DavidKaye said:
WJIB in Boston - but of course that's a red herring, because it's run as much as a hobby as anything else. Licensed as a commercial station, but it doesn't sell spot time during the week, just some paid time on the weekends. Bob Bittner runs it entirely solo and mostly automated, and what expenses it has are paid for (and then some) by listener donations.
It's not the model we're all accustomed to, but it actually does work and provides useful service to an audience that's otherwise unserved, which is more than can be said for a lot of second- and third-tier AMs these days.
I used to think that the model couldn't easily be repeated, because when Bob bought the station at auction in 1992 for just $277,115, it seemed like a tremendous bargain in light of where station values went in the decade or so that followed. But we're getting back to the point where similar signals (WJIB is 250 watts day, low on the dial, and just 5 watts at night) can probably be had for somewhat similar prices again. At which point all you need is one guy with some money in his pocket and a dream...
