Free Republic

Bob Bittner coined the phrase “Easy as the breeze” serving up hits from the likes of Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin and the Beach Boys on WJIB. But times are not so easy now for the tiny Cambridge station, as Bittner was recently hit with huge hikes in the monthly fees he pays to play old-style hits over the air. Though WJIB-AM (740) has always turned a small profit, Bittner said, the fee hikes from music-licensing groups BMI and ASCAP have him looking for a new way to keep the station running. WJIB previously paid about $260 a month to BMI...

WJTO's owner finds a niche in the wild and crazy world of AM radio. WEST BATH, ME. — You could set your clock — better yet, your clock-radio — by it. For years, radio listeners from Wiscasset to Cape Cod could hear Kate Smith belting out "God Bless America" every day at 7 a.m. on WJTO-AM 730. When station owner Bob Bittner decided to do away with the morning ritual a couple of years ago, he received an excited e-mail from a fishermen's cooperative in Gloucester, Mass., begging him to repent and bring Kate Smith back. "Apparently there are a...