WBAS

WBAS (1240 AM) is a radio station licensed to West Yarmouth, Massachusetts, United States, which transmits at a power of 1,000 watts. Established in 1940 as WOCB, its format most recently consisted of Portuguese language programming, however the station is currently silent. WBAS also operates FM translator station W268CP on 106.5 MHz. The station has been sold to Bob Bittner Broadcasting.[1]

WBAS
CityWest Yarmouth, Massachusetts
Broadcast areaCape Cod
Frequency1240 kHz
Programming
Language(s)Portuguese
FormatSilent (was Ethnic)
Ownership
OwnerAlex Langer
(Langer Broadcasting Group, LLC)
WZBR, WSRO
History
First air date
October 2, 1940 (station itself)
May 6, 1944 (current license)
Former call signs
WOCB (1940–October 31, 1991)
WUOK (October 31, 1991–March 10, 1997)
WBUR (March 10, 1997–February 1, 2014)
Former frequencies
1210 kHz (October 2, 1940–March 29, 1941)
Technical information
Facility ID6251
ClassC
Power1,000 watts
Transmitter coordinates
41°38′7.8″N 70°14′4.9″W
Translator(s)106.5 W268CP (West Yarmouth)
Links
WebcastListen live
Websiteredeabr.com

History

WOCB first signed on October 2, 1940;[2] the station was originally owned by the Cape Cod Broadcasting Company.[3] It was the first radio station on Cape Cod since WJBX, which operated for several months in 1926.[3] WOCB originally operated at 1210 kHz, but moved to 1240 in 1941 as a result of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement.[2] WOCB shut down in May 1943 after running out of money, resulting in its license being canceled by the FCC on November 30.[2] E. Anthony and Sons, owner of WNBH in New Bedford and publisher of the New Bedford Standard-Times and the Cape Cod Standard-Times, bought the station's equipment and relaunched WOCB under a new license on May 6, 1944 as an affiliate of the Blue Network,[2] broadcasting mostly network programming (soap operas, radio drama, newscasts, etc.) with some local programming, remaining affiliated with that network after it became ABC. When ABC broke into four sub-networks in 1968, WOCB affiliated with ABC's American Entertainment Network.

Its FM signal, for years a simulcast of its AM signal, signed on May 2, 1948 on 94.3 MHz,[4] and in 1962, moved to 94.9 MHz.[5] (The 94.3 frequency is now used on Cape Cod by WZAI, the Brewster repeater for WCAI.) By the 1970s, WOCB-FM broke away from simulcasting the AM during midday and evening hours to broadcast easy-listening music while still simulcasting the AM's format (then adult contemporary, with a heavy news commitment) during weekday drive times and hourly newscasts the rest of the broadcast day. In the summer through winter of 1981, the afternoon drive announcer on WOCB was Edd Hall, who subsequently did voice work for Late Night with David Letterman from 1982–1990 and was the announcer on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno from 1992–2004.

In 1991, Hurricane Bob blew down WOCB's transmitter tower, and the damage suffered was so severe that the owners could not afford to rebuild. The station was then sold to Ernie Boch, Sr., an automobile dealer in the Boston suburb of Norwood, Massachusetts, who turned WOCB-FM into the flagship station for his new Boch Broadcasting company, WXTK. Concurrently, WOCB became WUOK,[6] and under that callsign programmed CNN Headline News,[7] sports radio,[8] and finally a WXTK simulcast.[9]

By 1997, Boch Broadcasting, which by this point owned four FM radio stations, no longer needed WUOK and donated it to Boston University for use as a relay of WBUR-FM in Boston, under the call letters WBUR; the simulcast began March 3, 1997.[10] The university's 2013 acquisition of WBUA (92.7 FM) in Tisbury (on Martha's Vineyard) to serve as a WBUR-FM satellite rendered the 1240 AM facility redundant; on August 5, 2013, BU announced that it would be sold to Alex Langer, with plans to program it with Portuguese-language programming similar to that of another Langer station, WSRO.[11][12] The call letters were changed to WBAS on February 1, 2014,[6] two days after BU and Langer agreed to a time brokerage agreement.[13]

Langer Broadcasting took the station and its translator silent in mid-July 2020, due to financial difficulties.

Translator
Broadcast translators of WBAS
Call signFrequency
(MHz)		City of licenseFacility
ID		ERP
(W)		Height
(m (ft))		ClassTransmitter coordinatesFCC info
W268CP106.5West Yarmouth, Massachusetts1422102500 m (0 ft)D41°38′7″N 70°14′7″WFCC

In February 2020, W268CP changed its frequency to 106.5 in order for WKFY in East Harwich to change its frequency to 101.5 and move its transmitter to Orleans.

References
  1. https://radioinsight.com/headlines/204233/station-sales-week-of-1-22-family-life-expands-in-pennsylvania/ Station Sales Week of 1/22
  2. Halper, Donna; Wollman, Garrett. "The Eastern Massachusetts Radio Timeline: the 1940s". The Archives @ BostonRadio.org. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  3. Halper, Donna; Wollman, Garrett. "The Eastern Massachusetts Radio Timeline: the 1930s". The Archives @ BostonRadio.org. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  4. "WOCB-FM W. Yarmouth Is Now on Air With 1 kw" (PDF). Broadcasting-Telecasting. May 17, 1948. p. 226. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  5. "For the Record" (PDF). Broadcasting. January 15, 1962. p. 78. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  6. "Call Sign History (WBAS)". CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  7. "WUOK reception verification" (PDF). February 13, 1993. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  8. Fybush, Scott (April 13, 1996). "New England RadioWatch". Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  9. Fybush, Scott (April 16, 1996). "New England RadioWatch". Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  10. Mccloy, Andrew P. (March 3, 1997). "WBUR expands coverage". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
  11. Venta, Lance (August 5, 2013). "Boston University Sells Cape Cod Signal". RadioInsight. Retrieved October 12, 2017.
  12. Reidy, Chris (August 5, 2013). "Langer Broadcasting to buy 1240 AM signal in West Yarmouth from WBUR". Boston.com. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
  13. "Time Brokerage Agreement" (PDF). WBAS sale application. Federal Communications Commission. January 30, 2014. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
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