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January 15, 2019

QU to pull plug on AM radio station

WQUN's building on Whitney Ave. in Hamden will be 'repurposed' by the university.
By MICHAEL C. BINGHAM

With enrollment at an all-time high, eight professional schools and three campuses, Quinnipiac University has been in expansion mode for two decades.

But its media presence will be diminished at the end of the present academic term when the university’s radio station, WQUN (1220 AM), goes off the air for the last time.

Last Friday QU Vice President for Public Affairs Lynn Bushnell wrote in a letter that in order “to more closely match the ever-changing needs and interests of our students, and to better prepare them for future employment opportunities, we will cease operations of AM-1220 WQUN, the university’s Greater New Haven community radio station, on June 30, 2019.”

WQUN first went on the air in 1997 not only as a communications outlet affording then-Quinnipiac College a media interface with its surrounding Hamden-North Haven-New Haven community, but as a training ground for students interested in learning more about and perhaps pursuing careers in broadcasting.

“Unfortunately, in recent years the entire radio industry, AM in particular, has seen tectonic changes,” Bushnell wrote last Friday. “The number of students who even consider a career in radio, or who want to intern at WQUN-AM has declined sharply, prompting the university to re-examine the prudence of continuing to operate a community radio station.”

WQUN’s programming is a melange of baby-boomer soft-pop music, local news and public affairs programming, CBS network news and QU sports including live broadcasts of men’s and women’s basketball and hockey.

The radio station’s building and property at 3085 Whitney Ave. in Hamden will be retained and repurposed as part of the university’s “strategic planning process,” Bushnell added.

Contact Michael C. Bingham at mbingham@newhavenbiz.com

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