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WBAB
Radio station in Babylon, New York

WBAB (102.3 FM) is a classic rock radio station licensed to Babylon, New York and owned by Cox Radio. The station is also simulcast on WHFM (95.3 FM) licensed to Southampton, New York and serving eastern Long Island.

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History

WBAB first went on the air August 27, 1958, as WBAB-FM. It simulcast WBAB (1440 AM), until September 1975 when 1440 AM adopted a Gospel music format.1

2006 signal hijacking

On the morning of Wednesday, May 17, 2006, the station's signal was hijacked for about 90 seconds2 while 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."3

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."45

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 about two weeks earlier.6

Discography

References

  1. "Gospel for New York Suburbs" (PDF). Record World. October 1, 1977. Retrieved March 15, 2020. https://americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-Record-World-IDX/IDX/70s/77/Record-World-1977-10-01-OCR-Page-0112.pdf ↩

  2. "WBAB/Long Island Claims Someone "Hijacked" Signal". allaccess.com. All Access Music Group. May 18, 2006. Retrieved August 22, 2022. https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/9861/wbab-long-island-claims-someone-hijacked-signal ↩

  3. "WBAB Hijacked By Pirates - 5/17/06". Retrieved August 22, 2022 – via YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyorOejlOSA ↩

  4. "WBAB/Long Island Claims Someone "Hijacked" Signal". allaccess.com. All Access Music Group. May 18, 2006. Retrieved August 22, 2022. https://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/9861/wbab-long-island-claims-someone-hijacked-signal ↩

  5. Lamberty, Reid (May 18, 2006). "WBAB-FM Airwaves Hijacked By Pirates: Long Island Radio Station Has Offensive Material On Its Air". WCBS-TV. Archived from the original on November 10, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20061110225509/http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/local_story_138104944.html ↩

  6. "Pirate hijacks New York radio signal". United Press International. May 18, 2006. Retrieved May 16, 2020. https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2006/05/18/Pirate-hijacks-New-York-radio-signal/33221148010035/?ur3=1 ↩