The Citizens’ Police Academy is one of the best — and most unpublicized, and underrated — programs in town.
25 Westport residents participate in classes that cover many aspects of law enforcement.
They learn about specialized units in the Westport Police Department, as well as how it operates and its role in the criminal justice system.
Participants observe demonstrations, and get hands-on experience with equipment the police use every day.
Instructors include experienced officers, and attorneys from Stamford Court.
In addition to classes, students experience a ride-along with a patrol officer.
They also receive Stop the Bleed training.
The next Westport Citizens’ Police Academy begins September 19. Classes run from 7 to 9:30 p.m. for 8 weeks, on select Tuesdays and Thursdays (September 19 and 26; October 1, 10, 17, 24, and November 7 and 14).
The academy is open to Westport residents 21 and older. Applications are available at police headquarters or by email from Officer Jill Cabana (jcabana@westportct.gov), and are due by August 27.
Residents can learn about this vehicle — and many other aspects of policing — at the upcoming Citizens’ Academy. (Photo/Dennis Wong)
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Big Y is hiring.
The supermarket — which plans a soft launch starting October 24, in the Post Road East shopping plaza best known now for Angelina’s — begins interviews on August 26.
The hiring site will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, through October 19.
Positions are open in the bakery; meat and seafood; in-store deli and kitchen; produce and floral, and center store. Big Y is also hiring cashiers, overnight stock clerks, and managers and assistant managers.
For more information, click here.
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Staples High School Class of 1971 graduate Jon Diamond writes:
I was at Compo Beach the other day, and there it was: the Good Humor Truck.
It looked exactly like it did when I was 10 years old. (I think then we flagged it down at Burying Hill Beach.).
I learned that the Good Humor “man” is a woman. Kathryn has been doing this for 25 years, throughout Fairfield County.
The truck is an original — circa 1968 — and still running strong.
As I stopped to talk to Kathryn, other 70-somethings did too. We were all dazzled.
Kathryn, the Good Humor woman. (Photo/Jon Diamond)
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Speaking of Compo Beach: The extended Mickune family was there yesterday, celebrating patriarch Derm Mickune’s 90th birthday.
His sons and daughters came from as far as Arizona, for the birthday, bringing spouses and grandkids too.
The Mickune “kids” were well known during their time at Staples High School. They enjoyed their time back in their hometown.
And their dad was — as you can see below — all smiles.
Derm Mickune (Photo/Dan Woog)
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The demise of WCBS 880 AM took Westporters by surprise.
New York’s all-news station will end its programming this month. It went on the air nearly 6 decades ago: August 28, 1967.
It will be renamed the very unmemorable WHSQ says its owner, the oddly named Audacy.
The Philadelphia company owns more than 230 radio stations in the US, including WFAN and WINS in New York.
The new station will launch as sports radio ESPN — joining WFAN in that space.
WINS, meanwhile, becomes the only all-news station in the market.
This being Westport, we’re sure there are readers who have a connection to WCBS NewsRadio 88. If you’ve worked with or for it — or have a memorable story to tell, as a listener — click “Comments” below.
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In 2023, “06880” introduced Jay Babina to the world.
The Westporter is the founder, curator and mastermind of the Westport Tech Museum — an astonishing repository for over 400 computers, video games, calculators, cameras, radios and more.
Much more.
It’s a spectacular museum.
It’s private, though: in Jay’s attic.
And he’s only 18 years old.
This spring, we visited him again.
Now WSHU has joined the Jay Babina fan club.
Yesterday, the NPR station aired a feature on one of Westport’s most interesting teenagers.
Or most interesting residents of any age, period. Click here to listen.
(PS: NPR posted it on their national Facebook page. And at least for a while, Jay’s story was on the home page of the national network’s website. Very cool — and very well deserved.)
Jay Babina channels Steve Jobs, with Apple’s groundbreaking Macintosh.
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This summer we’ve seen — among other animals — bears and coyotes on the roads and in the woods of Westport.
(Spotted lanternflies too. But let’s not go there.)
Now there is at least one pig. And a bison.
(Photo/Mary Lou Roels)
At least they’re confined to the Furniture on Consignment II store on Post Road East.
Perhaps they eat lanternflies?
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Tickets for the Woodside Bash — the great Earthplace fundraiser (Saturday, October 5, 7 to 10 p.m.) featuring great food, live music and a woodsy fall evening — are available now, at a special price.
They’re $100 each through Labor Day. They’re $125 from then on. Click here to purchase.
The fun continues the next day (Sunday, October 6, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.), with the annual Fall Festival. The family fun includes food trucks, a climbing wall, corn pool, apple slingshot, donut on a string, nature exploration, animal encounters and more. Click here for tickets.
Outdoor fun, at the Woodside Bash.
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It’s still mid-August. But it’s already pumpkin time.
At least, pumpkin blossom time.
Matt Murray spotted the flower yesterday, on Compo Road South. It’s our first fall-themed “Westport … Naturally” photo of the year.
Yikes!
(Photo/Matt Murray)
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And finally … in honor of the first pumpkin (blossom) of the season (story above):
(WCBS is signing off. But your local news source — “06880” — is still here. Please help us stay strong. Please click here for a tax-deductible donation. Thank you!)
When I see the words Westport and Good Humor, I think of one name- Ray!
The demise of WCBS News Radio 88 (which is how I think of it, not as the current 880), hits a bit hard for me because that was the station my parents always tuned into when driving. It’s part of the soundtrack of my childhood, and I sometimes wonder if those dramatic top-of-the-hour world news updates are what first got me interested in pursuing a career in journalism.
I am the grandson and namesake of Arthur Hull Hayes, Sr., who was President of CBS Radio from 1955 until his retirement in 1967. My grandfather began his career at CBS Radio (at the time know as ABC Radio) in 1934, working in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Over time, he moved to New York and was General Manager of WCBS Radio until 1949, when he relocated to San Francisco to be the first Vice President and General Manager of the network’s newly acquired Station, KCBS (formerly KQW). He remained in San Francisco until he was named President of the CBS Radio Network in 1955 when he moved back to New York.
It is with sadness that I recently learned of the decision to cease the operations and call letters of WCBS Radio, as it has played a very large part of my family’s life. The stories and memories of my grandfather, father, aunt and uncle of the golden age of radio were a big part of my youth. On my bookshelf, I still have the WCBS microphone given to my grandfather in 1949 as a gift from the staff of WCBS when left for his stint at KCBS in San Francisco, and we have saved many of the CBS Radio Network publicity pictures of my grandfather with Frank Sinatra, Arthur Godfrey, Jonathan Winters, Helen Hayes, Eleanor Roosevelt, and more. It’s a very sad day for New York news radio listeners.
Small world fact: I believe Gordon Joseloff, Westport’s former First Selectman, knew my grandfather many years ago when Mr. Joseloff was a foreign correspondent for CBS.
Thanks for the back story, Arthur. I knew there would be “06880” connections like this.
This were so orderly when we had WNBC at 660 on the dial, WABC at 770 and WCBS at 880.
Love the perspective of WCBS’s talented Wayne Cabot (1/2 of a great broadcasting tandem, along with Paul Murnane)
https://barrettmedia.com/2024/08/12/wcbs-newsradio-880-anchor-wayne-cabot-i-can-be-logical-about-station-ending-but-its-still-a-gut-punch/?amp
When I still worked for a living I used to set my alarm for 3:18 a.m., though I was always awake before it went off. But I didn’t get out of bed till I heard “traffic and weather together on the eights.” Life goes on, but it’s sad to lose these little landmarks.
WCBS’s first call letters were WAHG, for Alfred Grebs, who had a radio factory in Queens. It later became WBOQ for Borough of Queens. It was then WABC, for Atlantic Broadcasting Company. WOR was the original CBS station, and when they preempted CBS programing too often, the network bought WABC. When the onetime NBC Blue network changed its name to the American Broadcasting Company in 1946, WABC became WCBS and WEAF became WNBC (which was also briefly WRCA). On the same day, in San Francisco, KPO became KNBC (now KNBR) and KQW (originally in San Jose and which could make a claim to being America’s first radio station, dating to 1909) became KCBS. It wasn’t until 1953 that WJZ became WABC, and a year later KECA in Los Angeles became KABC.
NBC got out of the radio business in 1988, ABC in 2003 and CBS in 2019.
One pioneer in radio was Westporter Donald Flamm, who owned WMCA. The station was taken from him around 1940 (itself a big scandal) and he later owned WPAT and then Westport’s WMMM.
This is the second time 1050 was abandoned for a better signal. The station was originally WHN, owned by Loews Theaters (“On the screen and in the air, Loews entertainment is everywhere.”) It became WMGM and was known both for its rock and sports programming, the later featuring Marty Glickman as well as the Brooklyn Dodger and, after they began their extended west coast road trip, the Yankees. After the payola scandals forced its sale, new owners reverted its call letters back to WHN and programmed MOR and later country music. In 1987 Emmis broadcasting bought it, made it WFAN an all sports, and in 1988, with the demise of WNBC, moved it to 660 AM. The 1050 signal was bought by WEVD, a time-brokered station which enabled the later to sell its more valuable FM signal. ABC bought that to be ESPN’s radio station.
!050 AM is a secondary signal, like WINS, and is directional to the south, protecting CHUM in Toronto. 660 and 880 (which share the same transmitting tower on City Island in the Bronx), have non-directional signals. Prior to 1980, they were “clear channel” meaning all other stations at that frequency signed off the air at sunset to give WNBC and WCBS exclusive use of that signal. WABC is also non-directional, but shares the signal with a station in Albuquerque.
There were 60 clear channel stations, many of which can be received in Westport. WLIB and WNYC in New York signed off the air at sunset for WOWO in Fort Wayne and WCCO in Minneapolis. Under the Reagan administration, clear channel stations were abandoned.
Apropos of nothing, but a fun fact–the WICC transmitting towers in Stratford were originally used by WNAC (now WRKO) in Boston. They were barged down here in 1926 when WICC went on the air. Both stations were owned by the Yankee Network.
This is probably one of the reasons for the demise of WCBS- AM. Apparently, car manufacturers won’t offer AM stations in their new cars.
https://www.wshu.org/connecticut-news/2023-06-09/blumenthal-tells-car-manufacturers-to-keep-installing-am-radios
Happy Birthday Derm!
Jan Marcus writes:
CBS RADIO 880AM has been a part of the fabric of my life since
I married my late husband, Mark in 1962 and moved to Westport.
I have listened to it every morning while I get dressed and every
evening while getting ready for bed.
I also listen to it in my car.
On November 22, 1963, it was on CBS Radio that I learned of
the death of President John F, Kennedy — the first President for
whom Mark & I had been old enough to vote.
Returning from lunch to my job with Denny Davidoff at CA Smith
Ad Agency on the 2nd floor of the new downtown Brooks Corner Building,
I walked down the corridor past other offices and heard the National
Anthem playing on radios in the middle of the afternoon. I knew that
JFK had been pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, TX,
where he had been taken after being shot in a motorcade..
It was on CBS Radio on August 16, 1977, that I learned that Elvis
Presley had been found dead in his bathroom at Graceland in Memphis.
Reporter Pat Collins, then a young woman, ended her report
with the comment: “For our generation, this marks the end
of our youth.”
I have never forgotten that statement. She was right.
On December 8, 1980, as I was preparing for bed, I heard on
CBS Radio about the shooting death of John Lennon as he
returned to his apartment at the iconic Dakota apartment
house in NYC after a late night recording session.
While dressing for the day, on a much more recent December
14, I learned on CBS Radio that there had been a shooting incident
at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT — just 20
miles to the north of the Oakwood Lane, Westport, address off Newtown
avenue where Mark and I lived.
The early report said that 4 CT State Troopers, first on the scene,
were saying only that what they had viewed was “Grim.”
I knew something terrible had occurred and went to waken
my husband.
As we know, only one all news radio station in the
New York area remains: WINS 1010.
Will that soon follow suit?
This is a sign of the times, A result of the Internet, and Social
Media, and of a generation that has no interest in what is
going on in the world around them They would rather spend
their days texting their friends, posting “Selfies” and watching
TikTok around the clock.
To me, this is tragic.