WEBE (107.9 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to

Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Located in the Gold Coast (Connecticut), Gold Coast along the Long Island Sound, it is northeast of New York City and is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connec ...

, carrying 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 "WEBE108". Owned by Connoisseur Media, the station serves both the

Greater New Haven Greater New Haven is the metropolitan area whose extent includes those towns in the U.S. state of Connecticut that share an economic, social, political, and historical focus on the city of New Haven. It occupies the south-central portion of the s ...

and Fairfield County areas. The WEBE

studios A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to Wiktionary:study, study or zeal. Types Art The studio o ...

are located on Wheelers Farms Road in Milford, and its

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 ...

is located on the Hi-Ho Tower on Video Lane in Shelton.

History

The frequency of 107.9 MHz was originally assigned by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

, under its Table of Allocations. On September 1, 1962, WMMM-FM signed on the air as the FM counterpart to WMMM (now WSHU). WMMM-AM-FM were owned by the Westport Broadcasting Company headed by Sydney J. Flamm. WMMM was a

daytimer A clear-channel station is a North American AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classification exists to ensure the viability of cross ...

station. When it went off the air at sunset each evening, WMMM-FM allowed its programming to continue to be heard. The stations broadcast out of offices and studios located above a deli at 163 Main Street in Westport. The broadcasting antenna for 107.9 FM was located in a residential neighborhood in Wilton. The power was 5,200 watts, a fraction of its current output, with an antenna

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) of only , so the broadcast radius of the station was limited. In 1970, WMMM-FM got the new

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

WDJF. The FM station continued to

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) ...

WMMM for a few more years, and would later switch to an

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. The station's power was increased to 50,000 watts of power, and relocated to a taller tower. In 1984, the station was acquired by a company known as "The 108 Radio Company Ltd. Partnership", and would switch the call letters to WEBE. In addition, automation was ended and live DJs handled most air shifts. In 1987, the ownership changed to a company calling itself "WEBE Associates". In 2000, ownership changed again, this time to Nassau Broadcasting LLC.

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is a broadcasting company of the United States and is the second largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States ahead of Audacy and behind iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdi ...

acquired Nassau Broadcasting in March 2002. Cumulus also owned WICC. On April 15, 2019, Cumulus Media announced that WEBE and WICC would be swapped to Connoisseur Media, which began operating the stations under a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...

(LMA) on May 1, 2019. The swap was consummated on June 26, 2019.

HD radio

Cumulus Broadcasting began upgrading its stations to

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...

broadcasting in 2005. One of the first ten stations to get changed to HD transmission was WEBE. WEBE's HD2 subchannel carries the talk format heard on co-owned WICC.

References

External links

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History of Westport Connecticut Radio
{{Connoisseur Media 1962 establishments in Connecticut Connoisseur Media radio stations Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Mass media in Bridgeport, Connecticut Mass media in Fairfield County, Connecticut Radio stations established in 1962 EBE Westport, Connecticut