WGBB Reunion

Kudos to Dave Vieser for putting together another great WGBB Reunion. Approximately 50 WGBB Alumni gathered to remember, swap stories and bring one another up-to-date.

There were many luminaries in the broadcast business present and rather than offend anyone, other than for a few captions here and there on the thumbnails names are not being mentioned.

Please click on the three pages of photos I took. Al Case has posted pics on his site and Dave has promised to post more pictures on another site.

Gloria and I just arrived back in North Carolina and the first thing I wanted to do was to send each of you a thank you e-mail note for attending the WGBB reunion on Sunday. Your enthusiasm and participation made this event very special and I would do it again in a heartbeat because I know everyone appreciated the opportunity to get together. Vic Fusco has posted some photos of the event at the web site www.nynews.org/wgbb and Al Case has also posted some photos on his web site which is http://mysite.verizon.net/al_case
I will be getting more photos of the event in the near future and I will send out a follow-up e-mail as they become available.

Dave Vieser

Vic's Photos (taken by Vic & Sara Fusco which explains why they are in so many of them)

Officially Long Island's first commercial radio station, WGBB actually started as a farmer's Ham Station. WGBB was at 100 watts and shared frequency with other locals on 1230 for years. The original studios were 200 feet from the tower, then from the late 1940's studios were at 44 South Grove Street in Freeport.

Notables in the 1950's were Tony James, Jay Nealy and Dave Michaels. Broadcast studios from 1966 thru late 1980's were from 1240 Broadcast Plaza in Merrick with transmitter located off Atlantic Avenue in Freeport. Dave Vieser was one of the famous "Super-6" jocks there in the Top-40 heyday with Bob "Bullet" Ottone, Gil David (recently retired from WHLI), Don Rosen (now with WRJN/WEZY Racine WI), Al Case (Al also served as the Chief Engineer and set-up the wonderful sound of the station's famous organ reverb). There was also the famous WGBB "Car-Box Jackpot" (623-1240). In the late 1960's Susquehanna Broadcasting tried to move the transmitter site north toward Mitchell Field, but engineers convinced them to keep the tower in Freeport because the signal was better near the water. Due to structural problems, the tower was replaced in the mid 1970's.

Other notables who worked at WGBB in the 1970's & 80's include: Juliet Poppa (1010 WINS), Deborah Wetzel (WCBS FM), Bill Whitney, Frank Setapani, Betina Gregory, Larry Kofsky, Howard Liberman, Ed Grilli, Bob Lawrence, Jim Quinn (who later moved onto WPIX as Dennis Quinn), Roy Reynolds (known as Your Boy Roy), John Ryan, Ted David (1969-70 - DJ / also Long Island Network News plus weekends 1986), Gary Lewi (news), Dave Hunter (also news), Steve Andrews (also moved onto WPIX), Gary McFarlane (now known as Chuck Taylor, morning man on B-95.5 WYJB in Albany) and Drew Scott (afternoon News Anchor from 1972 to 73'. Ed Marshall hosted a Sinatra Show on WGBB from 1981-1988.

Flipped to a talk format before it spent time as WBAB-AM (the 2nd LI AM with those calls) in the late 1980's when it simulcast the then co-owned FM. Simulcast with WALK-AM in 1997/1998 during daylight hours as the Sunrise Radio Network (WGBB was often 7 seconds behind WALK-AM because they stayed in delay for their talk programming at night and on the weekends). Currently owned by Multicultural, WGBB is currently broadcasting an ethnic-based format. Studios are now located in the WNYG building on Route 109 in Babylon.