Garabedian introduces WJIB The Memories Channel

[SomeRadioGuy]

Very few stations play anything but what some corporate "suit" deems profitable. Fine, I understand that, but it just seems to me that a Federally Licensed station should at least consider the fact that just maybe there is a WWII Veteran who would just love to hear the Andrew Sisters or Glen Miller one more time. After all, he or she did once put on a uniform so that we could be free. I know, tough sh*t. I am 83 and love "Oldies", but Oops! I forgot. "Oldies" is a dirty word. Shame on me.
Thank the power above for "Mom & Pop" stations.
Pardon my rant.

What does federally licensed or a veteran have to do with any of this? Nothing. This is a business and the fcc doesnt regulate programming and i dont want them to. if it was commercial viable or more viable than what theyre doing, stations would do it. i know a some stations run the westwood one adult standards format, its like soft adult oldies...and some older songs done by more recent artists, etc.. thats about old as youre goign to find on commercial radio in general

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Very few stations play anything but what some corporate "suit" deems profitable. Fine, I understand that, but it just seems to me that a Federally Licensed station should at least consider the fact that just maybe there is a WWII Veteran who would just love to hear the Andrew Sisters or Glen Miller one more time. After all, he or she did once put on a uniform so that we could be free.

Some station somewhere could launch a one or two hour weekly show of vintage music in a fringe weekend time period.

Maybe when the adjustments to WJIB-740's format are completed, John Garabedian will want to insure the continuation of "Big Bands And Crooners" in some form on Sundays, even with reduced airtime.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Commercial stations program to audience segments that advertisers wish to reach. If they don't, there is little or no income and the station fails. That usually means appealing to some pron of the 18-54 year old range. Who decided on that? Advertisers, not stations.

I'd go further and note that the prime demographic in today's advertising is the so-called "Soccer Moms"-women between 25 and 54 years old. They supposedly control so much of the family budget that most radio stations pursue that demo (in full or in part) while relatively few stations (mostly sports stations and some rock stations) target men between 25 and 54 (and even fewer stations targeting other demos).

If men between 25 and 54 years of age were the prime demographic in contemporary advertising, you'd see a lot more radio stations programming to this demographic.

It's a case of "Following The Money".

 

[luperm]

Some station somewhere could launch a one or two hour weekly show of vintage music in a fringe weekend time period.

Why? There are plenty of places to get niche programming on demand rather than disrupting regular programming with blocks of content that are of little interest to the station's core listeners.

 

[raccoonradio]

The Bittner estate still has the three Maine stations and their "Bob's Memory Station" runs on an app and site as well as 2 HD3 signals on Cape Cod. Listeners do have the online option but no regular broadcast (non HD) of the operation in Boston or the Cape (other than possibly picking up similar WJTO from Bath ME).
If they ever did get a broadcast property on these areas, the call letters WBMS for Bob's Memory Station would be perfect--only they are being used on AM 1460 Brockton.

Hearing a bit of Mem Station last night there was a wide variety including Les Paul & Mary Ford (Hummingbird), Beatles (PS I Love You),
John Denver (Shanghai Breezes), Ferrante and Teicher, Peggy Lee (Why Don't You Do Right), Johnny Cash (early 70s tune) and some more recent pop/AC tunes.
Specialty audience. Runs no ads, fundraises . Still licensed as commercial (WJTO, WLVP, WLAM) but
not NCE like public radio or K Love. May change.
Then there's Garabedian's WJIB. He is modifying playlist as he goes along, with input from listeners. Also still a commercial license.

Fundraising for each operation has allowed the streaming, which Bittner never did.

 

[KilowattKat]

Regarding the 3 stations in Maine and the Cape Cod HD2 signals:

Are they currently up for sale? If not, what are the future plans?

 

[Eli Polonsky]

Regarding the 3 stations in Maine and the Cape Cod HD2 signals:

Are they currently up for sale? If not, what are the future plans?

"Bob's Memory Station" is on two Cape Cod HD3 channels (not HD2).

 

[raccoonradio]

The plan it is said is for WJTO to remain with Bittner estate while WLAM and WLVP are for sale, still...

 

[Motown]

I'd go further and note that the prime demographic in today's advertising is the so-called "Soccer Moms"-women between 25 and 54 years old. They supposedly control so much of the family budget that most radio stations pursue that demo (in full or in part) while relatively few stations (mostly sports stations and some rock stations) target men between 25 and 54 (and even fewer stations targeting other demos).

If men between 25 and 54 years of age were the prime demographic in contemporary advertising, you'd see a lot more radio stations programming to this demographic.

It's a case of "Following The Money".

No one in advertising calls women 25-54 “Soccer Moms”. That term is insulting to women!

 

[JeremyAndrews]

No one in advertising calls women 25-54 “Soccer Moms”. That term is insulting to women!

It's just a generic term for a 40 something suburban mom who is heavily involved with their kids activities, such as soccer games. In Canada, they use the term hockey mom, since hockey is more popular than soccer in that country.

I don't think it's insulting to women. It's only describing a certain and very specific demographic in an easy to understand manner.

 

[raccoonradio]

Don't know when/if WJIB move to 720 happens but again I get some kind of pirate in Boston (most likely) by day, here on North
Shore. They'd get wiped out by a 1 kW 720 signal for WJIB, if approved...maybe move to the 740 ..

 

[davideduardo]

Very few stations play anything but what some corporate "suit" deems profitable. Fine, I understand that, but it just seems to me that a Federally Licensed station should at least consider the fact that just maybe there is a WWII Veteran who would just love to hear the Andrew Sisters or Glen Miller one more time. After all, he or she did once put on a uniform so that we could be free. I know, tough sh*t. I am 83 and love "Oldies", but Oops! I forgot. "Oldies" is a dirty word. Shame on me.
Thank the power above for "Mom & Pop" stations.
Pardon my rant.

I get your point, but stations must find a way to pay the cost of operation.

For the most part, radio stations are either ad supported or non-profits dependent on donations. In either case, there is a trade where a station offers something either advertisers or contributors will support with money.

"Oldies" is not a bad word. But in the advertising world of agencies and their accounts, "oldies" means stations that play songs that appeal only to folks outside the age groups where advertising is rewarded with enough sales to make a profit.

So don't blame commercial radio for not "serving" people in their 70's and 80's (A WW II vet would be in their later 90's now!) because nearly no advertisers want to reach that group.

 

[nowradioguy]

I get your point, but stations must find a way to pay the cost of operation.

For the most part, radio stations are either ad supported or non-profits dependent on donations. In either case, there is a trade where a station offers something either advertisers or contributors will support with money.

"Oldies" is not a bad word. But in the advertising world of agencies and their accounts, "oldies" means stations that play songs that appeal only to folks outside the age groups where advertising is rewarded with enough sales to make a profit.

So don't blame commercial radio for not "serving" people in their 70's and 80's (A WW II vet would be in their later 90's now!) because nearly no advertisers want to reach that group.

I still don't understand this, David. The young people in my technology classes do NOT listen to radio at all, except for a very few males who MIGHT listen to 98.5 The Sports Hub. A lot of people in that 18-34 group download music or listen to podcasts. I have a daughter in the upper end of another age demo (25-54) who also does not listen to local radio at all; they took away WFNX and WAAF, so now she just listens to satellite. So exactly WHO do the advertisers think they're reaching? WBZ likely has a sizable 55+ audience, and they're managing okay. As far as "oldies": some of us (70+) can listen to satellite or stream from iHeart or Pandora or SiriusXM. But most of those in that 70+ bracket do not. It's just more natural for us to turn on an actual RADIO and tune in a station that suits us. Except that we can't.

 

[raccoonradio]

it was said on WJIB FB [Friends And Lovers] group that Garabedian had said on air that power
increase (and freq move?) was approved but it will take a few months as he needs to buy a new transmitter.
740 now: 250w day, 4 w night
720 CP: 1000 w day, 13 w night

Granted May 23

Draft Copy « Licensing and Management System « FCC

Licensing and Management System

enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov

 

[Eli Polonsky]

it was said on WJIB FB [Friends And Lovers] group that Garabedian had said on air that power
increase (and freq move?) was approved but it will take a few months as he needs to buy a new transmitter.
740 now: 250w day, 4 w night
720 CP: 1000 w day, 13 w night

Granted May 23

Draft Copy « Licensing and Management System « FCC

Licensing and Management System

enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov

He also said on Facebook that the new transmitter will continue the station to be in AM Stereo!

 

[CTListener]

I still don't understand this, David. The young people in my technology classes do NOT listen to radio at all, except for a very few males who MIGHT listen to 98.5 The Sports Hub.

That is the antithesis of a truly random sample. These are young people in technology classes. What sort of technology do you suppose students who enroll in a technology class are interested in? Modern technology, hot new technology, technology still being developed. Maybe a few would want to learn more about a legacy technology like radio, but they'd have to be outliers. Are you teaching them all about AM and FM broadcasting or are you teaching the sort of technology that's alive and growing today and is being driven by the work, activity and research of millennials?