Radio Kol Berama has started a new radio station that is 'all Jewish music, all the time". You can find it at 96.3 on the FM dial. It is very nice and literally plays music all the time.

I have yet to hear even a single word outside of music - no intros, no talk programs, no news, no traffic, no advertising, no nothing. If you stumbled across the station and listened to it all day long you very well might never even know who is behind it - they don't even mention Kol Berama's name.

And I think it is, unfortunately, destined to fail. Probably within a few short weeks.

Radio Kol Hai tried such a station a little while back and after two weeks they shut it down and converted it to just another frequency broadcast of their regular station. The reasoning given at the time was the obvious - they could not afford to keep it open, as their was no advertising funding it.

Radio Kol Berama is probably heading towards the same conclusion.

If they would look around at all the other "all music" radio stations they would see that none of them function in this manner - they all have all music with breaks for advertising, and the regular mention of the name of the station. Some also have combinations of news headlines at the top of the hour, traffic reports, and weather flashes... but they all have the name of the station mentioned regularly along with regular advertising. Without it, the station has only expenses and no revenue, and no station can function like that. The money behind it only goes so far when no new money is coming in...

It seems strange to say this, but please - whether Kol Beraama or anybody else who tries to start such a station - put the normal amount of advertising in to the music broadcasts. If not, the station will be short-lived...