WADB On October 4, 1968, the station first
signed on the air as WADB. It was a
beautiful music station, owned by Pleasant Broadcasters, named after the
city of license,
Point Pleasant, New Jersey. The station played quarter-hour sweeps of instrumental
cover versions of popular songs and
Broadway showtunes. The studios were on F Street in
South Belmar. (The neighborhood is now known as
Lake Como.) The station's
call sign used the initials of its founder, Adamant Brown and his wife Dorothy. WADB made use of early
automation equipment for radio stations. Large carousels loaded with broadcast-spec tape cartridges were used for the majority of advertising messages. Large reels of taped music with cues to play the commercials allowed the station to run with minimal involvement from the staff. An SMC digital programmer controlled the operation. The station's
easy listening format was broadcast in Southern
Monmouth and Northern
Ocean Counties.
WRAT A group of investors, known as the New Jersey Broadcast Partners, acquired the station in 1996. After a Labor Day Weekend
stunt during which the song "
Rat in Mi Kitchen" by
UB40 was aired continuously, WADB flipped to an
active rock format on Labor Day Monday, 1996. The call sign switched to WRAT. The first song was
AC/DC's "
For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)".
Greater Media ownership In 2001, the station was acquired by
Greater Media, a large national owner with its headquarters in Massachusetts. WRAT was among the first radio stations in the market to carry its radio broadcasts over its internet website. The station started streaming to allow listeners in fringe areas to get the station online. On March 9, 2014, WRAT extended its coverage to include southern and central
Ocean County by adding a 250-watt
FM translator at 107.9 FM. W300AO transmits from a 300-foot tower on Beach Avenue in
Manahawkin, New Jersey. The 107.9 signal covers
Long Beach Island,
Tuckerton,
Beach Haven,
Barnegat and Manahawkin. Its coverage is limited to the west by co-channel 107.9
WPPZ in
Pennsauken, New Jersey.
Beasley ownership On July 19, 2016,
Beasley Media Group announced it would acquire Greater Media and its 21 stations (including WRAT) for $240 million. It was also at this time WRAT joined the
iHeartRadio streaming service. The
Federal Communications Commission approved the sale on October 6, and the sale closed on November 1. ==References==