WGBB 1240 AM
Long Island, New York

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I thought I died and went to heaven when I returned to the Susquehanna fold in 1973 at WGBB on New York's Long Island. Beaches and fishing were a big attraction to this farm boy from York, PA and it did not disappoint. The station had Long Island's first commercial license and was known for its community service and as a career springboard for the news staff. My knees really took a beating from all the softball, volleyball, basketball and other games we played for charity. I started doing mid-days, did mornings and ended up as program director there. Susquehanna sold the station and it went through some big changes, losing a lot of its loyal and dependable listener base.

The station is licensed to Freeport where I had a home for more than 30 years. Even after leaving for WGSM and ultimately WHLI, people in Freeport still associated me with WGBB.

Some of my WGBB colleagues are pictured to the left. They include: (top l-r) Sorry, I can't place his name, but I think he was in sales; Marc Kaye who became station manager and is now a vice president of the Sandusky chain; afternoon man Bob Ottone; news man Ed Grilli who went on to become Nassau DA Dennis Dillon's Press Secretary, but has since retired (I think); news man Dave Levy, who served in the US Congress for a term; and NY Jet John Schmidt who did sports. (bottom l-r) Ron Yurmin; John Cummins and Bob Lawrence, my fellow Yorker and old friend. Not shown, but in the picture are Larry Kofsky who works for Bloomberg Radio, as does Howard Liberman who was also on news station WINS for a number of years.