WBHX (99.7 FM, "The Boss") is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

licensed to

Tuckerton, New Jersey Tuckerton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough situated on the Jersey Shore, within Ocean County, New Jersey, Ocean County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 3,577, its highest Unite ...

. It is owned by

Press Communications Press Communications Radio, LLC is a broadcasting company in the American state of New Jersey which owns six radio stations. The company is owned by Robert E. McAllan, and is a sister entity to PMCM TV, LLC. It traces its roots back to 1895, ...

and it is

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

with co-owned

WWZY WWZY ("107.1 The Boss") is a classic rock- formatted radio station licensed to Long Branch, New Jersey, and serving the Northern Jersey Shore. It is owned by Press Communications and is simulcast on co-owned 99.7 WBHX in Tuckerton, New Jersey ...

107.1 FM in Long Branch. The two stations air a

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

format known as "The Boss." (Popular

Jersey Shore The Jersey Shore, commonly called the Shore by locals, is the coast, coastal region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The term encompasses about of shore, oceanfront bordering the Atlantic Ocean, from Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Perth Amboy in the n ...

musician

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...

is often called "The Boss.") The studios and offices are on West Bangs Avenue in

Neptune City, New Jersey Neptune City is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 4,626, a decrease of 244 (−5.0%) from the 201 ...

. WBHX is a Class A station. It has an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

(ERP) of 1000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

is on Hartley Lane in Little Egg Harbor Township.

History

Classic Rock

The station

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air on .
Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2010
',

Broadcasting & Cable ''Broadcasting & Cable'' (''B&C'', or ''Broadcasting+Cable'') was a telecommunications industry monthly trade magazine and, later, news website published by Future US. Founded in 1931 as ''Broadcasting'', subsequent mergers, acquisitions and ...

, 2010. p. D-364. Retrieved September 27, 2018. It aired a mostly

automated Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...

format. Two live DJs were heard: "Radio Rohn" in mornings and Mike Jarmus in afternoons, including his "

Woodstock The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...

Lunch" show featuring music from the Woodstock Festival period. Specialty shows included "The

Dead Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sho ...

At Midnight", "Blues Deluxe" and " The Dr. Demento Show". WBHX studios and offices were constructed by Beach Haven Communications. On July 22, 2002, WBHX was sold to

for $2.75 Million. On October 2, 2002, "Radio Rohn" did his last morning show. On October 4, 2002, the station switched to an

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

format known as "The Breeze". The final song played by Radio Rohn before the switch from classic rock to The Breeze was "

Another One Bites the Dust "Another One Bites the Dust" is a song by the British Rock music, rock band Queen (band), Queen. Written by bassist John Deacon, the song was featured on the group's eighth studio album ''The Game (Queen album), The Game'' (1980). It was a worl ...

" by

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

. The final song played at midnight was "

Nights in White Satin "Nights in White Satin" is a song by English rock band the Moody Blues, written by Justin Hayward. It was first featured as the segment "The Night" on the album '' Days of Future Passed''. When first released as a single in 1967, it reached nu ...

" by

the Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in May 1964. The band initially consisted of Graeme Edge (drums), Denny Laine (guitar/vocals), Mike Pinder (keyboards/vocals), Ray Thomas (multi-instrumentalist/vocals) and Clint W ...

. At that point, WBHX began stunting with songs featuring the theme of "Breeze" or "Wind". Wind sound effects were also played between songs.

WWZY simulcast and 99.7 The Island

WBHX began a

with

107.1 FM on June 30, 2003. WWZY covered the northern part of the

Monmouth Monmouth ( or ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales, situated on where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. The population in the 2011 census was 10,508, rising from 8 ...

Ocean The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian, Southern Ocean ...

radio market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

while WBHX covered the southern end. In addition to 107.1 and 99.7, the station was also heard in parts of Ocean County on WCAT-TV, the

public-access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television broadcast programming, programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This ...

channel based at Pinelands Regional High School. Starting November 1, 2015, WBHX ended its simulcast with WWZY. It began playing

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas ...

as "99.7 The Island." That continued through

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

. On December 26, 2015, WBHX changed its format to classic hits, still under the "99.7 The Island" branding. On March 3, 2017, WBHX ended its classic hits format. It returned to a simulcast of classic rock-formatted WWZY 107.1 FM in Long Branch. The two stations use the moniker "The Boss". The wake-up show is known as "Robby and Rochelle in the Morning." Robbie and Rochelle Bridges are a married couple. He also serves as vice president of programming.

Attempted move to 99.3

Beginning in 2010, Press Communications attempted to move WBHX inland and to 99.3 MHz. The intent was to force WZBZ, broadcasting on 99.3 from

Atlantic City Atlantic City, sometimes referred to by its initials A.C., is a Jersey Shore seaside resort city in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Atlantic City comprises the second half of the Atlantic City- Hammonton metropolitan sta ...

, to move to 99.7 in return. However, stations that are 10.6 or 10.8 MHz apart (near the typical 10.7 MHz

intermediate frequency In communications and electronic engineering, an intermediate frequency (IF) is a frequency to which a carrier wave is shifted as an intermediate step in Transmission (telecommunications), transmission or reception. The intermediate frequency is ...

of FM receivers) must be physically separated by 10 km to avoid causing interference for listeners. WZBZ's transmitter site is 2 km from that of WAJM (88.9 FM), and moving to 99.7 would separate the two stations by 10.8 MHz. Press' contention was that the frequency swap was possible, since WAJM's license expired in 2006 and it was legally nonexistent. The company stated WAJM did not file for renewal until after WBHX's application, four years later. The FCC's assertion was that precedent favored WAJM, as a proposed facility could not take precedence over an operating station, even if such operation was unlawful. Unusually, Press appealed the FCC's decision to the

U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. courts of appeals, ...

, who upheld the decision, and later the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

, who declined to hear the case.

Little Egg Harbor tower

Verizon Communications Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

owned the unused telephone tower and former telephone switch building in Beach Haven which WBHX leased for its transmitter equipment and tower. WBHX paid Verizon rental fees. In mid-2017, Verizon announced it would be auctioning the real estate, requiring WBHX to vacate the property and relocate to a different tower. On December 4, 2017, WBHX began operating on a tower at the nearby Beach Haven municipal parking lot. This tower was temporary and was subject to wind and rain storms affecting its signal. In November 2018, WBHX relocated to an antenna on a former TV tower in Little Egg Harbor Township near Tuckerton. That site eventually became the present home of the WBHX transmitter. In November 2021, WBHX installed a new antenna at 178 meters (584 feet) in

height above average terrain Height above average terrain (HAAT), or (less popularly) effective height above average terrain (EHAAT), is the vertical position of an antenna site above the surrounding landscape. HAAT is used extensively in FM radio and television, as it is ...

(HAAT) at the tower in Little Egg Harbor Township.

References

External links

* {{Classic Rock Radio Stations in New Jersey Tuckerton, New Jersey BHX Radio stations established in 1999 1999 establishments in New Jersey Classic rock radio stations in the United States