ENTER BOB BITTNER
Bob was born in 1949 and grew up at Virginia Beach, Washington DC, and northern New Jersey, and then graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY) in late 1971.
His first on-air radio experience was reporting for his high school where he was heard several times on New York City’s WMCA-570. Then at college came a weekly on-air show on RIT’s college station WITR. But his first paid on-air gig started with his senior year in college at WCMF-FM in Rochester. Bob did the overnight shift, playing Black Sabbath, Blind Faith, the Mothers of Invention, Country Joe & the Fish, Led Zeppelin, none of the music one hears on today’s WJIB (excepting the Moody Blues!). Then in 1974, on to be Program Director/On-Air at WVOR-FM in Rochester, then on to WHOA-870 AM in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which at the time, was the island’s only English-language station. And it also played good music, as Bob was the Program Director there too.
Bob was feeling the desire to return to the continent in 1979 when Boston called. WBOS-FM hired him as mid-day DJ playing disco music. Later, at the same station he was playing country music. During the 80’s he played country music on WDLW-1330 (Waltham) and WCAV-FM in Brockton, as well as being Program Director and eventually playing 50’s & 60’s pop oldies on Newton’s WNTN-1550. Next he transitioned to become Program Director and on-air DJ at adult-standards WXKS-1430 AM when he was hired by Arnie Ginsburg. This paragraph concludes answering a common question which was always posed to Bob: “You did work at the old WJIB-FM, didn’t you?” Answer: no.’
This is when he won the bankruptcy auction and purchased WLVG-740 in Cambridge (now WJIB). After getting WJIB established, Bob purchased two dead off-the-air stations in 1993 and 1994; 5,000-watt WKBR (1250 AM) in Manchester, NH and 1,000-watt WNEB (1230 AM) in Worcester, then got them up and running and then later, sold them to two separate entities. He may not have sold those two had he thought of “listener-support” at that time.
Like WJIB, Bob bought WNEB, Worcester also by being the high bidder, thinking he would keep it. But the youth of Worcester helped him change his mind…FAST! – At the tower site (in the best section of town, by the way) about 2 miles west of city center), teenagers daily (uh, no, hourly) vandalized the tower site, trying to pull the tower down, having drug-parties next to the tower, cutting through metal fencing, and eventually a break-in and stealing $10k worth of equipment; specialized equipment that even likely puzzled their ‘fence’, for which the thieves probably got $30. for. According to Bob, the Worcester police had better things to do that day than to investigate the crime, it seemed. They couldn’t have cared less. Bob finally got the station back on the air and put it up for sale. Too bad, as that was a great repeater-station for WJIB, re-broadcasting WJIB’s signal into Worcester, which was done very economically. It became quite popular in the several months it was playing the WJIB music. After selling WNEB, Bob drove east on Route 9 away from Worcester, headed home to Needham and never looked back.
Then in March 1997 Bob purchased talk station WJTO (AM-730) in Bath, Maine. Bob gradually turned to music after the talk shows’ contracts ran out and were not renewed by Bob. Bob and his architect-wife Raisa eventually moved to Maine, interconnecting WJTO and WJIB and originating all broadcasting from the WJTO studio overlooking a beautiful bay on the Atlantic ocean.
WHY DIDN’T BOB OBTAIN ADVERTISING INSTEAD OF “LISTENER SUPPORT”?
A logical question, but in the 33 years Bob owned 740, he said that not once had a person approach him saying they would like to do sales! – DJ’s, yes; sales, no. And even if someone wanted to do sales, it would be appropriate for them to receive a salary in advance of their productivity. Most new salespeople fail at selling well, and it takes over a year to find out. Therefore, the chances of that advance salary being a good investment are slim. This is a problem that most stations face, but most of the others have long-established sales teams and can afford such experimentation. Additionally, because conglomeration is happening everywhere, standalone local businesses have almost become extinct. And in Boston, the competition is stiff and now includes digital, plus direct mail, cable and over-the-air TV, billboards, newspapers, and a dozen other radio stations. And in a market as large as Boston WJIB is in an unusual situation… it’s too big for small local businesses and too small for big chain businesses. But with our growing, dedicated community of passionate listeners, commercial-free operation is a major drawing point responsible for a large part of our appeal.