ELY- After a wait of a year and a half, WELY, Ely’s radio station, may soon be coming back to life. “We’ll be getting back on the air in early to mid-April,” said local radio personality “Trader” Craig Loughery, the once and future voice of WELY, and the spokesperson for Zoe Communications Inc., the current owner of the station.
Why the wait? The transmitter. “We were on the air for about two hours one afternoon in November,” Loughery told the Timberjay. WELY turned on all the equipment and went live on Nov. 17, after a wait of several months for repairs to the station’s antenna. Once the antenna was repaired, WELY turned on all the equipment and went on the air to evaluate the station’s performance, simulcasting the same programming on both the AM and FM frequencies according to FCC filings.
The old transmitter, originally rated between 20-25 kilowatts didn’t perform to specs. “It wasn’t even putting out six kilowatts,” said Loughery. “It was breaking down like crazy.”
The solution was a new, more powerful, transmitter—but that meant getting a license from the Federal Communications Commission, which just arrived earlier this month. “We applied in November and received it in February. That’s fast for the FCC,” remarked Loughery, commenting on the notoriously slow federal agency.
With the FCC license now in hand, the station’s owners are looking for the right transmitter. “We’re looking for the 50-kilowatt set,” Loughery said, but noted that the unit eventually purchased could be different. Regardless of the new transmitter’s final size, Loughery said it would extend the range for the station.
“The increased size means we’ll be able to reach all the way over to Hibbing.”

Off and on the air
WELY’s haitus from broadcasting began on Dec. 1, 2022 after the Bois Forte Band, the former owner of the station, shuttered the operation due to sustained financial losses. Zoe Communications Inc. of Shell Lake, Wis. Zoe committed to the purchase of the station in November 2022, but the transfer of the license and working through technical issues all took time. FCC approval for the transfer of the station’s license came through in March 2023, but the new owners needed to repair the station’s antenna, which required both good weather and an available repair crew. After a long eight months to complete the antenna repair, WELY fired up the old transmitter only to find it, too, needed repair or replacement.
In addition to the WELY AM and FM stations, Zoe owns three AM and six FM stations in northwestern Wisconsin.