WBAZ

WBAZ
City Bridgehampton, New York
Broadcast area Eastern Long Island, southeastern Connecticut
Branding 102-5 'BAZ
Slogan Refreshing & Relaxing
Frequency 102.5 MHz
First air date 1996 (as WLIE)
Format Adult Contemporary
ERP 4,800 watts
HAAT 106 meters (348 ft)
Class A
Facility ID 52061
Transmitter coordinates 40°53′58.00″N 72°23′6.00″W / 40.8994444°N 72.3850000°W / 40.8994444; -72.3850000Coordinates: 40°53′58.00″N 72°23′6.00″W / 40.8994444°N 72.3850000°W / 40.8994444; -72.3850000
Callsign meaning W BAZ = "Bays"
Former callsigns WAFV (1993-1994)
WLIE (1994-1998)
WBSQ (1998-2001)
WCSO (2001)[1]
Owner Lauren Roger Stone
(LRS Radio, LLC)
Sister stations WBEA, WEHM & WEHN
Webcast Listen Live
Listen Live (via TuneIn)
Website wbaz.com

WBAZ (102.5 FM) is an Adult contemporary music formatted radio station licensed to Bridgehampton, New York and serves eastern Long Island and Southeastern Connecticut. The station is owned by WEHM on-air talent Lauren Stone (68.8%) and her father Roger W. Stone (31.2%), the Chairman/CEO of Kapstone Paper & Packaging Company in Northbrook, Illinois, as licensee LRS Radio, LLC.[2] The station's studios are located in Water Mill, New York and shared by WBEA and WEHM/WEHN. WBAZ's transmitter is located in Southampton.

History

Amagansett studios

The 102.5 frequency first signed on in 1996 as WLIE, put on the air by WBAZ-owner Mel Kahn and his MAK Communications. At the outset, the new frequency went through some difficulties as a planned launch with AP All News Radio went awry and the station instead signed on with a satellite-fed country music format. Less than a year later, the country format was replaced with classic rock.

In early 1998, the 102.5 frequency changed again as it took on new calls, WBSQ, and a new Hot Adult Contemporary format (again satellite-fed) as Q-(Bright)102.5. Launched as a compliment to WBAZ at 101.7 FM, and not much else, the station remained an afterthought in the scheme of East End radio.

When Kahn sold WBAZ and WBSQ to AAA Entertainment, owner of locally-run rival WBEA at 104.7 FM in 2000, the future of WBSQ's Hot AC format was limited. Studies by AAA showed that the majority of WBAZ's listeners were concentrated in the Southampton/Bridgehampton area and that the slightly worse 102.5 FM signal would be ideal for the station. In April 2001, WBSQ took the WCSO calls used by AAA as placeholders and would simulcast and assume WBAZ's format and calls that May. The 101.7 frequency soon became home to WBEA whereas WBEA's former home at 104.7 FM became home to a classic hits station targeted to New London, Connecticut.

In 2005, WBAZ, WBEA, and sister stations WEHM and WHBE would be purchased by Long Island Radio Broadcasting, a unit of Cherry Creek Radio.

Personalities

Walker Vreeland began hosting the Morning Show on WBAZ in May 2007. In September 2010 he moved to the Afternoon Drive time slot. Vreeland resigned from WBAZ on December 9, 2016.

References

  1. ↑ "Call Sign History". CDBS Public Access Database. FCC Media Bureau. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
  2. ↑ "LRS Radio Acquires Long Island Cluster". Radio Insight. Retrieved October 13, 2017.

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