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"Wavescan" is a weekly program for long distance radio hobbyists produced by Dr. Adrian M. Peterson, Coordinator of International Relations for Adventist World Radio. AWR carries the program over many of its stations (including shortwave). Adrian Peterson is a highly regarded DXer and radio historian, and often includes features on radio history in his program. We are reproducing those features below, with Dr. Peterson's permission and assistance.
Wavescan 444, July 6, 2003
Radio Island II [USA-NC WMBM]
Last week here in Wavescan we presented the story of a radio island called Radio Island. That one was up there in northern Canada. This week we present the story of another radio island called Radio Island, and this one is located in the United States, on the Atlantic coast of North Carolina, actually.
The central coastal area of North Carolina, where this Radio Island is located, is quite famous for many other significant events also. Quite close to Radio Island is Kitty Hawk, which gained its fame when the Wright Brothers made their first adventurous flight in an airplane just 100 years ago. The notorious English pirate known as Blackbeard terrorized shipping that entered the area back 300 years ago. The mysterious Lost Colony of Roanoke was established on an island in this area more than 400 years ago.
Radio Island in North Carolina is an artificial island about four or five acres in size that was formed during a dredging operation in the estuary of the Pamlico River back in the 1920s and 1930s. The island is these days a tourist resort, with fishing facilities, new condominiums, private and holiday homes, and a marina. This island is also used for the storage of oil in huge holding tanks, and it is well known by wildlife lovers as a refuge for the La Conte’s Sparrow.
According to the historian working in the library of the County Historical Society, this artificial island was named Radio Island because a radio station was installed on it back in the 1920s or 1930s. The callsign of this station, he said, was WMBM, which was interpreted to mean, “Where Moorhead and Beaufort Meet”. Moorhead and Beaufort are two nearby regional cities, one on each side of the estuary.
This mediumwave station, WMBM, must have been quite a small operation, with just low power, and it must have been on the air for only a brief period of time. There is no listing for this station is any of the records and listings that we hold. In fact, the only station that we could find with the callsign WMBM during that era was a small radio station operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Memphis, Tennessee back around the same era.
This radio station, WMBM on Radio Island in North Carolina, served the small cities and communities on both sides of the Pamlico Estuary. I asked the county historian what happened to this station, and he replied that it has long since gone.