WAPJ 89.9 & 105.1 FM

WAPJ is a non-profit and non- commercial radio station staffed by a group of dedicated volunteers. It's supported by private donations and sponsors. 

Thank you for you support!

CLASSIC ROCK SHOW

WAPJ FM has its own classic rock show.  Every Friday night, between 6-9 pm, our own Tony Henry brings you classic rock and roll. His show features such bands as Pink Floyd, Ozzy Osbourne, and many others. Tony also serves as Interim Station Manager and has been with WAPJ for 9 years. Join him every Friday night for "The Classic Rock Show."

Tony also hosts "Torrington This Morning" every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday.  This show airs from 7 - 9 am and features music, special guests and local news.  So, start off your mornings right with "Torrington This Morning".

Wotever Comes Up

LITCHFIELD COUNTY SPORTS

Monday nights from 5:30-6:00 p.m.
Join host Timothy Gaffney as he talks local sports with regular guests Patrick Tiscia and Rick Wilson. They review the local high school scene and talk about what has happened and what's coming up.
Gaffney is a sports correspondent for the Torrington Register Citizen while Tiscia and Wilson are regular contributors to the Waterbury Republican-American .Together they bring over 50 years of local sports coverage to the airwaves. The fast paced 30 minute show features coaches and players from around the Northwest Corner and beyond.
A rebroadcast will be played on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.

THE SPORTS REPORTERS

The Sports Reporters, a once a month Sunday morning feature on WAPJ, will make it's debut on February 28, from 11:00 a.m. to noon. Join host Timothy Gaffney for an hour long program that with take an in depth look at the issues and challenges facing our high school athletes, coaches, administrators and parents. The show will also highlight sports outside the high schools and their impact on Torrington as a community.
Patrick Tiscia and Rick Wilson will be regular contributors to the show along with other sports journalists from the surrounding area.

THE MISCELLANEOUS MORNING SHOW 

Every weekday morning from 7 – 10 am  join Holly, Karen and Barrie as they fill your mornings with fun, information and music.  Listen for their special guests, the miscellaneous fact of the week and of course the Totally Awesome 80’s at 8.   Email barrieandholly_wapjfm@yahoo.com

THE CRESCENT CITY EXPERIENCE 

Krawdaddy K’s "The Crescent City Experience" is themed after the Crescent City, New Orleans, Louisiana. It was there that he was introduced to Jazz and Blues music and has loved it ever since. He has been with WAPJ since April 2008 and loves to play Jazz and Blues music because they compliment each other so well and portray the real life experiences that so many of the artists have lived.  It is music based from the heart and soul of real life experiences. Email Krawdaddy K at doctor_k_61@yahoo.com Tune in every Sunday night from 8-10pm.

AIR IT OUT

Are you tired of listening to politics slanting to the left or the right?  Do you think just maybe it would be refreshing to get it pretty much down the middle?  Along with a little, ok, a lot of down home country humor involved?  Then join Ole LW each and every Wednesday from 6-7pm as we discuss national and local news and events.  If you get as frustrated as we do, you might just have to “AIR IT OUT”

THE FOLK SHOW

Every Thursday morning from Noon - 1:30 pm Barrie Soucy hosts a 90 minute program featuring folk music.  This has been on the air since December of 2006.  This show features artists such as Robert Messore, Arlo Guthrie, Bonnie Lee Panda, as well as many other local folk performers. Email Barrie at barrie.soucy@yahoo.com

The Polka Show

Mondays  12:00-2:00PM. Started when WAPJ was located at the Nutmeg Conservatory, March 17 1999. After a short hiatus, Minnie resumed broadcasting, Jan 3, 2005 at our present location at 40 Water Street and has been here ever since. Your Hostess Mary Ann "Minnie" (Yurgalewicz) Florio plays all aspects of Polish Music along with public announcements and idle chit-chat. This program has become quite popular in the Litchfield County Area of Northwest Connecticut.  Because of its time element, it is geared to please the “lunch bunch”. To Reach Minnie --- Email:Minnie Polka@webtv.net

General Manager & Chief Engineer

John Ramsey got his start in broadcasting as an announcer at WWUH at the University of Hartford in 1970.  During high school he worked part time as a DJ at a Top 40 Country station in Hartford which made him realize that A) commercial radio wasn't for him, and B) he'd be better off staying on the other side of the microphone, so he decided to go into broadcast engineering.  In 1978 he earned his FCC First Class License and started his own engineering consulting firm. Over the years he had been chief engineer of WDRC, WKSS, WHYN and WCCC, among other stations.  He had the pleasure of working with Dr. Temkin in helping to put WAPJ on the air in 1998 and has continued as the station's Chief Engineer every since.  As of December 2011, John is also General Manager at WAPJ as well as continuing in the role of Chief Engineer.  John also heads the Torrington Community Radio Foundation, license holders and owners of the station. General Manager of WWUH at the University of Hartford for the last 20 years, John has been involved in every aspect of non-commercial station management.  John is a member of the Connecticut Broadcasters Association's Emergency Alert System Committee, the Chair of Chapter 14 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers and the founder of the Connecticut Radio Alliance.  Married with two grown sons, he lives in West Hartford.  John believes strongly in Community Radio and is involved with many radio projects throughout the state.

Breakout

Latin music aka salsa has been a world phenomenon for some time now. No longer is it a music heard only in the inner city and the island of Puerto Rico. Hence the name of this show: Breakout.

DJ Jose Sosa grew up on NYC’s Lower East Side in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He was exposed to Afro Cuban, Afro Puerto Rican and Afro Dominican music. He learned to dance at clubs where bands performed this music live onstage and developed a deep familiarity with the rhythms of the mambo, cha cha, pachanga, charanga, son montuno, guaracha and merengue.The music was part of his everyday existence; he also developed a life long appreciation of jazz and how each genre influenced and fed off each other. With his show, Breakout, he now brings this musical experience to Torrington.

The Breakout format includes the music of artists and emerging artists from Spain and South America because their music enriches and enlightens listeners to this global cross cultural experience. In being exposed to the music of other cultures the existing latin/salsa music scene expands, morphs and mutates. In other words, it grows.

Finally, aware of the increasing popularity of latin lounge, jazz lounge, rhumba flamenco, and bachata music with new audiences, Breakout strives to present a total and unique blend of the latino and jazz music experience to WAPJ’s listeners.

So relax and enjoy.  Breakout is blasting off!

DOWN IN THE COUNTRY

Join me, Gary "Hoss" Lawton, every Saturday morning from 9-12 for all the country you will need. Everything from the top songs in the country to the hits you have not heard in awhile. But wait, we don't want to spoil it, so listen every Saturday morning from 9-12 and hold on to your seat and hat for some real down home fun.

 REGGAE EXPLORATIONS

Hosted by Mike Roots, "Reggae Explorations" is WAPJ's longest running show, having its start (as "Positive Vibrations") at the station's inception in March of 1997. On "Reggae Explorations" you'll hear a mix of tracks from newer and lesser known artists, classic tunes, and deeper cuts than you would normally hear elsewhere. In addition, you'll be treated to an occasional "surprise" selection, perhaps off the beaten path of the reggae genre. The presenter, being a reggae artist and review writer, gives you an inside perspective with interesting facts to enhance the listening experience. Tune in to "Reggae Explorations" for your weekly excursion into the world of strictly conscious, roots and culture, reggae music.

NASHVILLE SKYLINE 

Started at Uconn and has been on the air since April of 2001. Originally it was a more contemporary country show but early on I started to get more requests for the classic country artists that I switched to that genre and the show took off. I came up with the on air name while I was looking online for minor league ball caps and came across the Carolina Mudcats hat and I liked the name Mudcat and the Mississippi Mudcat rolls off the tongue much easier. If you're looking for artists like Country Music Hall of Famers Roy Acuff,Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, George Jones and a cast of hundreds of other country greats,so  tune in Monday evenings from 6PM to 9PM

IT'S A BLUES THING

The name of the show came about from my friend Tony Sarno, an accomplished blues guitarist who put out a CD by the same name. I took over the original blues show "Blues Blast" but I really didn't care for the name and since it was going to be a new show featuring new and old time blues artists.  I changed the name and time from Fri evenings at 6PM to Tues at 8PM. I played the blues greats like B B  King Howlin' Wolf And the king of the slide guitar Elmore James to new artists from my friends at Alligator records like Coco Montoya, Tinsley Ellis and long tall Marcia Ball.   

CHRIS Z

Chris Zarzycki started at WAPJ in 1999 when a friend who was on the air, challenged Chris to do a show. Since Chris was Involved with the Boy Scouts, he initially did a show about Scouting. Later he hooked up with current station manager Tony Henry, to do a weekly talk show, “Midweek with Tony Henry” where they tackled any topic from politics to Sports. Currently Chris host the “Friday Night Concert” a show within the “Classic Rock Show with Tony Henry”. Chris also helps out with the blog and web site and can be seen with tools in his hand, helping with minor studio maintenance.

The X-Factor

Every Thursday night join Art Benedict, Tyler VanDuyne and Zach McCabe for WAPJ's popular call-in sports talk show.  This one hour show features events from the past week in sports from around the globe as well as local events.  Tune in to THE X-FACTOR Thursdays 6-7 pm. And until then, X-FACTOR OUT!!

Thanks for listening to Torrington's Community Radio Station WAPJ FM.

To see more visit the WAPJFM SPORTS page

Nonsense

Originally begun as “The Mix” in March of 2004, “Nonsense” is the evolution of a programming style embraced by Rich Wasserman. This style came into it’s own during many years of doing a Grateful Dead/Jamband show at WAPJFM called “Bring Out Your Dead”. Rich treats the program as a work of art unfolding throughout the time slot. There are usually a handful of themes running alternately in the background alongside of spoken word or music as well as alone. Rich uses nearly all channels switching and mixing different tempos as well as vocals. A typical show may have ambient music in the background, African drumming from vinyl played over that with outtakes of Richard Nixon’s farewell speech from the internet interspersed all fusing into an instrumental classic jazz standard and finally coalescing into Dionne Warwick’s version of “My Way” to end the show. So be prepared for anything when you’re listening to “Nonsense”

Tuesday Magazine

Join Pamela, on WAPJ every Tuesday 6-7pm for Tuesday Magazine.  This is a program with something for everyone with issues that will certainly interest the ladies of Torrington. Show segments include, health, the arts, legal issues, cooking, trip around Ireland (facts of interest on and about Ireland) and  weekly update of events happening at The Torrington Library and much more.

The KO Show

The KO Show airs on Wednesdays from 12-1 with your host Kathleen Arndt.  The show is intended to inspire the human spirit by exploring our gifts, sharing our joy and changing our world one person at a time.  Music is an integral part of our world that shapes our consciousness.  The KO Show creates a venue where we become mindful of the art form and encourages us to be the best we can be.  There are no limits to what you may hear on the KO Show.