Bob Bittner has long been a friend of this site; he started "Let's Talk About Radio" on his WJIB (740 Cambridge, Mass.) in 1994, where it has run more-or-less continuously ever since. In that time he has bought and then sold WKBR (1250 Manchester, N.H.) and WNEB (1230 Worcester, Mass.), but the one true jewel of the Bittner empire is this station, WJTO (730 Bath). For what Bob paid for the entire station, most people would be lucky to get even one of the 200-odd acres of mostly-wooded waterfront property in West Bath.
Lake 'JTO is man-made; it was cut off from a narrow embayment of the Atlantic by Berrys Mill Road, on which the station is nominally located. Scott and I were last up here together in 1998, not long after Bob bought the station. The station's sales offices had been located in the finished attic of the studio building; when Bob bought 'JTO, he converted the upstairs offices into living space, with two bedrooms facing out onto the lake. This photo shows the former reception area, on the ground floor looking west, just inside the main entrance.
Recently, Bob bought the principal inholding on the property, a five-bedroom neocolonial, and he and his wife Raisa have made it their summer home. We thank Bob and Raisa for their gracious hospitality.
Copyright 2005, Garrett Wollman. All rights reserved. Photograph taken 2005-06-06.