WLIX: Before 1979

This page was last updated on March 18, 2003.

 

• WLIX began its existence on June 1, 1960 as WBIC.  WBIC, originally owned by the south Shore Broadcasting Corporation, had its studios at 1 East Main Street, Bay Shore.  According to the book The Airwaves of New York, the call letters for WBIC stood for Bay Shore, Islip, and Center Moriches, although Central Islip seems much more appropriately representative of the C in the call letters. WBIC had a middle-of-the-road music policy and featured such personalities as Lee Murphy, Al Turk, Lonny Starr, and Mitch Lebe.
• Meridian Media bought WBIC for $25,000 in 1963. Sometime after the ownership change, WBIC switched to a rock music format and had a few talk shows.
• In 1967, WBIC was sold to Malcolm Smith’s Long Island Broadcasting Corporation, which changed the call letters to WLIX.  The WLIX call letters were meant to stand for “Long Island Crossroads.” The changeover from WBIC to WLIX occurred either on February 1, 1967 or September 1, 1967.  (The Airwaves of New York gives August 31, 1967 as WBIC’s last day, but lists February 1, 1967 as WLIX’s first day.  This is definitely conflicting information, so if anyone can tell me the correct changeover date, please e-mail me at david_j_6@hotmail.com.
• During the years of the Long Island Broadcasting Corporation’s ownership, WLIX moved its studios from downtown Bay Shore to 2960 Sunrise Highway in Islip.  Also, the format changed to easy listening, then rock oldies in 1975.  The rock oldies were part of the Drake Chenault Hit Parade package WLIX subscribed to. News was heard at six minutes before each hour.  There was also a weekly Italian-American music show hosted by Joe Rotolo that was similar to “The Original Italian Hours” on WBAB/WNYG.  The show was titled, “Sounds of Italy.”
• On October 13, 1976, WLIX was sold to Living Communications, Inc., which also owned WWDJ of New Jersey.
• Just before changing formats in March 1979, WLIX’s weekend schedule included “A Look at the Law,” which aired Saturdays at 1:00 PM, and “Captain Ahab,” which aired Saturdays at 9:00 AM.

 

Source:

Jaker, Bill; Sulek, Frank; and Kanze, Peter.  The Airwaves of New York: Illustrated Histories of 156 AM Stations in the Metropolitan Area, 1921-1996. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 1998.

 

A Few Links

I’ve mentioned the Drake Chenault Hit Parade in this section.  I want to also point out a couple links related to Drake-Chenault, a company that specializes in automated radio programming formats.

 

Drake Chenault from the Inside is located at http://www.soltec.net/~rdmlq/radioautomation.html.  Another inside look at Drake-Chenault Enterprises can be found at http://www.bossradioforever.com/detailpage.php3?par=39.   You can also look at a History of Automated Radio Formats in relation to Drake-Chenault at http://www.drakechenault.org.

 

 

 

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