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When WCBS 880 ceased operations in August, it left many station employees in a pickle. Some were nearing the end of their careers while others were smack dab in the middle of their radio endeavors. While all of the employees were in a difficult position, Brigitte Quinn was at a crossroads.
The longtime New York news anchor had already relocated to Connecticut during her tenure with WCBS 880. So, finding another job in the city would continue an already long commute. She never could have guessed, however, that her next radio home would be at 600/95.9 WICC in Bridgeport.
Quinn began her tenure with the Connoisseur Media news/talk outlet on the air this week as part of an expansion of local programming on WICC from 5 AM-6 PM. Quinn’s show, Newsline, which utilizes similar branding to what she had at the Audacy New York station, is heard from 12-2 PM and features a live interview and call-in show focused on the news and issues most important to Connecticut listeners. And even though she’s still getting her feet wet, she already feels like she’s at home at her new station.
“The crew there has been just amazing, so warm, so welcoming. I’m so happy to be there. It feels like home already,” said Quinn. “I’ve only been there for a week, but my family and I moved back to Connecticut. We raised our children here and moved back to Connecticut in December. I was doing the commute from Connecticut down to lower Manhattan to work at WCBS 880 and it’s definitely a schlep.
“When we moved up here, I started listening and sampling some of the Connecticut radio stations, and I came across WICC and thought, ‘Wow, now there’s a local station. They do these great talk shows.’ Those light bulbs went on over my head that perhaps that would one day be a nice place to work.
“And lo and behold, the timing was just so serendipitous that after they pulled the plug on us (at WCBS 880), this opportunity came up almost immediately, and I pounced. I was happy to be able to work locally.”
Quinn realizes how fortunate she is to have the opportunity to pounce on a job while many of her former colleagues continue to look for work.
“It could not have worked out better. I hate to say that, because there were so many people at 880 — I don’t want to say they were blindsided by what happened, but I think we all felt something could happen. But when it did, it was really scary and really devastating for a lot of people,” she admitted.
“I don’t in any way mean to sound smug and satisfied. It was really just pure dumb luck that this opened up at this particular moment in time. I’m so grateful, and I’m sure the people I worked with will land on their feet. It’s just a matter of time. But I feel really, really lucky to be able to jump back into the news business so quickly.”
Brigitte Quinn has a long history with all-news radio. She anchored mornings at 880 WCBS from 1988 to 1996 and also anchored middays at sister station 1010 WINS from 2013 to 2023 before moving to middays again at WCBS in 2023. She’ll parlay that experience into her new show at WICC, which will have a chance to expound upon the news rather than stick to strict time lengths to fit more stories into a segment.
“In terms of what I’m doing on the air, it’s not a huge adjustment,” she said, before noting that CBS News Radio updates will air at the top and bottom of each hour during her program. “I cannot tell you how great a resource that is, so I will feel comfortable working with those resources.
“What I think is going to be different — but in many ways nicer — is that the interviews that we’re going to be doing live will still be doing a mix of interviews in terms of topics, we will have a longer time with the guests. We’re not as tightly formatted as the news stations in New York, where you do your traffic hits, your weather hits, your business hits, your sports. There’s so much on the clock, and we certainly have our marks to hit,” she said.
“But the interview segments are longer, so that is going to be wonderful, because some of the people that we’ve had on Newsline over the years are just such great talkers and so smart and so insightful. Now I don’t have to cut them off after three and a half, four minutes.”
Coming from WCBS 880 to WICC will give Brigitte Quinn an immediate credibility with Connecticut listeners. Her living in the state also makes her an active member in the community with her listeners. And she believes that will only make her new show better.
“I think it helps in so far as some of the issues that are going to come up in Connecticut, I probably will have a better innate understanding, because I do live here,” she shared. “Since we’ve moved here, I get a lot of emails about events that are going on. For instance, I got notice an event at the Wilton Library. They’re having a speaker who is coming in to talk about how to help your kid ace their college essay.
“And I thought, ‘Wow. I’d like to talk to her about that.’ So it’s living here and being in the community and being aware of what’s going on in the community that I think is just naturally going to generate a lot of story ideas for us.”
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
