WJIB
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| City | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Boston, Massachusetts |
| Branding | 740 WJIB |
| Slogan | The Memories Station |
| Frequency | 740 kHz AM (Medium wave) |
| First air date | April 1948 |
| Format | Adult standards, '50s/'60s pop |
| Power | 250 watts daytime 5 watts nighttime |
| Class | D |
| Facility ID | 6146 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°23′12.3″N 71°8′19.7″W / 42.386750°N 71.138806°W |
| Callsign meaning | A jib is a ship part; the original WJIB at 96.9 FM was located in an office building on Boston's waterfront; original (1992) format was modeled on that station |
| Former callsigns | WTAO (1948–65) WXHR (1965–67) WCAS (1967–83) WLVG (1983–91) WWEA (1991–92) |
| Owner | Bob Bittner (Bob Bittner Broadcasting, Inc.) |
| Sister stations | WJTO |
WJIB (740 AM) is a radio station based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and serving the Boston DMA. The playlist draws from 5,400 records, concentrating on Adult Standards from the 1930s through the 1960s, and softer pop music from the 1950s and 1960s. It is owned by Bob Bittner Broadcasting, along with sister station WJTO in Bath, Maine. WJIB runs no commercial advertisements (instead relying on listener donations, in the same vein as a non-commercial station), and broadcast in AM stereo until the summer of 2012. Station owner Bob Bittner announced on WJIB's Facebook page in the summer of 2016 the resuming of stereo transmission on WJIB.
WJIB is an indirect successor to a previous Boston FM station with the same call sign (now WBQT/96.9, owned by Greater Media) which in turn descended from WXHR, one of the first FM stations in the Boston area. Coincidentally, what is now WJIB was once owned by Harvey Radio Laboratories, the same company that owned WXHR/WJIB-FM. The AM station was first known as WTAO, then WXHR, and later as WCAS. In 1967, a year after they were sold to a joint venture of Kaiser Broadcasting and the Boston Globe, WXHR became WCAS while WXHR-FM changed to WJIB, featured the beautiful music format, and became well known for a nautical-themed station identification featuring a buoy bell and a seagull (now used in modified form by WOCN-FM on Cape Cod). WJIB-FM became WCDJ, a smooth jazz station, in 1990, and the call sign WJIB lapsed.
After Kaiser/Globe took over, the AM side at first broadcast a format with music and local news of interest to listeners in Cambridge and nearby communities, but was not very successful. By 1969, WCAS had flipped to Oldies. This was followed in 1972 by a soft rock format that, by 1973, had evolved into a folk/rock format which, while not enormously successful, gained a devoted following in the Boston area. In 1974 and then again in 1975, WCAS was almost sold to religious broadcasters, but both times, citizens groups intervened and thwarted the sales. The format continued even after Kaiser finally sold the station, in 1976, but ended with a sale of the station in 1981 after the then-owners, Dan Murphy and Mel Stone, were forced to file bankruptcy for WCAS. The rest of the 1980s would see a revolving door of owners, call letters, and formats. In the summer of 1991, Bob Bittner purchased the station, then known as WLVG ("We love God") and programming a Black Gospel format. Bittner changed the format to "Earth Radio" (a blend of contemporary music with environmentally-aware public service spots) under the call letters WWEA.
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