RIP Bob Bittner

[Mark Connelly]

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
<contiba@gmail.com> 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

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Bruce Conti
B.A.Conti Photography www.baconti.com
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