WREF staffers

[710man]

  Drew, great to hear you're doing well!   If you recall...I went by Jason Young, high school kid from nearby Bethel, then went off to school in Oregon after doing two years at WREF, worked the board on the weekends, and helped in the newsroom part-time during the week, with occasional board shifts.   I'll never forget the "85-seconds" feature....my indoctrination to the world of M-O-S.   I appreciated to this day my start in radio.  I've worked in the biz ever since college...did TV news for several years, before heading back to radio when a great opportunity arose.
  I don't go by the name Young anymore....but if you were to consider my handle, and think of the West Coast, you could probably figure out what I'm up to these days.

 -Regards
710man

[randy50]

Had to jump in here.....worked for WREF in 1987-1988. Did everything: on-air, engineering, production. Worked with Bert Ross, Drew Wilder,Dennis Jackson,
Bob Balough to name a few. I used to do the 6PM- sign off shift during the Summer and fall. Hello to Bill and Clayton, who I see are on this board.
I believe it was Clayton who I took over for at PRN in Stamford. That was the start of my Radio career which lasted until 2008, when I left to do design work
for a video-conferencing company. I miss Radio. Who knows?, maybe I'll be back....

[PeterTripp]

Greetings follow alumni of the "Station of the Year."      It was an exciting time, and this brings back some "timeless memories."     Plus, there's just "something about community AMs."     Don't forget Linda Randazzo, Saturday personalities Don (from WFAS), Holly Zyara, and Don Gordon on Sundays.    The Virginia Wren and "Dog Talk" shows.    Judy Cutright's "Sunday Times" interviews, and Bob Brown in News, yes even on Sundays!    Rare is th station with Sunday news coverage today.   Drew got us an article in the now defunct R&R, and gave away a grandfather clock to promote "Timeless Memories"?    He had a year's worth of promotions sitting on the shelf in his office all ready to go.   

Most memorable lines have got to be these from an Al Shalon commercial for the long gone defunct Sloper Lumber:

Al:   "You southern girls are all alike."
Linda:  "Oh fiddle-de-dee."

[Tom Gary]

I have to thank Tony Napolean (posthumosly) for getting into radio. It was the fall of 1972 when I was a Senior at Brookfield High School. Tony hosted a special interest class in the Electronics lab where I took my X block class. Tony's group was taking a tour of the WINE AM/FM transmitter site. I asked the electronics teacher if I could go, even though I wasn't in that group. He said "OK, just get a permission slip". I tagged along, then started hanging out with Tony during his afternoon shift.

Tom Renard, the News Director hired me as a news stringer after learning I was a Student Council homeroom rep. Pat Carlone, the CE, let me do part of Saturday night airshift. "Smokin' Tom Gary" was born but realized broadcast engineering was his true calling and is now CE at WREF. You knew it all had to tie in somewhere. There was this girl I met on the request line at WFCS while I attended Central CT State College on April 19, 1974. I married her on April 19, 1975. We had 13 years before an amicable divorce.