Friday, March 31, 2006

Happy Birthday Greater Media

Greater Media, Inc., one of the largest privately held Radio and Printing Companies, celebrates its 50th birthday today. The company, for most of its history, was headquartered on George Street, above a jewelry store in New Brunswick, NJ. It started in business when two roommates from Yale, Joe Rosenmiller and Peter A. Bordes purchased a small radio station in South Bridge, MA., and, under the direction of radio genius, Peter Bordes grew into the major broadcaster it is today. After the duo’s purchase in South Bridge, they bought WCTC in New Brunswick, NJ. It was, for a time, the most successful radio station in the state, commanding the highest rates and providing the most community oriented programming.  Rosenmiller-Bordes Company then purchased WGSM in Huntington, NY and their long time friend Louis Appell purchased WGBB, in Freeport, NY (both Long Island) and along with WCTC and WFAS, in White Plains, NY formed, Greater NY Radio Group. It was the first ever LMA, before LMA was defined. The Greater NY Group, sold time together, programmed Long Island Network News together and was the first group to employ its own weathermen. They did that because they realized that the weather for New York City and vicinity was very different than the weather in Long Island, New Brunswick or White Plains. From there, GMI purchased stations in Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, Washington, DC and Los Angeles. Weekly Newspapers were next, and a printing company to print them. Radio Stations need towers, so they went into the tower company business and, for a while, owned cable TV companies. They even owned an advertising agency for a while. GMI was also aggressive on the programming front, creating Beautiful music and Magic Music formats, syndicated all over the country. They never ever lost money.  Greater Media was organized like a radio station. The original group of GMI executives were, Bordes as General Manager, Philip Roberts as General Sales Manager, Julian Breen, Program Director, Dennis Ciporia as Chief Engineer and John Zielinski as Business Manager. Today, Greater Media is run by Peter Smyth and is headquarted in Braintree, MA. Dan Finn runs the New Jersey operation. It is still owned by Peter’s wife Lee Bordes, and Peter’s brother John is the Chairman of the board. Their philosophy is still the same. To operate the best radio stations in the world. Happy Birthday Greater Media!!!!! 

License Renewal Information

All Radio Stations in the state must continue to air post-filing announcements, tomorrow April 1 and again on April 16. 

Bilotta Wins Again

Joseph Bilotta, COO of Buckley Broadcasting and the New York affiliate member of the New Jersey Broadcasters Association Board of Directors was reelected to a two-year term on the Radio Board of NAB. Bilotta represents region two, which is New York and New Jersey. Buckley Broadcasting owns a number of stations in California, also owns WOR radio in New York City. Congrats Joe for a fine job these past two years, and for the next two. Winners always win.

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