10:28 PM, Feb. 18th, 2009 (explanation afterward)

[News Gal]

I fell asleep beside Leonard Cohen
On the newsroom floor tonight
Intoxicated by beer and exhaustion.
My bed here two cushions
from the station sofa
my covers San Francisco
from the studio monitors.
My head filled with, brimming with words
yet also exhausted by the day's news
My feet chilled from the walk
to and from the Baldwin Street bodega
for chorizo and rice.
The stay does me very well--
there is quiet here to comfort me.
For the first time in years
I can hear myself thinking.
This is the life of a person
who is dedicated
yet never feels for her dedication.
And thirty-six miles away
sleeps my lover
of who I dream
until the cellular bell intones
a radio station wake-up call.
--Courtney Miller-Rao

Note: this poem comes from when I got snowed in at WATR one night and decided to make the absolute best of it. I had Book of Longing with me in by bag to read over lunch, hence the first line. Baldwin Street is the one of the main parts of Waterbury's Hispanic neighborhood, and the station is located there.

[lizzytysh]

Yes, you sure did make the best of it, Courtney. I'm hungry and in the mood for something to eat, drink, and read, after reading it.

I like these observations of yourself:

The stay does me very well--
there is quiet here to comfort me.
For the first time in years
I can hear myself thinking.
This is the life of a person
who is dedicated
yet never feels for her dedication.

I like the call letters of your station. Do they refer to it as W[a]T[e]R?


~ Lizzy

[News Gal]

Yes, you sure did make the best of it, Courtney. I'm hungry and in the mood for something to eat, drink, and read, after reading it.

I like these observations of yourself:

The stay does me very well--
there is quiet here to comfort me.
For the first time in years
I can hear myself thinking.
This is the life of a person
who is dedicated
yet never feels for her dedication.

I like the call letters of your station. Do they refer to it as W[a]T[e]R?


~ Lizzy

Thanks for the kind words The call letters were chosen when we went on air in 1934, the owner, Harold Thomas (not his real name, he was from Turkey) chose them to represent the station's purpose--to serve the Greater Waterbury area. I've heard some call it The Water before, but most just say ATR, dropping the conventional W or K on call letters.