its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations . please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations . august 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message wgbb city freeport new york broadcast area south shore of nassau county new york slogan the station that serves your community frequency 1240 khz 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 40.6455556 ; 73.5775000 callsign meaning where good broadcasting begins former callsigns wgbb 1924 1988 wbab 1988 1991 1 owner wgbb am inc. webcast listen live website www.am1240wgbb.com wgbb 1240 am 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 . contents 1 history 2 current programming 3 references 4 external links history edit 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 1924 1230 khz 150 watts 1927 1220 khz 400 watts sharing with waat jersey city nj and wsom new york city and by november 1928 1210 khz 100 watts and now sharing with several suburban stations including wbrb long branch nj wfas white plains ny and wgny newburgh ny . 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 . 2 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 . after carman s death wgbb s long time sales manager murray evans took the wheel until the station was sold for 95 thousand dollars 800 thousand in 2012 dollars . to a group of long island businessmen . long island s first station inc. named john whitmore station manager and he rapidly restructured programming into an up to date presentation playing current music . despite the makeover wgbb fell into receivership . on august 6 1956 edward j. fitzgerald owner of wgsm in huntington ny took control . the sale approved by the federal communications commission and a bankruptcy court judge ; the price was assumption of wgbb s debt . and the fcc waved its duopoly rule which prohibited ownership of overlapping signals saying this is a way to be sure creditors would be paid . fitzgerald guided the station s music policy back to standards away from current hits and especially doo wop which was being played on the popular night train evening music show hosted by lee donahue and then alan fredericks . soon after taking over fitzgerald invested in a collins 300g transmitter boosting wgbb s output to 250 watts . in 1956 wgbb was the only remaining 100 watt station in the new york area and one of a just handful in the entire country . it was said that carman had asked the fcc not to grant a power increase because of the substantial investment . it was also rumored that carman rejected an fcc proposal to outfit wgbb with a new frequency and a power increase to 50 thousand watts to fill the need for another major coastal signal . staffers disheartened by these unusual choices knew that carman and program director ada cheesman did not have the competence or assets to accomplish such a transformation . under fitzgerald s direction wgbb began to attract big league national sponsors because sale of commercial announcements on wgbb wgsm were made in combination accounting for a revenue surge . fitzgerald connected his stations with broadcast telephone lines establishing the long island network which offered hourly news sports a fishing report weekend public affairs programs even a few music shows . the news originated at wgbb which had ample space for a newsroom . in 1962 under the direction of chief engineer richard carlsen wgbb set up an rca bta 1 mx transmitter increasing day time power to 1 000 watts but remaining 250 watts at night . the power increase was possible because of freeport s kahn laboratories and their ground breaking signal tweaking identified on the air as experimental station ke2xxs . a kahn black box cut the wgbb bandwidth in half and sent out a compatible single sideband signal . am transmits with twin signals on each side of the carrier wave . this venture proved that adjacent local stations could operate with more power and not cause interference to each other clearing the way for wgbb s 1 000 watt day time signal . some announcers personalities and news reporters from the fifties and sixties with their future destinations nick charles 60 pd upi mike sands edward brown wnew bob beneke bill jaker wskg bill o toole cal miller clem cooper tony james john bohannon cbs radio don crane jim powers lee carle wsta roy whitfield wpix jon ester who tv phil allen wpix fm robert scott ray adell bruce herbert joe roberts hank howard norma jenkins switchboard dick london wwrl al d amico wpix fm steve marko peter strauss andy rage production copy burt stalper ben thumb chet adams john allen wcbs fm as al meredith bob logan wrhu ken lamb abc tv phil doran chairman bbdo as phil dusenberry john frogge nd 31 56 news of nassau bill goddard nd 56 62 christopher glenn cbs john mead wnew john anthony zee jim mckay wcwp as james f. mcconnochie andy anderson harry hart and andy benedict . zee was the on the air november 22 1963 and reported the assassination of president john f. kennedy and made the announcement that kennedy was dead . zee went to hollywood and an acting career appearing in many movies and network tv shows . on may 12 1965 wgbb was sold for 452 000.00 3.3 million in 2012 money to susquehanna a group broadcaster based in york pa . susquehanna built new studios in a building just a few steps from the merrick long island railroad station ending twenty eight years at the 44 s. grove street loft . a world war two vintage gates mixing board from the main control room was salvaged and continued service in the new wgbb production studio . wgbb morphed into a pop music outlet with a strong local news presence 3 enjoying what many have said were its best years . names from the susquehanna era include william musser gm bob lawrence pd & pbp ny islanders dave vieser jim quinn for years as dennis quinn wpix fm nyc roy reynolds mike mckay john gardener gary mcfarlane john commins bullet bob ottone gil david don rosen al case ce as al lush jerry scott jerry walker as harry birrell on knx cbs la ed grilli gary lewi bob dunn ben avery ap bill whitney cbs radio news nyc frank settipani cbs radio news nyc dr. bettina gregory abc news carol sylva wins news 12 long island drew scott news 12 long island ed zidner bill stoller howard liberman wins fox business network mitch lebe many including wrfm wyny wcbs wbbr all nyc 4 wes richards wrfm wor wbbr all nyc mike sullivan and bob allen nd . on july 22 1981 susquehanna sold wgbb to a group headed by franz allina for close to 1 million . the new operators had taken control by mid september . just prior to this sale progran director gil david handled mornings but was better known by his time on whli . it was gary t middays and bob dayton pm drive time dayton was once on wabc . 7 midnight was hosted by glenn turnbull dick farrell overnights . weekends were covered by the weekday staff except the saturday sunday 6 midnight shift which was hosted by joseph m. joe calisi . juliet papa and debbie wetzel were in the newsroom . papa went on to wins . on november 19 1986 noble broadcast group acquired wgbb joining it with wbab fm a babylon ny based aor outlet . wgbb would soon move to the new west babylon wbab studios on sunrise highway . on january 22 1988 the sixty four year old wgbb call letters were retired and 1240 took the identity of its fm sister station becoming wbab and began simulcasting wbab fm most of the time . also in 1988 night time power was increased to 1 000 watts from 250 watts as was the case for all class iv local channel stations in the us on 1240 and other local frequencies including 1230 1340 1400 1450 and 1490 . when the simulcast with wbab fm ended 1240 began airing a news talk format and on april 15 1991 returned to the original wgbb call letters . wgbb and wbab were purchased by liberty broadcasting on february 15 1993 for 16 million . the deal did not separate wgbb s value . on october 7 1996 wgbb and wbab fm began an lma with chancellor broadcasting owners of walk fm in patchogue ny . a simulcast with walk am 1370 was begun under the name sunrise radio network . on september 4 1997 chancellor changed its name to chancellor media corp. the deal with chancellor media to purchase wgbb & wbab fm fell through in early 1998 & the simulcast ended . at that time wgbb began running the audio portion of cnn headline news during the times no local talk shows were scheduled . on may 22 1998 cox broadcasting a large national chain owners of top 40 formatted wbli in patchogue ny purchased wgbb & wbab fm . cox s main interest was in the two fm stations and a few months later in october 1998 dealt wgbb to a splinter group of multicultural broadcasting for a breathtaking 1.7 million . after the sale of wgbb to multicultural wbli moved from their studios in medford ny into the wgbb wbab studio complex . sold six times between 1981 and 1998 wgbb moved from a bright modern facility to a dingy cramped studio at 1850 lansdowne ave across sunrise highway from the merrick long island railroad station in sight of a former studio office location . a few years later