Sunday, October 26, 2008
Bridgeton NJ
WSNJ FM in Bridgeton was true community station.
Established in 1946, the dawn of the FM era, it was owned by one family from 1971, broadcasting from southwest Jersey across the farmlands & pinelands & Delaware Bay. But like a family farm, it became too valuable a property. The owner was old, & regulatory changes made it possible, by manipulating FCC rules, to sell the frequency, push aside any community objections, & move the signal closer to big market Philadelphia. The owner died before payment was made & the $20 million was deposited into his estate. WSNJ AM, with a weaker signal, was sold locally. But the FM station was the pride.
When Upsala College folded, it was almost a miracle that WFMU, already located in the biggest media market in America, was able to avoid the fate that befell WSNJ only a few years later.
Labels: media madness, New Jersey, postcard, WFMU
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"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
That looks like a very attractive studio. I'm sure it beats the razor wire of WFMU's old East Orange digs.
Even inside the razor wire parking area I got in the habit of leaving my car unlocked so nobody would smash a window to steal a cheap pair of binoculars & a beach chair. But my car was broken into while parked on Montgomery Street in Jersey City, for a $20 boombox I stupidly left in plain sight.
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