WJIB

[jimmyd]

I find WJIB a nice escape from all the commercials,talking heads trying to be clever, and overplayed songs. Of course I still have my own music in my trucks cd player too. ( Beatles Love, Soundtrack from Wicked and Best of Led Zeppelin}) Matty ( and Billy) is the only guy on the air that is still worth listening to. He makes his own rules, doesnt follow a script, and tries to please noone. The audience that loves Matty has grown up WITH Matty. He is a funny guy on the air ,and off the air. He dosen't put on the "DJ" hat when that microphone goes on. Thanks to Matt, I am a 54 year old man who actually downloaded Flo-Riders " Low Low Song". After being force fed The same tired playlist of "Oldies" for years, I actually start shaking when I hear "FUN FUN FUN". WJIB is a nice change.There are certain "sounds" and "Voices" on the radio that give me hives, and make me want to punch the speaker. But thank God for that tuner knob, and thanks to Bob The Music Man for WJIB.

 

[wavelength9]

Bob Bitner is my hero. He runs his station for the love of broadcasting and not for the quick buck. He could be making a lot more money selling time to those get rich quick hucksters and worthless pills and goup peddlers. But, he has to much character and integrity.

I ran the old XKS AM 14300 years ago which had a similar format as JIB, I know first hand how many people young and not old appreciate being able to listen to the format without 10 minutes of spots every ten minutes. Thankfully, when AM 1430 switched format from music to Bloomberg Business back to music then to progressive talk and then to Rumba the XKS listeners always had AM 740 to turn to.

JIB is the definition of broadcasting in the public interest.

 

[argytunes]

3 CHEERS FOR BOB BITNER!

I wish I could work on a project for him (or one of his radio stations) sometime! ???

argytunes

 

[TSBench]

3 CHEERS FOR BOB BITNER!

I wish I could work on a project for him (or one of his radio stations) sometime! ???

argytunes

Think about it. The reasons you so admire the JIB operation are exactly the same ones which are going to keep you from working there. Yes, Bob can program exactly what he wants because he doesn't care about ratings (except from maybe a personal satisfaction POV) and doesn't care at all about advertising revenue. Therefore, nobody is buying groceries with paychecks from JIB because there aren't any. If every station was run like JIB, there would be two categories of employment in radio broadcasting; owner/operator and contract engineer.

For someone such as yourself who thinks he has bulletproof programming ideas but lacks the wherewithal to get them on the air, a station like JIB is not your friend.


Regards,
TSB

 

[jimmyd]

Chill Baby !! There are still tons of radio stations out there. I'm just saying I like WJIB. I don't care about working there. Every station is NOT run like WJIB .... One is plenty. The others are run by glorified sales people who lucked out and sold their soul for the company. I'm enjoying watching the ratings drop !!!!!

 

[wavelength9]

Mr Bench have you ever posted a positive comment on this board?

Not every station is required to provide the most number of jobs for the largest number of people. Given the state of AM radio, could a small stand alone AM that is basically a daytimer, survive in a major market, other than the way it is run by Bob Bitner. I don't think so.

Mr Bench what would you do if you owned JIB? Other than going ethnic or all brokered, I don't see what type of format could make it. Unless one of the College's owned it and ran it as a loss leader. If Bitner hired a staff and started selling traditional advertising, other than maybe a few banks in Arlington and Cambridge and maybe Belmont Medical Supply, who would want to advertise on that station and how much would they pay for it? I have sold the Music of your Life"/ Easy Listening format and believe me it isn't easy.

Any income he could bring in would be eaten up in a second in new overhead.

30 years ago, WCAS was a great little station with a full staff. Those days are not coming back.

 

[TSBench]

Chill Baby !!

I believe you have me confused with someone who cares what you think.

There are still tons of radio stations out there. I'm just saying I like WJIB. I don't care about working there.

But the person I was responding to, and quoting, said that he was. Unless you are the same person as Argytunes, in which case you have short term memory issues.

Every station is NOT run like WJIB ....

Nice catch.

Regards,
TSB

 

[mgpt6]

WCAS from 72-79 was a great little station. My fav over BCN and COZ in the 70s. Plus AM radios were made better then than now Too bad that CAS didnt have the 3watt nite power AND Internet streaming back then.

 

[argytunes]

It's too bad TS Bench has to take honest compliment for Bob Bittner and twist it into a bad tasting pretzel!

Mr. Bench...you certainly don't have to like---or even read my responses. I definitely have a few programming ideas that would work in various markets. But judging from the many negative responses I've received from YOU (and a couple of others) in the past...I've learned: THERE'S NO HONOR AMONG THIEVES!.

And this is the reason I try and keep my programming thoughts for individuals (like Bob Bittner) who isn't afraid to attempt to try a different format on one of his radio stations!

Sorry you felt the need to slam dunk me today!

argytunes

 

[Eli Polonsky]

WCAS from 72-79 was a great little station. My fav over BCN and COZ in the 70s. Plus AM radios were made better then than now.

WJIB sounds amazing on a wideband C-Quam AM stereo receiver, which were only widely manufactured in the 1980s and early 1990s. If you're in an area where you're getting a clear strong signal, the high-frequency response is so good that you can even tell when Bob recorded songs off of vinyl records. You can hear the vinyl clicks and pops in the background.

I know that some of the current HD radios also demodulate C-Quam analog AM stereo, but as far as I know they all have very narrow analog AM bandwidth. There's stereo separation, but the sound is as muddy and muffled as any of today's typical AM mono receivers. I don't know why they bother putting C-Quam in them with such narrow bandwidth.

 

[TSBench]

Mr Bench have you ever posted a positive comment on this board?

Probably. I don’t think I’ll go back and check, though. Heck, it’s time consuming enough separating the strawmen from the red herrings around here.

Not every station is required to provide the most number of jobs for the largest number of people.

Who said they were? I know it wasn’t me.

I was quoting and responding to a fellow who expressed a desire to work with Bob Bittner. Rather than reprint it here, I’ll let you find it.

Given the state of AM radio, could a small stand alone AM that is basically a daytimer, survive in a major market, other than the way it is run by Bob Bitner.

Yes, In fact, you even came up with a couple of ways yourself. Of course, the only way you could run it exactly like Bob Bittner does is to run it exactly like Bob Bittner does.

Mr Bench what would you do if you owned JIB?

Depends on what my objectives would be and how much, if any, revenue I needed.

But what is your point here? Intentionally misunderstanding posts so you take umbridge and then write a paean to Bob Bittner? Start by getting his name correct.

My comments, which were in no way derogatory of Bittner or JIB (or Argytunes, for that matter), were that a station with no employees and no payroll and no appreciable revenue, was probably not the place to look for a paying gig, and that, if every station was run as JIB, with just an owner/operator and no staff, the radio profession wouldn’t exist. You can take issue with any, or all, of that, but most logical people, including human resource professionals, would find the logic unassailable.


Regards,
TSB

 

[TSBench]

It's too bad TS Bench has to take honest compliment for Bob Bittner and twist it into a bad tasting pretzel!

How so?

Please be concise, and point to the exact words which were either untrue or derogatory.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
TSB

 

[JIBGUY]

My turn.... ;D

I considered most folks' comments as compliments, and I considered TSB's original post of this topic neutral and a statement of fact. TSB is correct in saying that JIB is not exactly a friend to radio people wanting employment. What it is a friend to, are the approx 100,000 listeners who love the station. The only way I can bring that joy to those 100,000 is to do so with a financially stable operation, which WJIB is. And having no full-time employees is the only way to keep it stable. True, I could have a sales department and some full-time DJ's, but doing so at my stations will cause an early death due to stress, and then the stations are all done with too.
I'm not a young guy anymore...... age 58. Additionally, having a squabbling sales dep't would be contrary to the peaceful atmosphere of the station.

Related to this, I recently took a poll of listeners at WJIB as to whether they'ld like the songs announced or not. I was surprised to see that about 65% do NOT want such, as it would ruin the flow of music. (I had planned on announcing the songs just one day a week, all day long at WJIB). I have been doing such here in Maine at WJTO since February every Monday, with about 60-40 mixed reviews (60 in favor of song-IDing). But that may not be accurate as who would want to tell the owner/announcer of an endangered-formatted station to "shut up".

So as far as Boston goes, I would prefer to keep 65,000 people happy (65%) than 3 DJ's happy. - Do I miss having a staff? Yes. The WJIB employee December Holiday Party is poorly attended.

 

[RadioFixerCLE]

TSB is correct in saying that JIB is not exactly a friend to radio people wanting employment. What it is a friend to, are the approx 100,000 listeners who love the station. The only way I can bring that joy to those 100,000 is to do so with a financially stable operation, which WJIB is. And having no full-time employees is the only way to keep it stable.

WJIB would be more of a place where you could volunteer your time, as long as you have a full-time job elsewhere. You know....do radio strictly for love of the medium (and the music if it's your style).

It's not like things are any better at similar stations located in the suburbs of Long Island -- most board ops make minimum wage, so you're basically also working for 1) the experience and 2) the fun of it.

But you can't make a living out of it, unless you work .... full time at a station in NYC...or do something else not radio related.

 

[spilot113]

JibGuy....

I know you shun away from the idea of streaming due to the costs/rights payements, etc.

Have you thought about using Live365...it would get you streaming and take care of all the royalty issues at a minimal cost.

 

[Time Traveler]

WCAS from 72-79 was a great little station. My fav over BCN and COZ in the 70s. Plus AM radios were made better then than now Too bad that CAS didnt have the 3watt nite power AND Internet streaming back then.

And how cool was it that through 1975, 1550-WNTN also existed....two alternative rock stations for the time, on AM
in addition to WBCN, WCOZ and WAAF....

 

[FPB]

>Yes, Bob can program exactly what he wants because he doesn't care about ratings (except from >maybe a personal satisfaction POV) and doesn't care at all about advertising revenue. Therefore, >nobody is buying groceries with paychecks from JIB because there aren't any.
>
As a matter of fact, 'jib often shows up in the ratings - even beating out stations like 'fnx. The station gets noted as a favorite in many suprising venues by people you wouldn't expect to be loyal listeners. He can definately sell advertising if he wanted to. His choice is his own and very respectable.

 

[DanStrassberg]

WJIB would be more of a place where you could volunteer your time, as long as you have a full-time job elsewhere. You know....do radio strictly for love of the medium (and the music if it's your style).

Umm, I think that probably no more arguments go on and no more tension exists than among groups of unpaid volunteer "employees." If Bob wants to maintain a stress-free work environment for himself, he needs to continue to keep WJIB a one-person operation.

Paid employees tend to be less argumentative than volunteers; a paid employee knows that if he/she argues (either with the boss or a fellow employee), the result could be loss of a paycheck. An unpaid volunteer has no paycheck to provide an incentive to not make waves.

 

[JIBGUY]

Federal and State labor laws prohibit 'volunteers' as WJIB is a for-profit corporation There's a reason for such laws... so employers don't take advantage of volunteers who might be there just to hope that they'll get paid someday. Or if it were part of theweek volunteering and part of the week paid, then essentially the person's wage would be below 'minimum wage' as an average. Therefore, no unpaid work could be done at WJIB since all laws are followed at WJIB. Because of the laws (which are a good thing for the nation overall), there are no on-air opportunities at WJIB.

For those of you who think that WJIB could sell time, you're right. WJIB is always in the ratings with a very respectable number for a 250,000 mW signal, but the easy money is always turned down. Twice a week the diet pills & colon cleansing people call or write me. They want to be on WJIB SO BAD they can taste it, as WJIB is virgin territory for them to reap from. And money from the diet pills etc would definitely pay for on-air DJ's. But then what happens to WJIB? Too much talk and too much hawking of questionable products. No longer would WJIB be what it is now. It would be ruined. People listen to WJIB for 2 reasons; the music, and being so refreshing without the commercial jibber-jabber (HAD to say that). It's the ONE place where the media is not pushing you to purchase something, and that is wonderful. I am not against commerce (hence the word "Commerc"ial), I'm just against how its being done these days, almost always pepppered with dishonesty and misleading information.

Regarding decent regular advertising. WJIB is too big for small business, and too small for big business. It's feast or famine for the smaller stations.

Now that I've said all of this, I am likely going to have PBS-style advertising from local businesses on WJTO, later this year or next year. A sponsor, a day: "Today's music is made possible by...."

 

[argytunes]

Now that I've said all of this, I am likely going to have PBS-style advertising from local businesses on WJTO, later this year or next year. A sponsor, a day: "Today's music is made possible by...."

Bob...

I know there are competitive broadcasters who hate this sort of approach...but in some ways, the idea works better than an infomercial with an obnoxious spokesperson! :

It would be fun to 'run a few ideas by you sometime'---if for no other reason than to obtain AN OBJECTIVE OPINION FROM A BROADCASTER WHO STILL ENJOYS RADIO!

argytunes