Baltimore’s classic rock station 100.7 The Bay played its last note as a rock station just after midnight, closing out roughly 30 years on the air with a fittingly on-the-nose finale: Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.”
According to the station’s own program log, WZBA’s final hour on Aug. 12 was no accident of programming. The lineup leading into sign-off leaned entirely into songs with heaven, hell and devil imagery in their titles — Temple of the Dog’s “Say Hello 2 Heaven,” Guns N’ Roses’ “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” Black Sabbath’s “Heaven and Hell,” the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” and AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” all aired in the final hour before “Stairway to Heaven” closed the log at 11:58:10 p.m., running just under eight minutes to carry the station past midnight and into its new identity.
WZBA’s on-air staff hosted their final shows that day before handing over station operations to K-LOVE, the Christian contemporary network now taking over the frequency. The station marked the moment with a farewell post on Facebook thanking listeners for “the love and support of YOU, our listeners.”
The sale, first reported in June, sent WZBA-FM to Educational Media Foundation, K-LOVE’s parent company, in a $2.7 million deal approved by the Federal Communications Commission the week before the sign-off. The Southern Maryland Chronicle was among the outlets to report on the pending sale when it was announced, noting that listeners across the Baltimore market and into parts of Southern Maryland had relied on the station for classic rock programming for years.
For longtime host Mike Brilhart, the station’s appeal was always about the connection with its audience rather than the music alone. “You’re really talking one-on-one,” Brilhart said of hosting a classic rock morning show, a dynamic he said set radio apart from more passive forms of listening.
With the format change complete, the 100.7 FM signal is expected to begin carrying K-LOVE’s satellite-delivered Christian contemporary programming. The deal also included two FM translators, W261CD in Baltimore and W298CG in Bel Air.
