WEHM and two other local stations sold to DJ’s firm

Radio trade magazines are reporting this week that South Fork radio station WEHM, which broadcasts adult album alternative music at 92.9 and 96.9 FM, WBAZ  at 102.5 FM and WBEA  at 101.7 FM have been purchased by the father/daughter team of Roger and Lauren Stone. Ms. Stone is the mid-day DJ at WEHM.

All four stations had been owned by AAA Entertainment, a firm which, under the direction of East Hampton attorney Leonard Ackerman and former Sony America Chairman Mickey Shulhof, founded WEHM in 1993.

Radio Insight magazine reports that Ms. Stone and her father’s LRS Radio, based in their hometown of Northbrook, IL, purchased the stations for $3.2 million, with Ms. Stone holding 68.8 percent of the company and Mr. Stone holding 31.2 percent. Mr. Stone is the CEO of Kapstone Paper and Packaging Company.

According to Radio Business Report, LRS put up $480,000 as a deposit on the deal, which is awaiting FCC approval.

Ms. Stone did not respond to requests for comment on the purchase.

WEHM had initially been broadcast only at 92.9 FM when the company was formed in East Hampton, but added the 96.9 FM bandwidth in 2003. Their broadcasting studios have since moved to Water Mill, along with the studios of WBAZ and WBEA, which were acquired by AAA Entertainment over the past decade. Top-forty station WBEA is known as “Beach Radio,” while WBAZ has long been an adult contemporary station, which originally broadcast from the North Fork.

According to Ms. Stone’s profile page on WEHM’s website, she is a native of Chicago who was a filmmaker in New York City before she began her radio career in the late 1990s. She was the assistant music director at New York’s WFUV before she joined the WEHM staff.

Her favorite records include The Beatles’ “Revolver,” “I Am Shelby Lynne,” Sam Phillips’ “The Indescribable Wow,” Marti Jones’ “Used Guitars,” Beck’s “Odelay” and Bob Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline.”