From kvahey@gmail.com Sat May 27 02:14:29 2023 From: kvahey@gmail.com (Kevin Vahey) Date: Sat, 27 May 2023 02:14:29 -0400 Subject: RIP Bob Bittner Message-ID: Bob Bittner passed away on Friday at the age of 73. A devastating loss to the local radio community. https://www.universalhub.com/2023/bob-bittner-easy-listening-king-am-band-dies From raccoonradio@gmail.com Fri May 26 21:29:17 2023 From: raccoonradio@gmail.com (Bob Nelson) Date: Fri, 26 May 2023 21:29:17 -0400 Subject: Bob Bittner WJIB has passed Message-ID: We are hearing from several sources that Bob Bittner owner of WJIB and several other stations died this morning. The word was passed along from his wife Raisa to several close friends. One of a kind and dedicated to radio and music. RIP From ssmyth@alumni.psu.edu Sat May 27 17:02:53 2023 From: ssmyth@alumni.psu.edu (Sean Smyth) Date: Sat, 27 May 2023 17:02:53 -0400 Subject: RIP Bob Bittner In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: RIP. Even though I ended up not pursuing broadcasting, Bob gave me a chance when I was a kid ? running the board at 16 or 17 while I also posted stupid things on this mailing list. I goofed up a bunch, but he kept me around. Few others would?ve dealt with me, but Bob did, for an extended period of time. I always meant to send him a note telling him how appreciative I was ? I didn?t. He was a good man and an asset to the industry. I hope WJIB and his other stations continue on in some form. Thanks for posting, Kevin, otherwise I wouldn?t have seen this. On Sat, May 27, 2023 at 4:45 PM Kevin Vahey wrote: > Bob Bittner passed away on Friday at the age of 73. > > > A devastating loss to the local radio community. > > > > https://www.universalhub.com/2023/bob-bittner-easy-listening-king-am-band-dies > -- Sent from my iPhone From joe@attorneyross.com Sat May 27 20:22:40 2023 From: joe@attorneyross.com (A Joseph Ross) Date: Sat, 27 May 2023 20:22:40 -0400 Subject: RIP Bob Bittner In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <91e11f71-0faf-7f2f-8cb0-737272c2dd5b@attorneyross.com> That's sad.? Bob was a very unusual -- maybe even eccentric -- person, in a good way.? I wonder what will happen to WJIB and his other stations now. On 5/27/2023 2:14 AM, Kevin Vahey wrote: > Bob Bittner passed away on Friday at the age of 73. > > > A devastating loss to the local radio community. > > > https://www.universalhub.com/2023/bob-bittner-easy-listening-king-am-band-dies -- A. Joseph Ross Brookline, MA === ?No man treats a motorcar as foolishly as he treats another human being. When the car will not go, he does not attribute its annoying behavior to sin; he does not say, 'You are a wicked motorcar, and I shall not give you any more petrol until you go.' He attempts to find out what is wrong and to set it right. An analogous way of treating human beings is, however, considered to be contrary to the truths of our holy religion.? /? Bertrand Russell/ From tlmedia9@gmail.com Sat May 27 19:40:13 2023 From: tlmedia9@gmail.com (Ted Larsen) Date: Sat, 27 May 2023 19:40:13 -0400 Subject: Bob Bittner WJIB has passed In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: How sad On Sat, May 27, 2023 at 7:06?PM Bob Nelson wrote: > We are hearing from several sources that Bob Bittner owner of WJIB and > several other stations died this morning. The word was passed along from > his wife Raisa to several close friends. One of a kind and dedicated to > radio and music. > RIP > From billohno@gmail.com Sat May 27 20:54:36 2023 From: billohno@gmail.com (billohno@gmail.com) Date: Sat, 27 May 2023 20:54:36 -0400 Subject: Bob Bittner WJIB has passed In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: How sad, indeed. My deepest condolences to Raisa and family on this loss. Bill O?Neill > On May 27, 2023, at 7:06 PM, Bob Nelson wrote: > > ?We are hearing from several sources that Bob Bittner owner of WJIB and > several other stations died this morning. The word was passed along from > his wife Raisa to several close friends. One of a kind and dedicated to > radio and music. > RIP From markwa1ion@aol.com Mon May 29 01:12:26 2023 From: markwa1ion@aol.com (Mark Connelly) Date: Mon, 29 May 2023 05:12:26 +0000 (UTC) Subject: RIP Bob Bittner References: <1012447507.3783921.1685337146954.ref@mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <1012447507.3783921.1685337146954@mail.yahoo.com> Thanks to Kevin for providing the initial information about Bob. ?I am sharing a slightly updated version of a message I had sent to a local group of radio DXers who appreciated Bob and his stations: The New England radio community had a sad day Friday the 26th as legendary station owner, operator, and DJ Bob Bittner passed away. He was involved with WJIB and WBAS in Massachusetts and with WJTO, WLVP, and WLAM in Maine. His broadcasting life was devoted to music featuring an easy mix of light rock oldies, classic country, crooners, and big bands. He had extraordinary knowledge of the material he played and also of the broadcasting business - the good and bad of it. ?His knowledge also extended into the technical side of things including an appreciation of how signals get from transmitter to receiver and, as many DXers do, he understood how receivers, antennas, terrain, salt water, weather, the ionosphere, and man-made interference can all play a part in the success or failure of a potential listening experience. I met Bob Bittner on a couple of occasions. The first was likely at the 1994 National Radio Club convention held in Merrimack, NH. That included a tour of the 1250 WKBR transmitter site. For more about that, see Bruce Conti's write-up after this. Another meeting was either at one of the NH ham radio fleamarkets (HossTraders / NEAR-Fest) or along with other "Boston Radio Interest Group" notables such as Donna Halper and Dan Strassberg at a get-together held at Gary's Ice Cream in Chelmsford, MA back on 18 JUN 2011. I had good chats with him about DX, radio history / personalities, and music. It was definitely great to talk to a giant of New England radio in person. Bob kidded around with me as "Cape Cod's Helen Shapiro fan" as I tried convincing him to put more of her tunes on his playlist as 2011 was her 50th anniversary in pop music and a great box set of CDs had just come out. Bob and I kicked around a lot of music ideas on the WJIB Facebook page. That's where many of us gathered to post YouTube links to music compatible with his format, sometimes our own suggestions and many times giving "thumbs up" to tunes he had just played. Bob and his social media base went into deep dives of songs from the growing number of artists passing away - Harry Belafonte and Gordon Lightfoot among the recent ones. Reading everyone's comments including Bob's was like a school in popular music from the 1930s through the 1980s. Radio history and Boston history were comments side trips and even some dog and cat pictures added to the human interest. What becomes of his stations is anyone's guess at this point. I have airchecked to mp3 likely a grand total of over 50 hours of his programming, unscoped, so I can bring back the memories even if those stations are gone or doing something different someday. This includes excerpts of Christmas programming, a rare phone-in request show, Sunday country, Sunday crooners / big-bands, and much of a typical regular day's fare. He will be greatly missed. Condolences to Raisa especially and to all his family and his many friends around the world. More info: https://www.universalhub.com/2023/bob-bittner-easy-listening-king-am-band-dies https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/bob-bittner-dies-wjib-cambridge https://www.facebook.com/groups/WJIB740 Mark Connelly, WA1ION South Yarmouth, MA >From Bruce Conti on the Boston Area DXers list. On Sun, May 28, 2023 at 9:07 AM, Bruce Conti wrote: Bob Bittner was the guest speaker at the 1994 National Radio Club Convention in Merrimack-Nashua NH, and provided a tour of the 1250 WKBR Manchester transmitter site for convention-goers. However, I had met Bob some years earlier for a tour of 740 WJIB. Back then, WJIB was automated, MacGyver-like rigged with a stack of VCRs rotating through 8-hour long tapes of easy listening/middle-of-the-road oldies programming. Before the 1994 NRC Convention, Bob purchased 1250 WKBR Manchester and had a similar setup at the transmitter site for broadcasting the same easy listening/middle-of-the-road format. The 1250 transmitter site is located in Goffstown on the Manchester city line, but at the time the FCC rules required a radio station to maintain an office in the city of license. During his keynote address at the convention, Bob joked that moving a file cabinet from the transmitter site to just within the city line would satisfy FCC rules. Bob was friendly to DX'ers. At one time he arranged for DX'ers to connect receivers to the WJIB antenna for an overnight session. We made similar plans at 730 WJTO as part of a future NRC Convention, along with a barbeque banquet at the WJTO site, but the NRC rejected the proposal in favor of Lima, Ohio, the geographic center of the club membership. 1250 WKBR was later sold and became an ESPN affiliate as WGAM The Game, while Bob concentrated on coastal Maine, having a full understanding of sea-gain familiar to DX'ers. WJTO and WJIB coverage maps showed the long reception distances hugging the coastline. RIP -- Bruce Conti B.A.Conti Photography www.baconti.com ?BAMLog! www.bamlog.com From raccoonradio@gmail.com Mon May 29 06:57:06 2023 From: raccoonradio@gmail.com (Bob Nelson) Date: Mon, 29 May 2023 06:57:06 -0400 Subject: Fybush column on the late Bob Bittner Message-ID: https://www.fybush.com/nerw-20230529/ The story on Bittner is free to all