West Bath radio operator buys WLAM in Lewiston
Radio operator Bob Bittner, who operates WJTO from his Berry’s Mill Pond studio in West Bath, WJIB in Cambridge, Mass., and WJYE in central Maine, has purchased stations WLAM in Lewiston and WLVP in greater Portland, the Sun Journal reported.
None of Bittner’s mostly AM stations air commercials. Instead they are entirely supported by listener donations, which he procures largely through fundraisers each summer. It can cost around $30,000 to run a station on an annual basis, although the Massachusetts station costs as much as $98,000, Bittner told the paper.
Bittner’s devotion to broadcast radio comes at a time when Internet radio offers interested individuals, such as musicians, artists and writers a free, non-commercial forum to broadcast locally produced programming that reaches not only a local audience, but a global audience.
Still, according to the website Statista, Internet radio is used by just 15% of American radio listeners, even though close to 80% of the U.S. population has access to the Internet. In general, radio is the second-most powerful medium in the United States, reaching 59% of the country’s population daily, second only to TV, with a daily reach of 80%.
Bittner told the paper that AM stations remain attractive to older listeners.
“AM stations have been suffering, and older people still know AM radio. They grew up with it; it’s their friend,” Bittner noted. “So if you play that kind of music which no one’s playing anyway, then you’ve got an audience.”
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