WGBB
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| City | Freeport, New York |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | South Shore of Nassau County, New York |
| Slogan | The station that serves your community |
| Frequency | 1240 kHz |
| Translator(s) | W240DF (95.9, Freeport) |
| First air date | December 1924 (as WGBB) January 22, 1988 (as WBAB) April 15, 1991 (as WGBB) |
| Format | Specialty, Multi-cultural programming |
| Language(s) | Chinese, English |
| Power | 1,000 watts (day) 1,000 watts (night) |
| Class | C |
| Facility ID | 72091 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 40°38′44.00″N 73°34′39.00″W / 40.6455556°N 73.5775000°W |
| Callsign meaning | Where Good Broadcasting Begins |
| Former callsigns | WGBB (1924–1988) WBAB (1988–1991) |
| Owner | WGBB AM, Inc. |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | am1240wgbb |
WGBB (1240AM and 95.9FM) is a radio station licensed to Freeport, New York and serves the South Shore of Nassau County and the South Shore of Babylon Town in Suffolk County, New York. It broadcasts Chinese language programming weekdays, and various English language religious and ethnic programs on weekends. The studio is located in West Babylon, NY.
WGBB was born December 1924 as a 150 watt share-time outlet. The call letters were twisted into the slogan “Where Good Broadcasting Begins,” but in actuality were sequentially assigned by the Commerce Department from an alphabetical list. Harry H. Carman, ham station operator 2EL, was creator and owner until his death in 1954. Carman was seriously hurt in an auto mishap just before Christmas 1953 and perished the following July.
Initially WGBB transmitted on several frequencies:
Share-time agreements were common in radios’ early days because there were more stations than frequencies. WGNY dropped out in 1939 by moving to 1220. Then as part of the March 29, 1941 Federal rearranging and expansion of the entire band AM band WGBB was shifted to 1240. By 1942 the frequency share was condensed when WBRB went out of business. On March 22, 1943 WFAS relocated to 1230 and WGBB became the sole occupant of 1240 ending eighteen years of share-time operation.
In 1931 “The Voice of the Sunrise Trail” was moved from the Carman Bedell Street Freeport home to the Freeport Post Office Building at 64 S. Grove Street. In 1937 the studios were relocated to the celebrated 44 S. Grove Street loft. The transmitter remained at 217 Bedell Street; situated in Carman’s garage. In 1947 WGBB’s long wire antenna, strung between utility poles in Carman’s backyard was replaced by a gleaming self-supporting 285 foot vertical antenna. This improvement probably was in response to WHNY, a new FM sister station to WHLI in nearby Hempstead, WGBB’s first local competitor. Carman’s original tower was replaced with the current structure in the early 1980s.
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Wikipedia