| City of license | Southold, New York |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Eastern Long Island, southern Connecticut |
| Branding | 101.7 The Beach |
| Slogan | "Today's Hottest Music" |
| Frequency | 101.7 MHz |
| First air date | 1981 |
| Format | Top 40 Mainstream |
| ERP | 6,000 watts |
| HAAT | 86.4 meters |
| Class | A |
| Callsign meaning | W BEAt, also W BEAch (former name) |
| Former callsigns | WBAZ (1981-2001) WCSO (2001) |
| Owner | Long Island Radio Broadcasting |
| Webcast | http://out1.tor.icy.abacast.com/longisland-wbeafm-64 |
| Website | http://beach1017.com/ |
WBEA (101.7 The Beach) is a Top 40 Mainstream radio station licenced to Southold, New York and serving the east end of Long Island plus southern Connecticut. The station is owned by Long Island Radio Broadcasting and broadcasts on 101.7 MHz with 6 kilowatts ERP from a tower west of Hampton Bays.
Unlike many stations on Long Island's East End, WBEA's signal is one of the less impeded as there is only one adjacent channel (WQCD in New York City) to hamper its coverage to the north and west. The station's signal to the north also gives it a rimshot status into the New Haven, Connecticut area where it has shown in the ratings in the past.
It broadcasts from studios in Water Mill, New York shared by WBAZ, WHBE and WEHM. WBEA signed on in 1981 as WBAZ, the second FM station on Long Island east of Riverhead. The station was founded by broadcasting consultant Joe Sullivan, Jr. doing business as Peconic Bay Broadcasting Company.
WBAZ would for many years feature an Adult Contemporary format known as Lighting up the Bays (or Z-Light on the Bays) which for most of its existence was satellite-fed through Transtar's (now Westwood One) "Special Blend" format. Sullivan later sold WBAZ to Mel Kahn in the late 90's, along with then-sister station WLIE-FM.
When Kahn sold WBAZ and sister WBSQ to AAA Entertainment in 2000, the group would soon undergo a realignment given that AAA's WBEA and Kahn's WBSQ were competitors with different varieties of the Hot Adult Contemporary format. With WBEA, then at 104.7 MHz, outperforming WBSQ with a poorer signal, the decision was made to move WBAZ to WBSQ's 102.5 MHz location while moving WBEA to WBAZ's 101.7 MHz frequency. WBAZ and WBSQ would simulcast for most of May 2001 with the 101.7 frequency gaining the temporary WCSO calls in the process. After this period, the WBEA format was simulcasted on 101.7 and 104.7 with 101.7 gaining the WBEA calls and Beach Radio format that June. At that time, 104.7 would enter a deal with the Mohegan Sun casino and become a cross-Sound rimshot into New London, Connecticut.
After the frequency switch, WBEA would soon shift in more of a CHR direction, putting it in competition with the high-rated WBLI and Connecticut rimshot WKCI. The station initially did well with its new approach, however a change in market dynamic after Arbitron made the East End of Long Island a rated market doomed the surprisngly low-rated Beach Radio format. At the end of 2004, WBEA would flip to a Hip-hop format as Blaze 101.7, the first such station on Long Island. After AAA Entertainment sold their stations to Long Island Radio Broadcasting (a division of Cherry Creek Radio) took control of the stations later that year, the station would evolve to Rhythmic Contemporary and would take on the new name The Beat, then reverting to "The Beach" during the summer of 2007.
On May 22, 2008, and after spending four years as a Rhythmic, WBEA returned to a Top 40/CHR direction, thus once again puts the station back in competition with WBLI and WKCI and as a result leaves WDRE as the market's lone Rhythmic outlet.
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