WGLI
AM
1290
(The
other station down the block, across the street)

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History Of "The Mighty 1290 WGLI"
Let me start off by saying,
I actually know very little about this station and that I never
worked for WGLI, but I know people who have. Credit to those for the
information
obtained on this site is greatly acknowledged and given at the
bottom of this page.
Updated information was made possible by Richard Ross
(Chief Engineer of WADO and WGLI).,
along with a detailed e-mail from Edwin Karl, WGLI's CE from back in the early
60's.
All photos were taken by Rick Hall unless credited
otherwise.
Back in 1958, a radio
concern headed by William H. Reuman applied
to the FCC for a
construction permit for a non-directional AM on 1300 kHz, but instead was granted
an operating frequency of 1290 kHz with a directional signal pattern. The assigned
call letters were: WGLI
which later, according to most of the people I have
spoken with, stood for "Greater Long Island"
Communications Inc.

WGLI was the eleventh AM station built on Long
Island (WGBB 1240 being the first), but
officially was Suffolk County's first
full service AM station licensed for 24-hour operation.
For over 30 years
both the studio and transmitters were located in the same building
at
1290 Peconic Avenue
in Babylon, New York.
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Click
the ON-AIR sign to hear a scoped mid-70's
air-check of Dick Moore on the Mighty
1290!
BTW:
Yes! That's the voice of Roger Grimsby doing ABC Radio Network
News!

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WGLI featured lots
of specialized programs on weekends.
Click above for a sample of Sinatra And Friends - hosted by
well known Long Island radio personality Ray Mann!
(Technical Note: Ray's air-check
was retrieved from the station's
dumpster after they upgraded to newer cart machines, which
could not play the older, oversized audio carts.
The above air-check
was found on a vintage Fidelipac model 600 cartridge,
which was the second of three popular sizes: model 300 being the standard
cartridge used by most broadcast facilities, model 600 was
a slightly larger middle size cart which required a 6 inch slot.
The biggest cartridge was the Fidelipac model 1200, which was
approximately 8 inches
wide and held close to 30 minutes of audio.)

Click The Tower To Hear The
Official WGLI Power Change Message!
(MP3)
According to
those who worked for WGLI, it's management was always considered
to be a bit 'top heavy', especially in the paycheck department, and that
the
air staff was considerably under compensated for their true professional talents.
WGLI always sounded very professional, had a polished act with a
respectable major market sound. No
matter how good it may have sounded through
the late 70's and early
80's, it was loosing money... fast.
It was only a matter of
time before WGLI ended up with a "For Sale" sign on it.
Only
this time, the buyer was WADO, a NYC based station with intentions of
permanently
shutting it down. Doing this would open the door wide enough
for them
to apply for a large power increase. The winner: Big Corporate Radio.
The looser: Local
Community Minded Radio.
This site shows what happened
after WGLI was
taken off the air. The local
Babylon
Fire Department labeled the occurrence as 'suspicious' and placed the
blame
for the fire on the local kids in the neighborhood. When you
see these photos, you
can make up your own mind as to what took place.
"Shut It Off & Watch It Burn"

The WGLI
boardwalk out back was surrounded by state protected swampland...
which made an
excellent ground system. It's no wonder WGLI had a great signal!

First view of the fire
remains of the WGLI broadcast complex. This is the main entrance.

Main Entrance close-up:
you can see the hanging twisted down
letter "W" and what was left of the
"GLI" on the doorway marquee.

Please make sure to stop
at the receptionist window to get clearance
into the station! (Actually
folks, this was the news room window.)

View from
inside: this is the center hallway leading to the main front lobby.
The
Lavatory is the first door on the left (in case you need to use it).

Please step lively, your
tour guide is waiting to take you to the commissary.

You are now
standing in what once was the main air control studio of the famous "Mighty
1290".


It is still
unclear how a group of local kids could have caused such a
tremendous fire
capable of destroying an entire radio complex, especially when the reports claimed
the blaze was
started without the use of gasoline or some other igniter.
One interesting
note: the studios and broadcast equipment was removed prior
to the building being set ablaze.
Update:
According to sources at WADO, the removal of the studio
equipment was directly
due to technical problems in the station. Although
nothing that could not have
been fixed, management decided to remove all the
station's equipment and
apply to the FCC requesting a relocation of the WGLI studios to
Mastic Beach.
A year and a half later, the FCC unconditionally denied WADO's petition to
move WGLI.
At this point, the broadcast complex was already
"toast", so WADO requested more time
from the FCC to re-build the
entire facility in Babylon (it's original city of license).

Unfortunately, the FCC had placed tight deadlines on all pending construction
permits.
Unable to completely rebuild WGLI from the ground up within the
FCC's specified time frame,
WADO had little choice but to proceed with handing
in the WGLI license, which the FCC agreed
to make conditional pending the successful
completion of the WADO power increase project.
But that's a whole different
story! For better or worse, the Mighty 1290 was now officially dark.
One last footnote: eleven years later, WADO finally got the FCC's approval for a 50KW power increase.
TODAY'S WGLI TOWER SITE:

In the not too
distant past, we received a wonderful e-mail from Mr. Edwin Karl, who
was the Chief Engineer for WGLI from way back in the early 60's, of which we
would like
to share his memories with you! (Click The Microphone Below)
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I w
ish to thank the following people who helped contributeJim Pierce (photos
and history)I would also like to
hear from anyone who, after visiting this site, might possibly
have more information,
facts and
photos
of WGLI 1290 when it was still on the air.
I can be reached at:
WackRadio@tampabay.rr.com
Or, you can also visit the following excellent WGLI sites:
Jerry Mehrab's WGLI Scrapbook: http://www.wa2fnq.com/wgli/gli.htm
The Long Island Radio History Page: http://www.wackradio.com/lirhistory/index.htm
Disclaimer:
The
Views and Opinions Of What Happened To This Station Were Not Necessarily
Planned By Us... It Just Sort Of Happened That Way.
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