from 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Fox Sports Radio from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Weekend programming highlights include the Sunday morning "Carosello Italiano," hosted by Joe Costa and featuring music and news from the Italian community and the Sunday night "Music Museum" hosted by Jay Crawford. The station was also host to the popular "Polish Eagle Show," originated in 1934 on WATR by bandleader Victor Zembruski. His widow, Sophie Zembruski , hosted the show from 1976 to 2008, at which time the couple's daughter, Loretta Hoxie, took over hosting duties. "The Zembruski Family Polka Hour," hosted by Nathaniel Zembruski, succeeded Hoxie shortly after she retired in 2013. Zembruski, at age 17, decided to end the show as his junior year of high school concluded. Its finale aired on May 31, 2020. The station also maintains a decades-long tradition of broadcasting play-by-play of local high school football and basketball. In 2018, WATR joined the University of Connecticut sports radio network. The first football game was broadcast Aug. 28, 2018. WATR once had sister FM and television stations: WATR-FM, established in 1961, now Country 92-5 WWYZ, and WATR-TV, established in 1953, later WTXX TV 20 and now WCCT-TV. The station has been assigned the WATR call letters by the Federal Communications Commission since it was initially licensed in 1934.
