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WFBS: Belly Up?

P

PhilGalasso

Guest
Did WFBS pull the plug for good? A few weeks ago, the station was off the air. It returned at greatly reduced power, but the normal oldies format was on in morning drive, rather than the sports talk program that had been running in that daypart. Reception was poor due to the reduced power. Last week, I surfed the AM dial on my way home from work and heard WADO holding down the 1280 spot in Spanish from New York City. Yesterday, I tuned 1280 at midday, when WADO is not coming in, and heard...nothing! When I called the WFBS office number to see what was going on, I got a recording that the line had been disconnected.Having grown up during the heyday of AM Top-40 radio, it's sad to see the AM band dying, one station at a time. AM would be a good home for those formats that today's youth-oriented FM stations won't touch...basically, being in the position to experiment that FM was in back in 1966, when the FCC told AM/FM combos to stop simulcasting.
 
I always like the WFBS format. Whenever I could get down into the coverage area or listen to it on line, I did. I know Kevin did everything he could to grow that station. He asked me to give him some names of interested people to run the place for him and even got to the point of desperation once or twice when he even asked me to do it. The problem was he had a small signal, a small market base to sell to and no one who economically could take the risk of not getting a paycheck for a few weeks until stuff started to happen. Kevin's idea was one out of its time. It would've worked like gangbusters in the 60s and early 70s, but the times today just didn't warrant the desire. The need for community radio is still there big time, the desire and commitment to support it, is not. God knows the guy tried. Berwick football, mini football, everything. He gets high marks for at least attempting it. I will miss the station. Yonkstur
 
WFBS is dealing with the abdication of it's manager, in light of the hospitalization and recouperation of it's owner who is out of state. WFBS will continue to operate, and return to some semblence of itself in 4 days.
 
This is a good news/bad news sort of thing. The bad news is the manager left and the owner is sick, the good news is that they "want to keep on keepin' on". Best of luck.Yonkstur
 
WFBS Radio Smiles 1280 was for sale not long ago. Did it ever sell? And to whom?
 
The FCC requires two full-time staffers. It could be a large fine if that is not the case. You can turn the station off for up to one year, that should be enought time to find staff and get back on your feet.
 
However, alot of stations have only one staff member rpesent, get by with it and never get fined.
 
WVCA-FM, Gloucester MA. One person station; when he got sick and needed an operation, I was that one person.
 
ThomasCarten said:
WVCA-FM, Gloucester MA. One person station; when he got sick and needed an operation, I was that one person.
Click to expand...

Isnt that the beautiful music station? If so, I think they made NBC Nightly News back in the 80's and featured a one-man operation. Is the station still on air (in 2006) and running the same format?
 
Classical, from sign-on in about 1964 (maybe earlier). Simon Geller was the legendary owner, manager, announcer, etc. Had a delivery like Art Buchwald would if he had two cigars in his mouth and his teeth out.

Hated Gloucester, hated the residents, hated the newspaper which he said was double-billing to screw him. Said all this over the air, often. The listeners loved him. When he wanted to watch a movie, he'd say, "I'm going down to the theater; I'll be back in a couple of hours." Then he'd shut the place down.

Paranoid as hell; thought everybody was trying to get his license, which some were. Single-handedly fought off some Very Important People and their Very Important Lawyers to keep his license. Finally had to sell out because of ill health.

The station became W-BACH (WBOQ), got better studio equipment (there wasn't anything worse than what we had been running, believe me), a better antenna (ditto on the "worse") and raised to full Class A power on a hill. It was on 104.9 at the time and Si had t-shirts made up to raise $$. I have one; they got the freq wrong.

I did a piece somewhere -- Variety, Broadcasting, wire service (or all three) -- where I called it "Golden Pond Radio, an evolutionary throwback to the earliest days of broadcasting." A guy wanted to program a station his way then, by darn, he did.

I could fill this board with Simon Geller and/or WVCA stories.
 
Re: WFBS: Belly Up? An Update

I heard WFBS back on the air yesterday (June 29). They were running a sports talk program (possibly recorded) with telephone-quality audio, even in the late afternoon.

What's up with them?
 
ThomasCarten said:
Classical, from sign-on in about 1964 (maybe earlier). Simon Geller was the legendary owner, manager, announcer, etc. Had a delivery like Art Buchwald would if he had two cigars in his mouth and his teeth out.


I could fill this board with Simon Geller and/or WVCA stories.
Click to expand...

I'd love to see a tribute site about this station. Maybe that's where you could post your stories, et al. I'd definitely check it out.
 
ASCAP came in one day; "You haven't paid your membership." Simon: "I'm a classical station; I haven't played anything composed since the copyright act began. Get out."
 
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