1440 AM/102.3
FM
WBAB BABYLON (1958)
Established and licensed in 1958, WBAB was first owned by the Babylon-Bay Shore Broadcasting Company. Although the call letters "WBAB" had a short lived prior use at a station in Atlantic City (see clipping below), Long Island's WBAB AM was first licensed to operate at 500 watts, then to 1kw day (500 watts pre-sunrise) in 1962. The AM had simulcast the FM for many years and there was even speculation of starting a regional all-news format in the mid 1960's. The AM split from the FM in 1976 and became WNYG 1440 (New York Gospel) Radio. Due to financial problems, the FM was sold in 1979 while the AM continued under numerous formats, (Gospel, CHR/14 Gold, Standards, Oldies, Spanish, Oldies, CHR and once again... Religious). The programming history of WBAB FM is indeed interesting, as it was everything from Big Band to Top 40 and finally, what most would call "Free Form Album Rock". WNYG's format history also holds a diverse lineup of programming.
Aerial
view photo of WBAB's original property, located just
south of Sunrise Highway on Route 109 and East Drive in Babylon.
Photo was taken April 25th, 1994, exactly one week after
WNYG ended its six-year oldies format.
WBAB Atlantic City Calls Prior To
1958
(Courtesy Of Mike Erickson)
WBAB
AM 1440 / FM 102.3
DJ Lineup 1968
(Above Courtesy Of Eddie Dee - Click The Ad
For Large View Of Personalities)
Source: Suffolk Sun Ad Saturday March 30th 1968
1960's WBAB Sales Brochure
Notice the WBAB Single Prop News Plane and Vintage Remote Vehicle! All
these
items were considered (at the time) 'state of the art' and WBAB exclusives!
(Above WBAB DJ Lineups Courtesy Of Steve Elliot)
Click above to hear the "HAPPENING SOUND"
of WBAB!
Click above for WBAB FM's Christmas Day 1979
News Cast with Marty Curley
(4,041KB MP3)
Just added: A
very super special THANKS to Rick
Christensen for sending us
several mini Reel-To-Reel Tapes of early WBAB Radio (Circa 1970-71), which
he recorded using a portable radio and his mini reel to reel recorder! Please
keep in mind, these tapes are the original mini reels recorded almost 40
years ago. Audio levels and quality vary.
MP3 Or RealAudio
Tape 1 (Above): Bob Evans filling in for Mark Alan,
the original Mark Alan as himself,
Scott Burke voicing a promo and Steve Elliot on WBAB 102.3 FM. Enjoy Listening!
MP3 Or RealAudio
Tape 2 (Above): Marty Curley on WBAB circa 1970 with a network news report
from Mutual News in New York City.
The WBAB FM PD lineage went from Tony James (late 60's and early 70's... and once again in 1981), to Mark Alan (1972?), to Charlie Ambrogio (around 1976), to Marty Curley (1978) and finally to Bob Buchmann (1979). Mark Alan was instrumental in helping Harry Chapin kick off his food for the hungry charity, which even today is widespread. Harry used to come to the station regularly, and he and Mark had a wonderful rapport. While Tony James was PD (60's/70's), Mike Jeffries was WBAB's Music Director. Both Mike and Tony came up with "The Happening Sound" format. In 1968, they officially kicked off WBAB as a Rock Station by airing the Beatles White Album for 24 hours straight!
Lynne Sinan started with WBAB as a part time secretary in
1972, slowly gaining valuable experience by taking on many different tasks,
which eventually helped her reach the title of Station Manager. Lynne
worked very closely with Larry Walsh, and is credited for helping
coordinate WBAB's sales force, performing sales related customer
relations, handling client payment arrangements and collections, as well as
developing and overseeing switchboard operations.
On one occasion, Lynne was directly involved with making all
the necessary arrangements for critical tower service and repairs.
Lynne's career with WBAB FM and WNYG AM lasted 10 consecutive years
(1972-82), and even today, she is still regarded by her past
colleagues as being one of the station's best managers.
A driving force in WBAB's early sales team was Mr. Tony Michaels. Tony started working for Muriel in sales, and by the time WBAB was sold in 78, he became station Sales Manager. He ultimately joined Franz Allina at the new WBAB FM, and eventually became the station's General Manager. After many years of dedicated service, Tony left WBAB and started his own recording business. Many of his past colleagues are curious to know where he is today.
Another very noted broadcast personality to grace the studios and halls of WBAB in the early 70's was legendary Long Island broadcaster Barry Neal (WBAB 1969-71, WBLI 1971-76, and again on WBLI from 1981-92). More information about Barry can be found on the "Where Are They Today?" link.
Barry Neal
Memories on this page are dedicated to pre-1980 WBAB alumni. *Some of the pictures shown below were found downstairs hidden away in the station's abandoned engineering office.
A very special thanks goes to John Bohannon, Steve Elliot and Mike Jeffries for graciously donating more vintage WBAB photos for all to enjoy!
*(clockwise from left)
Unknown, Jim Genovese, Tim Ryan, Barry Neal, Tony James & Scott Robbins
WBAB
On
The Air with Steve Elliot
*Scott Robbins
*Scott Burke
*Terri
James
John Bohannon
FROM THE MIKE JEFFRIES COLLECTION:
Mike Jeffries in the WBAB On-Air Captain's Seat
WBAB Music Director Mike Jeffries
conducting official business
Mike celebrating with Goldfinger
Shirley Bassey
WBAB's Marty Curley & Mike
Jeffries on the air
with legendary Guest Star Neil Sedaka!
Mike with recording
legends Paul Anka and Neil Diamond
Mike
Jeffries recalls a little
history note re: Neil Diamond... "After the first time we had him on the
show (one of about a dozen or so times over two
years), he thought of a genius thing to do.
Neil would call me after he had just cut a new record and would bring it out to
the station to play it over the FM airwaves to hear what
it sounded like. Then, if it was ok, they would press it. If not, he would
remix the entire song to his liking."
Also, according to Mike, WBAB FM was the very first station in the entire nation to air the hit single "Popcorn" by Hot Butter.
(Photos Courtesy Of Mike
Jeffries)
Station Manager Lynne Sinan recalls some of the other celebrities coming to the station: "Kiki Dee, Sergio Franchi and Gordon Lightfoot were the recording artists that were a big part of those times!"
The
Program Director on the AM side was Mark Alan up until 1976, when the AM-FM
split. This was when WNYG turned Contemporary Christian for a few years.
For a brief time, Malcolm Davis had taken over the AM PD reigns from Mark, before handing
them over to ex-FM PD Charlie Ambrogio.
Malcolm Soll (Davis)
Sad news: After a long illness, Malcom Soll, who was better
known in our radio community as Malcolm Davis and Austin Davis, passed away on
June 4th 2006 at home with his family by his side. Malcom is survived by
his wife Grace (Mastroianni) Soll, to whom he was married for 32 years. He
is also survived by his 3 children: Andrea, Robert and Dan.
Father Jim Vlaun is the current host of WBAB's "Religion and Rock" program on Sunday mornings, and has been doing the show for 19 years now! Jim even worked for 'BAB as a kid in the old NYG building. Jim says: "I started hosting the show in the old building on Rt. 109 after the prior host, Father Tom Hartman retired from the show after 13 years.
Considered the main breakaway, WBAB FM was purchased on Memorial Day in 1979 by All Shores Radio LTD. Most of the equipment from the old WBAB studios were moved across the street several hundred feet south of Sunrise Highway on Route 109 (in the same building occupied by P.C. Richards & Sons). The original WBAB Gates/Harris transmitter remained in the WNYG complex next to the AM unit while WBAB leased back space for the transmitter and use of the old tower. Audio from the new studios (across the street) was fed back to the WNYG building via dual 15K equalized radio (telco) lines. For the better part of that year, WBAB's RF could actually be heard leaking through the older studio equipment back at WNYG.
Vintage Sign Nailed To The WBAB Production Studio Door
However, the official breakaway took place in mid 1980, when at the stroke of midnight, WBAB's Chief Engineer John Blake threw the switch that changed the audio feed to a studio transmitter link (STL) between the WBAB/P.C. Richards studios and a newly constructed transmitter site located in Dix Hills. For all intensive purposes, WBAB 102.3 FM had officially and permanently broke loose from all it's ties to WNYG. One week later, the original BAB Gates/Harris transmitter was removed from the complex and used at the new tower site as a backup. The tower's beacon was turned off around 1989, but for historical purposes, the old, original RCA 102.3 FM antenna elements (unused since 1979) can still be seen high atop the WNYG tower in Babylon.
Footnote: One year later, All Shore Broadcasting purchased WGBB 1240 AM in Freeport, which became the replacement AM sister station of WBAB. But, that's an entirely different story altogether!
Soon after the studio re-location transition period, several original WBAB air-staff members were unceremoniously handed pink slips. Some left voluntarily and changed careers entirely, while others returned to work for WNYG. It was during this time WNYG (as New York Gospel) made it's first big format change to CHR under the banner of Long Island's Treasure Chest - 14 Gold WNYG (New York Gold).
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