WJIB
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| WJIB | |
| City of license | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Cambridge/Boston, Massachusetts |
| Branding | The Memories Station |
| Frequency | 740 (kHz) |
| First air date | 1948 (as WTAO) |
| Format | Adult Standards Pop 1940-1980 |
| Power | 250 watts (day) 5 watts (night) |
| Class | D |
| Facility ID | 6146 |
| Callsign meaning | "Jib" is a sail of a sailboat; the studios of the original WJIB-FM 96.9 FM were located in an office building on Boston's waterfront; chosen by Bob Bittner in tribute to the original WJIB. |
| Owner | Bob Bittner |
WJIB 740 AM is a radio station based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that specializes in Adult-Standards & 50's 60's Pop Music. It is owned by Bob Bittner Broadcasting, with a sister station: WJTO at Bath, Maine. It runs no commercial advertisements. WJIB broadcasts in AM stereo.
WJIB is an indirect successor to a previous Boston FM station with the same call sign (now WTKK 96.9, owned by Greater Media) which in turn descended from WXHR, one of the first FM stations in the Boston area. Coincidentally, what is now WJIB was once owned by Harvey Radio Laboratories, the same company that owned WXHR/WJIB-FM. The AM station was first known as WTAO, then WXHR-AM, and later as WCAS. In 1967, a year after they were sold to a joint venture of Kaiser Broadcasting and the Boston Globe, WXHR-AM became WCAS while WXHR-FM changed to WJIB and became well known for a nautical-themed station identification featuring a buoy bell and a seagull (now used in modified form by WQRC on Cape Cod). WJIB-FM became WCDJ, a smooth jazz station, in 1990, and the call sign WJIB lapsed.
After Kaiser/Globe took over, the AM side at first broadcast a format with music and local news of interest to listeners in Cambridge and nearby communities, but was not very successful. By the early 1970s, WCAS programmed a folk/rock format which while not enormously successful, gained a devoted following in the Boston area. The format continued after Kaiser sold the station, but ended with a sale of the station in 1981 after the then-owners, Dan Murphy and Mel Stone, were forced to file bankruptcy for WCAS. The rest of the 1980s would see a revolving door of owners, call letters, and formats. In 1991, Bob Bittner purchased the station, then known as WLVG and programming a Black Gospel format. Bittner changed the format to "Earth Radio" (a blend of contemporary music with environmentally-aware public service spots) under the call letters WWEA.
The WJIB call letters were applied for by Bittner in 1992 and were granted to him by the FCC for the 740 station in Cambridge. Once having gained the WJIB call letters, Bittner switched the station to the beautiful music format, expanding it slightly as the station gained success, and then gradually morphed it into an Adult-Standards station with a slight remainder of beautiful music in the mix, totally programmed by Bittner (WJTO is an almost exact copy musicwise). The station's studio still occupies a section of the original building owned by Harvey Radio Labs, the original proprietors of WXHR and WTAO.
Originally a daytime-only station, WJIB gained nighttime power in the early 1990s.
During the spring/summer seasons of 2006, a small construction developer circulated a petition in the local Fresh Pond, Cambridge, Massachusetts neighborhood to gauge community support or opposition for tearing down the original Concord Avenue studio buildings which housed WTAO. The firm proposed the removal of the current studio buildings, now home to Cambridge Self Storage, a rental storage company, and the replacement of the buildings with 220+ 3-4 story condominiums and townhouses. The proposal ran into considerable community opposition [1].
[edit] 2007 fundraising drive
On January 25, 2007 an article appeared in the [2] Boston Herald stating that higher music licensing fees could pose a problem to WJIB. BMI and ASCAP licensing fees were increased sixfold due to a new system in which fees were tied to ratings, and WJIB was getting considerably higher ratings.
On March 13, 2007, following the station's traditional Noon broadcast of the national anthem, Bob Bittner announced that the station will begin accepting non-tax-deductible listener donations, seeking to raise approximately $88,000 annually to pay the station's operating expenses, which did not include any salary to Bittner. Bittner specified that donations should be personal checks; no credit cards will be accepted, since doing so would direct fees to lenders who encourage America's mass indebtedness. An announcement was made @ 17:00 on April 25, 2007 that 6 weeks after the initial announcement WJIB had reached its fundraising goal.
[edit] External links
- WJIB history at Bostonradio.org
- Query the FCC's AM station database for WJIB
- Radio Locator Information on WJIB
- Query Arbitron's AM station database for WJIB
- FCC - Original WTAO Radio Tower/Studio location coordinates
- [3] Audio of the 4/25/07 fundraising announcement heard over WJIB.
