WBACH

WBQX (106.9 FM) is a radio station in Thomaston, Maine owned by Bill Binnie's WBIN Media Co., Inc. and branded as WBACH. Currently the station airs a classical music format. The station's programming is also heard in Portland through translator station W245AA (96.9 FM) and on the HD2 channel of WTHT (99.9 FM).

History

The WBACH format was launched in November 1991, initially airing on WBQQ 99.3 in Kennebunk. The station was founded by Mariner Broadcasting, and (after assembling its network) was acquired by Nassau Broadcasting Partners in 2003.

WBACH began to expand in 1998, when it bought another southern Maine classical music station, WPKM (106.3 FM) in Scarborough, and renamed it WBQW. WPKM's classical format, in turn, originated on 97.9 FM (now WJBQ) in 1971 as WDCS, moving to 106.3 in 1980 and becoming WPKM in 1988.

WBQX signed on in 1992 and was previously known as WAVX "The Classical Wave" (then simulcasted with 101.7, the current WKVV). It also became part of the WBACH network in 1998.

WBAK

WBAK (104.7 FM; "Big 104 FM") is an American radio station licensed to Belfast, Maine, with studios located in Bangor. It is owned by Blueberry Broadcasting, and broadcasts a classic hits format. Its programming is also simulcast on WBKA (107.7 FM) in Bar Harbor, as well as Gardiner-based sister station WABK (104.3 FM).

History

WBAK

WBAK came on the air March 7, 1986 as WWFX, a contemporary hit radio station known as "The Fox" and owned by Sunnie Silverman, who sold the station to Bruce Mittman, owner of WICE in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, that December. The station was taken over in 1991 by Union Financial Services, which sold the station to Group H Radio on March 17, 1993.

Group H announced on September 18, 1996 that it would sell WWFX to Star Broadcasting, a company owned by Mark Osborne and Natalie Knox (current owners of WNSX) that already owned WKSQ and WLKE (now WBFE). To minimize playlist overlap with WKSQ, on September 20, Star changed the station's format to country music as "The Bear" the first song was "Gone Country" by Alan Jackson. The change gave rival WQCB its first competition since WYOU-FM became modern rock station WWBX a year earlier. The WWFX call letters were replaced with WBFB on April 25, 1997 after the station attempted to obtain the WEBR call sign.