This is a peculiar radio station – it’s an 250 watt (5w at night) AM station in Cambridge Mass (where the police behave stupidly).
It plays nostalgia music on a low frequency AM station. It’s a one person operation and he asks for donations (it’s not a non-profit company)
For 2007 (the most current info), total expenses were
T O T A L …………………………….87,913.51
LISTENER CONTRIBUTIONS ..100,126.40
SURPLUS……………….. ………….12,212.89
Almost half of the expense was music licensing, rent was most of the rest.
The antenna sits right in the middle of a self storage warehouse
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This is one of the more strange radio stations I’ve ever looked at
This guy is bringing in a $100K playing nostalgia music on a low frequency AM station, and making a profit? He’s gotta be doing something right. How far does a 5w signal travel?
You can probably hear it across the street, but not so much in Cambridge. On the positive side, he doesn’t even mention an electric bill in his budget
http://www.radio-locator.com/info/WJIB-AM
Those numbers are from 2007 posted in 2009 on the web site. There is nothing in the budget for employees. It’s one man playing records while he counts the days until he meets Jesus and La Raza buys the station for $50
Here is a detailed news story. Cc will appreciate this detail – his audio source is a VHS tape deck – since it is audio only, it can be on extended play tapes with maybe 10 hours on a tape – probably with some simple wiring, they could play in a chain. Since it is nostalgia music and no ads to schedule, you can just run a handful of tapes over and over
http://thephoenix.com/boston/life/142237-how-one-man-unites-old-folks-babies-and-hipsters/
So, unite all age groups and if a person could set it up the way you detailed it then a few of those stations could keep one in food, clothing, shelter, auto, and who knows what else?
Ohhhhh, wonder if Lew Dickey could franchise that?
Think of this as the prototype for LPFM (the filing window is now a few days over a month from now – any TEA party and/or Gun Nuts listening?)
I don’t have any issue with his finances. The problem is he probably has 1950s era transmitters – when some part goes, or the antenna falls, or his copper radials are stolen (hard to dig up under the storage warehouse) he will be SOL very fast
A similar station in Southern Chicago was WJJG – it was run by a guy named Joe Gentile – he bought a Suburban radio station in 1994 – he had been a car dealer – similar to the Mays family in San Antonio buying a dying AM station figuring it was cheaper than buying ads on the station
People felt sorry for Joe – the station had holes in the wall that allowed birds to fly into the studio. When things broke, radio engineers would patch up the equipment for free.
He had donated $3.5 million in the 1990s to pay half the costs of building their basketball arena. I can’t find it now, but I think when he died in October 2011 he left another million dollars to Loyola.
He also owns a radio station in Maine
http://www.wjto.com/
It has to get by on $29k
Bob is bitter about the “Republican” deregulation in 1996 ruining radio.
The deregulation of radio was pushed for and signed into law in 1996 by Bill Clinton. The bill passed 414-16 in the House and 91-5 in the Senate. That looks bipartisan to me. Facts are stubborn things in Cambridge. One of the 5 Senators voting No was John McCain
Well, the only good thing we can credit Senator John McCain for doing is pickin’ Sarah Palin and……..wait…….wait……wait…..Good Lord, Oh, Lord!!!!,,,,,,,,,,nothing else comes to mind!!!
Question?? What would the prognosis be, in terms of the world outlook today, had McClame never returned from Paradise???
Well, my research indicates we have nothing BIG to worry over until April 2014.
We wouldn’t have the Campaign Finance laws that the Supreme Court threw out as unconstitutional restrictions on Free Speech – uhhh. Hold on a second.