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WBAB

Field	Value
name	WBAB
city	Babylon, New York
country	US
logo	Wbab.png
logo_upright	1
area	Long Island
frequency
branding	102.3 WBAB
format	Classic rock
owner	Cox Media Group
licensee	CMG NY/Texas Radio, LLC
sister_stations
airdate
former_callsigns	WBAB-FM (1958–2003)
callsign_meaning	Babylon Bay Shore Broadcasting (original owner)
licensing_authority	FCC
facility_id	71199
class	A
erp
haat	82 m
coordinates
repeaters
webcast
website

WBAB (102.3 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Babylon, New York. It is owned by Cox Radio with studios and offices on Sunrise Highway (New York State Route 27) in West Babylon. Morning duo "Roger & JP" (Roger Luce and John Parise) began hosting the morning show in January 2000.InsideRadio.com "Long Island Morning Duo Roger & JP Celebrate 25 Years on WBAB" March 31, 2025. Retrieved April 23, 2025 WBAB and sister station WHFM (95.3 FM, licensed to Southampton, simulcast a classic rock radio format for Long Island.

WBAB has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 6,000 watts; its transmitter is off the Long Island Expressway South Service Road in Dix Hills. WBAB's signal covers Western Suffolk County and part of Nassau County, while WHFM's signal covers Long Island's East End.

History

Top 40, album rock, classic rock

The station signed on the air on August 27, 1958, as WBAB-FM. In its early years, it simulcast WBAB (1440 AM). Because the AM station was a daytimer, WBAB-FM could continue its programming in the evening, when the AM station had to go silent. The stations were owned by Bay Shore Broadcasting. At the time, WBAB-FM was powered at only 670 watts, a fraction of its current output.

In the 1970s, the stations had a Top 40 format. In September 1975, the simulcast ended. AM 1440 adopted a Gospel music format as WNYG. WBAB-FM shifted its focus to an album rock sound. By the early 2000s, WBAB began concentrating on the top rock songs of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, becoming a classic rock station.

2006 signal hijacking

On the morning of Wednesday, May 17, 2006, the station's signal was hijacked for about 90 seconds. During that time, the signal jammers broadcast the song "Nigger Hatin' Me" by the 1960s-era white supremacist country music singer Johnny Rebel.

Roger Luce, the station's morning host, said at the time, "I've never seen this in 22 years at this radio station... Whatever that was - it was very racist." The next morning, it made the front page of Newsday with the headline "JACKED FM". The station's new general manager, John Shea, said, "I've only been here a week and we get hijacked." Former program director John Olsen said, "This was not some child's prank, this was a federal offense."

The hijack was likely accomplished by overpowering the studio transmitter link (STL) signal to the transmitter in Dix Hills, New York. A signal hijacking with the same song happened to WBAB's sister station WBLI (106.1 FM) about two weeks earlier.

Discography

WBAB Homegrown Album (1981)
WBAB Son of Homegrown (1984)

References

[https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1960/BC-YB-1960-Radio.pdf ''Broadcasting Yearbook 1960'' page A-188. Retrieved April 23, 2025.]
[https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1976/C%20%20Broadcasting%20Yearbook%201976.pdf ''Broadcasting Yearbook 1976'' page C-130. Retrieved April 23, 2025.]
(October 1, 1977). "Gospel for New York Suburbs". Record World.
(May 18, 2006). "WBAB/Long Island Claims Someone "Hijacked" Signal". All Access Music Group.
"WBAB Hijacked By Pirates - 5/17/06".
Lamberty, Reid. (May 18, 2006). "WBAB-FM Airwaves Hijacked By Pirates: Long Island Radio Station Has Offensive Material On Its Air". [[WCBS-TV]].
(May 18, 2006). "Pirate hijacks New York radio signal".
"WBAB Call Sign History". FCC Media Bureau.
"Digital Notification".
"Digital Notification".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1958-establishments-in-new-york-(state) babylon-(town),-new-york classic-rock-radio-stations-in-the-united-states cox-media-group mass-media-in-suffolk-county,-new-york radio-stations-established-in-1958 radio-stations-in-new-york-(state)

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