WBAZ Changes Hands

WBAZ radio of Southold, which broadcasts "light" music, and its country cousin, WLIE of Bridgehampton, have been sold for $1.65 million to MAK Communications, whose owner is Mal Kahn of Manhattan and Southampton.

Joseph Sullivan, the owner of Peconic Broadcasting, the parent company of the two stations, said he would devote his time to a separate broadcast-executive search-and-recruitment firm he owns.

"The time was right to sell," said Mr. Sullivan, adding that he will turn 60 years old later this year. "I had run [WBAZ] for 12 years and it took 13 years of my life to put it on the air."

The station began broadcasting in 1985. Mr. Sullivan launched WLIE with a country music format in 1996.

Used To Own WSBH

In selling the station, Mr. Sullivan said, "it was important for me to get somebody local." Mr. Kahn, who said he has lived part-time in Southampton for over 30 years, used to own WSBH in Southampton.

That station is now known as WHFM and broadcasts the signal of WBAB in Babylon. Both stations were recently part of a huge radio merger that saw Evergreen Media Corporation of Irving, Tex., buy Chancellor Broadcasting of Dallas for $2.58 billion.

The new radio conglomerate, known as Chancellor Media Corporation, owns over 100 stations nationwide, including six on Long Island.

Await F.C.C. Okay

Mr. Sullivan said the trend toward larger national networks did not apply in this case. "This is just one small broadcasting company to another," he said.

The sale is awaiting Federal Communications Commission approval, which Mr. Kahn expects will come as early as May.

He was reluctant to discuss his plans for the two stations. "Everything is currently under review," he said. "We plan no changes at this moment."

When WBAZ was launched in 1985, it was the first station on Long Island to have its "programming delivered by satellite," according to Mr. Sullivan. Although other stations criticized it for not being local, he said the satellite link-up "enabled us to focus our energies" on providing local news and other public services.

Series Of Sales

Peconic Broadcasting expanded with the launch of WLIE. Although the latter station has rented office and studio space in a building owned by Carol Konner on Main Street in Bridgehampton, it now broadcasts from WBAZ's studio.

The sale is the latest in a series involving East End radio stations.

Frederic Seegal of Amagansett and Manhattan, the president of Wasserstein and Perella, a Manhattan investment firm, recently bought a majority interest in WEHM, and WLNG in Sag Harbor sold its AM station to Unity Broadcasting late last year.

And in Hampton Bays, WWHB, formerly owned in part by Paul Simon and his brother, Eddie, was recently sold to Odyssey Communications.