NorthEast Radio Watch 11/29/2021: Dunaway Sets WTIC Retirement

In this week’s issue… WTIC’s Dunaway to retire – TV auction for new signals – Noncomm FM window aftermath takes shape – New translators for AMs – Remembering CKLW legend Trombley

By SCOTT FYBUSH

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*Few radio stations have been as stable in morning drive over the decades as CONNECTICUT‘s WTIC (1080 Hartford). Consider: since 1943, the station has had just two long-term morning hosts – the legendary Bob Steele, who held the job until 1989, and since 1992, Ray Dunaway.

Dunaway won’t quite hit the 30-year mark at the now-Audacy-owned station, though: last Monday, he announced that he’s retiring at year’s end, with his final show set for Dec. 24.

Now almost 72, Dunaway says it’s time to spend more time exploring Connecticut. He first came to the state to attend Trinity College, then moved around in a typically peripatetic radio career early on, eventually landing at Kansas City’s KMBZ, where he made a name for himself that brought him to WTIC’s attention. When he arrived in Hartford, he took over from two short-term hosts, Tom McCarthy and Arnold Dean, who had replaced Steele.

Dunaway settled in, bringing Hartford listeners a full-service morning show that had much the same appeal as the long-running Steele show, even as the rest of WTIC’s schedule began moving toward a harder-edged flavor of political talk.

Dunaway’s co-host Brian Schactman will take over the morning slot solo at the start of 2022. Can he have the same kind of staying power as Steele or Dunaway? If so, we’ll be writing our next article about a morning change at WTIC in the fall of 2051. (And no, we don’t intend to still be cranking away at NERW in what would be its 55th anniversary year!)