After the passing of longtime owner and operator Bob Bittner last May, WJIB(AM) will soon be under new management.
in January Bittner’s estate announced that John Garabedian’s RCRQ Inc. will acquire WJIB and its companion FM translator. The sale was filed with the FCC for its approval on Jan. 23, and the closing is anticipated sometime in early spring.
WJIB is a Class D station operating on 740 kHz. Based in Cambridge, Mass., it serves the Boston market with commercial-free music programming. WJIB’s “Memories Station” format — which was named for the 15,000 songs curated by Bittner from albums he collected or that were contributed by listeners — is simulcast on WJTO(AM) in Bath-Portland, Maine and WBAS(AM) in West Yarmouth on Cape Cod, each having a companion 250-watt FM translator.
The buyer is Cambridge native John Garabedian. Well known to Boston radio listeners, Garabedian has been heard on the former WBCN(FM) and the original WMEX(AM). For 30 years he hosted the national “Open House Party,” as heard on WXKS (Kiss 108), and founded WVJV-TV (“V 66”) with Arnie “Woo Woo” Ginsburg in the ’80s. Until recently, Garabedian operated a group of stations on Cape Cod that included WKFY(FM), where he broadcast much of the same music as heard on WJIB.
Without ads to bolster station funds, during his tenure Bittner relied on listener donations. His annual appeals to a devoted fanbase raised enough money to keep the stations operating. Once enough was collected to cover expenses for a year, Bittner would announce an end to the campaign and, according to The Portland Press Herald, would return later checks with a personal thank you letter.
“Bob Bittner created a magical radio station built on the concept of airing music that brought back people’s memories of their lives, rather than a single style or era of music,” Garabedian told Radio World. “Even at a measly 250 watts, commercial-free WJIB has a fanatically loyal audience who have enthusiastically supported the station with six figure cash donations every year.”
The WJIB deal was brokered by Dennis Jackson of Sun Signals LLC. As a longtime Bittner family friend and spokesman for Raisa, Bittner’s wife of 24 years, Jackson was tasked with the duty of finding a buyer to carry forward Bittner’s legacy. He told Radio World that “Raisa saw WJIB as [Bittner’s] way of paying forward the good fortune that life had brought him, and loved him for it.”
“I’m an independent radio entrepreneur as Bob was,” said Jackson. “We and our wives have been friends for many years. We first met in the mid ’90s when I helped him transition WJIB(AM) from a beautiful music station that used an ingenious system that sequenced six-hour VHS tapes of beautiful music, to one of the early desktop computer-based automation systems.”
According to reporting by local Boston blog and newsletter, Radio and Music Pros, WJIB’s purchase price was set at $575,010. That price included the value of the translator, which was set at $10.
Commenting on WJIB’s new ownership, Jackson said, “As a successful programmer and broadcast entrepreneur in his own right — and blessed with a similarly deep and mellifluous voice — John Garabedian is the perfect steward to carry Bob Bittner’s legacy forward. [Bittner] was an extraordinarily kind and gentle person. The Memories Stations are an expression of that.”
As for what happens next, Garabedian said he is eager to keep WJIB’s loyal listeners entertained; albeit with a few tweaks to some of the station’s musical quirks.
“My challenge is to continue to keep those listeners happy and engaged while expanding the audience using my 60 years of programming experience,” said Garabedian. “For instance, while we will continue airing the instrumental version of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ at noon, it’s likely we will discontinue playing the ‘Bunny Hop.'”
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