ELY- The new owners of WELY radio have big plans to restore the iconic station’s community focus, although they urged patience during the process of returning the station to the airwaves.
“Right now, we’re testing the station and its equipment,” said Kory Hartman, the vice president of broadcast operations for Civic Media, the Wisconsin-based company that recently acquired the station. The new owners did briefly return the station to the airwaves last week, playing a mix of music, but it was just for testing noted Hartman. “This is not an official launch,” he said.
Hartman told the Timberjay that the station will appear and disappear on the airwaves over the next several weeks as Civic’s engineers work to fix the station’s FM transmitter troubles. “We found that the AM can run at full power,” Hartman said last week, “but the FM has some problems and it will take some real effort. We turned the station off this afternoon. It’s in the hands of engineers right now. If you tune in, you might hear programming and you might not. The official rebirth is yet to come.”
Local focus
“Our focus is local radio,” Hartman said. Local radio means local community, local news, local programming and, of course, high school sports, he said. “We plan to bring back the Twins,” which is certain to please area baseball fans.
“We also have new tech planned for the station, like streaming on the internet, an app, and video. We’ll be looking for people to help run the station, for programming and selling ads. There will be separate programming for the dual station but also some simulcast on the AM and FM.”
Hartman said local favorites like Trader Craig Loughery and Polka Ron Forsman would have the opportunity to return to the air.
“We are committed to what it will take,” Hartman concluded. “It’s not our station, It’s the community’s station.”
Civic Media, which now owns nearly two dozen stations across Wisconsin, does air some political commentary, described as “center-left” by Hartman, on some of its stations. But he said that’s programming that Civic doesn’t intend to bring to WELY.
Hartman said Ely area listeners can expect the station will be ready for its official relaunch in late spring or early summer.