Remembering Fairhaven’s Rock Radio Station WKKB

Like "Jumpin' Jack Flash," it was a gas, gas, gas!

When I first arrived at the palatial Fairhaven studios now occupied by two of Townsquare Media's legendary radio stations, WBSM and Fun 107, there was a third signal broadcasting from what is now the production (commercial producing) studio: 100.3 WKKB.

WKKB did two things for the SouthCoast: it delivered a great mix of mainstream rock & roll (my wife's favorite station) and made Michael Rock (my daughter-in-law's favorite "jock") a household name around these parts.

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In 2003, Citadel Communications owned the three radio stations. As it turns out, owning too many radio stations in any one market is – or was – a violation of FCC rules. One of them had to go.

After only two years on the air, WKKB was sold to the Davidson Media Group out of North Carolina. The new owners moved the signal to Providence, Rhode Island, and launched Latina 100.3.

Michael Rock, a Fun 107 alumnus, was working at Boston's Star 93.7 when he got the call to return to Fairhaven to program WKKB. It didn't last long. Two years later, the news of the pending sale caught Rock and the aircrew, which included Mike Brangiforte and Brian the Pharmacist, by surprise.

The station carried the syndicated Howard Stern radio broadcast during morning drive.

"The sale was disappointing because it wasn't like the station wasn't doing well," Rock said. "We doubled our billing from when we took over, but the FCC said we had too many stations, so we had to spin some off."

"That's a tough way to lose a station," he said.

Trivia question: What was the final song to spin out of WKKB before it signed off?

Answer: "The End" by The Doors.

Rock returned to Fun 107, where today he serves as Director of Content for Fun 107 and WBSM, now owned by Townsquare Media, and is the Michael half of Michael and Maddie morning show on Fun 107.

A footnote: I lasted a year at WBSM under Citadel before they fired me. They kept Rock, kicked him upstairs, sold the stations to Townsquare Media, and Rock brought me back in 2016.

Looks like everything turned out just ducky, no?