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Minnesota WELY-1450 Back on the air

I'm somewhat dubious that Civic would put a Wisconsin-centric talk format on a station that's in Minnesota and has no coverage in WI to speak of.
 
A story with photos about the WELY studio move.

wtip.org

WELY radio station moves to downtown Ely, operating under temporary frequency | WTIP

WELY is officially back on the air. As of Friday, the WELY radio station in Ely, Minn., is operating under a temporary 103.9 FM frequency. “That is hopefully just a stopgap between where we are now and the work that still is yet to be done for 94.5,” said Kory Hartman, VP of Broadcast Operations...
wtip.org wtip.org

Interesting to note the frequency issues.
 
RF101 said:
A story with photos about the WELY studio move.

wtip.org

WELY radio station moves to downtown Ely, operating under temporary frequency | WTIP

WELY is officially back on the air. As of Friday, the WELY radio station in Ely, Minn., is operating under a temporary 103.9 FM frequency. “That is hopefully just a stopgap between where we are now and the work that still is yet to be done for 94.5,” said Kory Hartman, VP of Broadcast Operations...
wtip.org wtip.org

Interesting to note the frequency issues.
Click to expand...

Not really, the WELY 94.5 transmitter is too old and broken, the antenna was damaged anmd they bought K280AT from KAXE and its a translator for WELY 1450 which is back on air
 
RF101 said:
A story with photos about the WELY studio move.

wtip.org

WELY radio station moves to downtown Ely, operating under temporary frequency | WTIP

WELY is officially back on the air. As of Friday, the WELY radio station in Ely, Minn., is operating under a temporary 103.9 FM frequency. “That is hopefully just a stopgap between where we are now and the work that still is yet to be done for 94.5,” said Kory Hartman, VP of Broadcast Operations...
wtip.org wtip.org

Interesting to note the frequency issues.
Click to expand...

103.9 is the translator for the AM station. 94.5 is WELY-FM.
 
Civic is doing things right, and I admire them for it. You can do that when you have tech money backing you.

But that station has struggled its entire existence to be profitable and will likely continue to operate at best as a break even public service. The revenues just aren't there.

The thing about these charming tourist markets is that a certain type of owner loves them and they have a "vibe" but they're heavily dependent economically on tourist season, and most of those people coming to town, while they may love the station (and a lot of people did love the previous "end of the road radio" feeling of WELY) they're not supporting the station financially.

On the other hand, everyone who lives there knows what's available to them or at least that's how advertisers see it. So where's the money come from?

I love Civic's approach. But I would be amazed if that particular property could ever return what they're putting into it and what it costs to run.
 
Every person that buys is a potential customer. Business owners know this. Just because it's a small town doesn't mean businesses don't want locals to buy from them. And it doesn't mean they do not understand they all need each other as they're the glue that holds the town together. Those are two good reasons to spend money to advertise on WELY. Cash cow? I doubt it but I'm sure it will not be a huge struggle to keep the lights on.
 
I'd love to think you were correct, @b-turner but this station has lost money for decades. I agree with your logic, but you'd think between local owners, Charles Kuralt, the Bois Forte band (who run other successful businesses) they'd have found a way to make the station profitable. It never has been. Does Civic have some sort of inside track sales magic that no one in over four decades has found?
 
RF101 said:
A story with photos about the WELY studio move.

wtip.org

WELY radio station moves to downtown Ely, operating under temporary frequency | WTIP

WELY is officially back on the air. As of Friday, the WELY radio station in Ely, Minn., is operating under a temporary 103.9 FM frequency. “That is hopefully just a stopgap between where we are now and the work that still is yet to be done for 94.5,” said Kory Hartman, VP of Broadcast Operations...
wtip.org wtip.org

Interesting to note the frequency issues.
Click to expand...
A 1O3.9 translator existed decades ago for WAKX 98.9 (now KTCO).
 
Andy Travis said:
I'd love to think you were correct, @b-turner but this station has lost money for decades. I agree with your logic, but you'd think between local owners, Charles Kuralt, the Bois Forte band (who run other successful businesses) they'd have found a way to make the station profitable. It never has been. Does Civic have some sort of inside track sales magic that no one in over four decades has found?
Click to expand...
Civic doesn't even have sales magic on 540/101.1 in the Milwaukee area. Most breaks are all PSA's/Promos. With the possible exception of 1580/92.7 in Madison, Civic's music formatted stations are likely the only ones that are successful from a business/revenue perspective.
 
JJSPC said:
Civic doesn't even have sales magic on 540/101.1 in the Milwaukee area. Most breaks are all PSA's/Promos. With the possible exception of 1580/92.7 in Madison, Civic's music formatted stations are likely the only ones that are successful from a business/revenue perspective.
Click to expand...
Ely is a peculiar market, local businesses clamor to be seen and tourism is spread throughout a large very sparsely populated wilderness, often with no Internet and occasionally no electricity. If community radio can be successful anywhere it can be successful there.
 


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