| 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 |
| Audience share | 1.0 (Sp'08, R&R[1]) |
| Power | 250 watts (day) 5 watts (night) |
| Class | D |
| Facility ID | 6146 |
| Callsign meaning | A jib is a ship's sail[2] |
| Former callsigns | WTAO WXHR (?-1967) WCAS (1967-1980s) WLVG (1980s-1991) WWEA (1991-1992) |
| Owner | Bob Bittner |
| Website | http://www.wjib740.com |
WJIB (740 AM) is a radio station based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that specializes in Adult Standards and 1950s & 1960s pop music. It is owned by Bob Bittner Broadcasting, with a sister station: WJTO at Bath, Maine. WJIB runs no commercial advertisements, and 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, and later as WCAS. In 1967, a year after they were sold to a joint venture of Kaiser Broadcasting and the Boston Globe, WXHR 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 1969, WCAS had flipped to Oldies. This was followed in 1972, by a soft rock format that by 1973 had evolved into a folk/rock format which while not enormously successful, gained a devoted following in the Boston area. In 1974 and than again in 1975, WCAS was almost sold to religious broadcasters, but both times, citizens groups intervened and thwarted the sales. The format continued even after Kaiser finally sold the station, in 1976, 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 {"We love God"} 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 Federal Communications Commission (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 and summer of 2006, a small construction developer circulated a petition in the local Fresh Pond, Cambridge neighborhood to gauge community support or opposition for tearing down the Concord Avenue buildings which originally housed WTAO and currently house WJIB. The firm proposed the removal of the buildings owned by Cambridge Self Storage, a rental storage company, and their replacement with 220+ 3-4 story condominiums and townhouses. The proposal ran into considerable community opposition, citing traffic congestion on Concord Avenue and surrounding roads.
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The station was known as WCAS from 1967 to the early 1980s. The call letters referred to "Watertown, Cambridge, Arlington and Somerville." It became a local favorite during the 1970s for its eclectic mix of music (L.A. folk-rock, jazz, bluegrass, country and western were only part of the playlist) and its support of local issues and musicians, notably through special live concerts and the Live at Passim's series of broadcasts. WCAS evolved to this unique format in 1973, after dabbling in soft rock, in 1972, and in Oldies, prior to that. In 1976, the Harvard Crimson wrote: "The least pretentious station around is WCAS at 740 AM, which mixes country, soft rock, and folk nicely, and goes easy on the ads."[3]
One of the station's limitations added to its character: because a limited broadcast license obliged it to go off the air at sunset, one freelancer developed a series of humorous station sign-offs which became mini-hits in themselves.
The "Live at Passim's" broadcast was done on Sundays from Club Passim (formerly the legendary Club 47). It paired local acts with national headliners at Passim's coffeehouse such as Ry Cooder, Tom Waits and Jimmy Buffett (the latter two then relatively obscure). The idea of promoting local music by broadcasting from what was then the top folk club in the area was originated by then-program director Rick Starr, who hired local performer Jim Chevallier to produce and host the program. Typically, national acts headlining at the club were the main act, preceded by local Boston-Cambridge musicians. The show's format generally imposed an all acoustic approach like that later used by MTV Unplugged. One of the first acts to appear on the show was Jimmy Buffett, then performing with only a bass player. Ry Cooder and Tom Waits appeared soon after that. The Irish traditional group The Boys of the Lough not only appeared on the show but, in 1975, released an album titled "Live at Passim's".
One duo which appeared at the club and on the show was Buckingham Nicks - that is, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks who would shortly join Fleetwood Mac.
In addition to live broadcasts, the station sometimes played songs on tape from local artists. One of these, "Somerville"[4], was a satirical comment on that local city, written by David Misch, who would later write for the TV shows Mork and Mindy and Saturday Night Live . Another was "Marblehead Morning", a gentle acoustic homage to the town of Marblehead written by Mason Daring, who would soon become the composer for most of John Sayles's films.[5]
The station's local popularity was never sufficient to make it solvent, and Wickus Island Broadcasting, which owned it through the latter half of the Seventies, was obliged to declare bankruptcy at the start of the Eighties. WCAS finally went under in early 1981, and became gospel station WLVG. Prior to that, WCAS had two close calls in which they were nearly sold to religious broadcasters, once in late 1973, and again in 1975. However, in both of those situations, there was a loud public outcry which disrupted the sales, and enabled WCAS to last as long as it did. (Singer David Misch played a key role in organizing these.[6])
When a change in the BMI and ASCAP licensing was tied to ratings in 2007, the fees WJIB was to pay increased by a factor of six. 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 would be accepted, since doing so would direct fees to lenders who encourage America's mass indebtedness. An announcement was made at 17:00 on April 25, 2007 that six weeks after the initial announcement, WJIB had reached its fundraising goal.[7]