The highlights of my driving trips from Boston to New York have always included the radio that boomed across the Long Island Sound. So when I staged my “Memorial Day Virtual Radio Road Trip” this year, I made a point of including WLNG, the East End station long treasured both by locals (who made it No. 1 when the market was still rated separately) and audio tourists. As I began to write up my notes on WLNG, it was immediately clear that the station would rate its own “Fresh Listen.”

When I last head WLNG at any length, radio fans were watching closely for any changes under new owners Bill Evans and Sandra Foschi. Because of its special place in geekdom, WLNG is under closer scrutiny than other Oldies stations. In the late ‘90s, I heard both WLNG and WDRC-FM Hartford, Conn., on the same real road trip playing “Soolaimon” by Neil Diamond, in between retro-sounding jingles. WDRC followed the format’s trajectory by going newer, then to Classic Rock outright. But it was generally viewed the same way as changes at WCBS-FM New York or any other Classic Hits outlet, with more resignation than indignation.

There is ample opportunity to blunder into a minefield of angry fandom by saying this, but WLNG in early 2019 didn’t sound that different to me, and even now that I discern changes, still has plenty of continuity with the station that radio lovers love. I did hear differences in the music on my Memorial Day listening. In a market that has always had a Triple-A lean, there was a noticeable element of that in WLNG’s music. But there were plenty of songs that you would never hear on the “almost-Classic-Rock” stations that many Classic Hits outlets have become, both in terms of depth and era. On Thursday, when I listened again, there was doo-wop even. I might have detected a “hall of fame artists” thru-line in the music, but even there, I heard exceptions.

And the other signature elements of WLNG are there, particularly the throwback jingles (still heard back-to-back on occasion), and the community elements that make WLNG a full-service station for the East End that just happens to play Oldies. There’s still an obituaries tab on the website; (there were “none to report” the afternoon I listened.) WLNG not only still has news on an FM music station (from ABC), but was actually interspersing some more feature-type pieces during sweeps. When I listened again a few days later to Brian ‘The Cannon’ Bannon’s “5 P.M. Whistle,” there were three newsbreaks that hour, plus an additional floating story. WLNG’s station vehicle is a bus; with normal remotes disrupted, it was being taken out to local hospitals to play “Thank You For Being A Friend” for personnel.

On Memorial Day at 3 p.m., WLNG played a vintage PAMS jingle with an announcer drop about “helping to make Democracy live in the greatest country in the world.” Then it played “Taps” as part of the national moment of remembrance, before observing a moment of silence. Then it went into this legal ID, which involved what sounded like a montage of several jingles:

Imaging Voice: “Vintage radio.”

Singers: “We get results, for our sponsors . . . We’re ‘LNG/the one since ’63 . . . ‘LNG has your favorite songs/through the day/and all night long.”

Imaging Voice: “Emanating from Broadcast House. This is WLNG Sag Harbor. A Bark Out Loud Dogs Media Station. (SFX: Barking Dogs.) The sound of the Sound.”

Singers: “Eastern Long Island’s WLNG.”

Imaging Voice: “The legend lives on!”

Singers: “92!”

The song that followed was Bob Dylan, “Hurricane,” a song I encounter on radio about once a decade.

If “completely static over the years” is your goal, it’s hard to find that anywhere. CBS-FM’s evolution, including its short-lived stumble as Jack-FM, has been scrutinized closely, too, but in 2020 the station still has a longer playlist and more personality than many of its major-market counterparts. And on Memorial Day weekend, CBS-FM was running a countdown that included ‘60s and ‘70s titles no longer heard in regular rotation. It’s still identifiably CBS-FM, and WLNG is certainly WLNG in ways that matter.

Here’s WLNG on Memorial Day at 2:30 p.m.:

• T. Rex, “Bang A Gong (Get It On)”
• Tubes, “She’s A Beauty”
• Traveling Wilburys, “Handle With Care”
• Kiki Dee Band, “I’ve Got The Music In Me”
• Police, “Message In A Bottle”
• Greg Kihn Band, “The Breakup Song”
• Bob Dylan, “Hurricane”
• Bruce Springsteen, “Born In The U.S.A.”
• Bruce & Terry, “Summer Means Fun”
• Dionne Warwick, “I Say A Little Prayer”
• John Mellencamp, “Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)”
• Wings, “With A Little Luck”

Here’s WLNG just before its “5 P.M. Whistle” on May 28:

• Patsy Cline, “I Fall To Pieces” (followed by 5 p.m. news)
• Alice Cooper, “No More Mr. Nice Guy”
• Georgia Satellites, “Battleship Chains” (staged with a listener request)
• Patrice Rushen, “Forget Me Nots”
• Peter Gabriel, “Sledgehammer”
• Beach Boys, “Fun Fun Fun”
• Dickey Doo & the Donts, “Click Clack”
• Billy Ward & Dominoes, “Stardust”
• Aretha Franklin, “Freeway Of Love”
• Five Stairsteps, “O-o-h Child”