Re: WVCA-FM

[Dib9@aol.com]

In a message dated 97-07-17 18:55:08 EDT, you write:

<<      Simon Geller was that "one of a kind of station owner" that you
simply
 cannot forget.  I had many long telephone conversations with Simon over
 the years until he sold WVCA.  Sure, he was crusty and bitter... but who
 could blame him.  In spite of the FCC problems he suffered with and the
 countless bickering done behind his back... he persisted and WON.  God
 love him.
      Here is a man who was denied an AM slot for Gloucester in the early 
 1960's on 1410 kHz.  (The Sullivan family got the slot for Brockton's
 WOKW which signed in 1962).  The FCC offered Simon the 104.9 FM slot as
 a consolation prize instead.  He basically took a frequency that NOBODY
 wanted and put on WVCA (The Voice of Cape Ann).  When he signed on WVCA
 in 1964 it started life as a Top-40 rocker using an old WCRB-FM stereo
 retrofitted transmitter he bought for a song.  He soon realized that
 Top-40 rock on an 800 watt FM stereo station could not cut the mustard
 in 1967 American radio.  He let his few DJ's go and began broadcasting
 Public Domain Classical/Symphonic Music to avoid the ASCAP/BMI fees.
 He dumped the stereo in order to improve the coverage in the outlining
 areas (which made up MOST of WVCA's coverage area).  So from 1967 until
 the day he sold WVCA, only Classical/Symphonic music was to be heard
 on 104.9 FM.  How he was able to keep WVCA was a miracle in itself.
 But one way or another, HE DID !  
 
 -Pete- >>

Reading all these stories makes me wonder: is Bob Bitneer the modern day
Simon Geller?  (with more professionalsim and without the bitterness.)

Dan Billings
Bowdoinham, Maine

------------------------------