WDJF Gets Sold - WMMM Goes AM Stereo

January 1983 would bring about some changes for Westport's FM station. Donald Flamm had put WDJF up for sale, with The Radio Company of Long Island as the future owner. It would take just over a year for the FCC to approve the 2 million dollar sale of the station. The Radio Company owned two other stations located on Long Island - WBAB in Babylon and WGBB in Merrick. Since the FCC rules stated that a radio group could not operate two stations in the same market, the WDJF antenna was changed to a directional 6 bay system that would reduce the station's signal toward Long Island and The Radio Company's other stations. Please note that these rules have changed since the enactment of deregulation by the FCC.

Morale at the station was low as staffers knew that the end of the station (and their jobs) was near. A red binder in the on-air studio, referred to as the "Death Binder", held public service styled announcements that yielded a low but repetitive cash flow for the station. Spotty news regarding the sale also had the staff on-edge. The bottom fell out in March of 1984 when the transaction finally went through. The new owners operated the station from the 163 Main Street location for a short time pending the completion of its new facilities at Norwalk's 50 Washington Street. New personnel, a new music format and more aggressive audio processing came with the station's new call letters - WEBE. The station's new slogan was " the most music, the best variety, WE-BE 1-0-8." None of the former FM staff were retained, although several announcers along with the engineering staff were still employed in the operations of former sister station WMMM.

The sale of WDJF meant some renewed cash flow for Flamm's remaining station. A campaign was launched to make other AM stations and listeners aware of a new movement - AM STEREO. WMMM was one of the first stations in Connecticut to implement stereo broadcasting utilizing Kahn Communication's AM Stereo technology. The station programmed its "middle of the road" music format from four newly installed ITC 750 open reel tape players. Another new addition was the CRL audio processing equipment. The station ran promotions to have listeners take part and sample the world of stereo AM with Gary Flamm's "AM Stereo Challenge" The station gave away many Sony SRF-A1 stereo Walkman(tm) radios.

While the Kahn system was technically superior, Motorola's competing AM Stereo broadcasting system won dominance with the broadcast community, due to their strong alliance with automobile electronics manufacturer Delco. WMMM discontinued broadcasting in AM Stereo when an FCC ruling made Motorola's C-QUAM(TM) system the de-facto standard.