1290 WGLI

Babylon, New York



WGLI operated on a frequency of 1290 kHz. At the time it was one of two AM stations on Long Island and the only one in Suffolk County with a 24-hour license. It ran 5kW directional during the day and 1 kW directional at night with a 3-tower array. Separate phasing cabinets and antenna tuning units were used for the day and night patterns. The 5kW transmitter was a Gates BC 5 P with provisions for reducing its power to 500 watts. The 1kW transmitter was a CCA AM 1000D. Both the studio and transmitters were located in the same building at 1290 Peconic Avenue, Babylon, New York.

In 1990, after it went off the air, a fire destroyed what was left of WGLI.

This site is dedicated to the people I worked with at WGLI. A group of hard workers who created a successful radio station without a lot of resources at hand.

If anyone has anything they would like to see added to this site please e-mail me at:

1290gli@optonline.net




Links and Things

Here are some old WGLI commercials sent to me by Bob Scherago:

  AF Rustice commercial 1                 AF Rustice commercial 2

  Prudential Theaters commercial     Babylon Ford commercial

Bob worked at WGLI from 1960 to 1963.


Here's an aircheck from Howie Newman of his show:



Howie hosted "The Diamond Mine" oldies show from 10 AM to 6 PM in 1969. Barry Landers did Sports . Bobby Jay followed his show. Howie worked with a lineup that included Sonny Taylor, Gordie Baker and Bob Ottone.


See more stuff from WGLI. This is junk that has been collected over the years. The "oldies" poster was courtesy of Dick Moore. The 60s poster is from Beth Bond.

Take a look at some other Radio Junk I've collected.

For more Long Island Radio and WGLI history visit the:
L.I.L.I. Radio History web site


See the pictures of WGLI after it was destroyed by the fire and hear an aircheck of WGLI's Dick Moore on the WGLI section of the WACKRADIO Web Site.

My thanks to Mike Erickson for his input the above links. Credit also goes to Mike and Rick Hall for their work on the L.I. Radio History site. It's good to see people keeping Long Island Radio history alive.

Thanks also go to Rick Hall for putting the pictures of WGLI after the fire on his site. Something sad to see for those of us who worked so hard to make the station what it was.

What ever happened to the WGLI call letters? Look at the WGLI-FM web site , a 100,000 watt FM station in Hancock, Michigan.

But 1290 GLI still lives on....

You know we couldn't let it die so we brought it back on the Internet. Go to 1290gli.com to hear what started out as the 1290 GLI memorial station but has since taken on a life of its own. Listen to continuous music from the mid 50's up to the present. It's where there's something for everyone because we're "Playing Oldies and more...."





The WGLI Photo Scrapbook



The WGLI building and towers at 1290 Peconic Avenue in Babylon, N.Y.
These pictures were taken in the summer of 1976.

The WGLI automation system made by IGM was installed in 1976.
Yep, that's me in front of the automation.


Here's some of the gang in 2004. Clockwise starting from the back row:
Mike Erickson of WSHR's Time Warp Tuesday
Dan Moore WNYT, WLIE
Dick Moore former Program Director of 1290 WGLI, Babylon
Jerry Mehrab former Chief Engineer of 1290 WGLI, Babylon




.... and newsman Don Warren


The following are pictures from one of the last days at WGLI.
They were taken during the WGLI reunion in 1989.

The WGLI building and towers.


Go to the next page

Return to the WA2FNQ Homepage