It’s National Radio Day again……do we celebrate?

Obviously if you’re here, you are well aware of WION’s existence.  Some of the following you may not know, however.

The keys to this station were handed to me in 2004 on August 14th, 22 years ago this week.
The station was DEAD.  Off the air. NO programming, NO listeners, NO accounts receivable or clients, NO following, we didn’t even have a kitchen sink!  That’s correct, there was NO kitchen sink, no water heater thanks to a particular previous owner, and we didn’t even know if the transmitter would run.  The grass was about 4 feet high and I had to hire a buddy to bring up his farm equipment to clear the tall stuff and find us a lawn.  The roof was shaky at best, we had no idea if the well would run, nor the condition of the septic system.  

The towers were in need of paint, not for the FCC (we don’t need to do it for them or the FAA) but for general good maintenance.  The tower FENCING was rotted and no longer legal.  It was snow fence.  Not FCC compliant for the regulations of then, nor today.  Inside, almost a year of no habitation created a cleaning nightmare.  It was also very depressing, as the hall and “future kitchen” were a dark brown, and there was an “employee mail” box-type thing with individual slots hanging just outside the studio across from a broken bathroom, where it was easy to hit your head as you went around the corner.

We had one drainpipe coming out of the floor where a kitchen may have been at one time, and no cabinetry at all.  Our banker, literally the bank PRESIDENT brought us out a sink that he kept when remodeling his home and that is still our sink today.  A friend of mine built the cabinetry, we bought and paid to have a water heater installed, and we put the toilet back on its bolts, replacing the broken sink that hung on the wall in that bathroom with a used vanity.  

The studios were not networked, and the software for holding programming and commercials needed updating, and the control board looked old, though it came from teh 1980’s but was only MONO….(We’ve had three on-air boards in our time here.)….A friend who happened to engineer for WJR at the time came out and spent a whole weekend in our parking lot, literally “camped out” to wire-in what WE needed to work in the studio, and to make it less daunting and much more comfortable.  He literally had piles of wire on the floor as he finished the job, wire removed from places that wire really was not needed.  The old “simplify, Simplify, SIMPLIFY” comes to mind here.

The keys came on August 14th…..the deadline to save the license was September 5th…..we had roughly 2 weeks to get this station running or there would BE NO “station.”  

Two engineers that I knew quite well came to work on the old tube-type transmitter, and got it running.  If you’re familiar with our GREAT sound of today, well, it was NOTHING like that.  the processing was awful, an although the first thing I put on the air as a test was Jimmy Buffet, it sounded more like Anne Murray imitating ZZ Top from the bottom of a well, using a megaphone. It was AWFUL…..but, it worked….after a few loud noises from “the ol’ girl” (our tube transmitter) that made me jump 3 feet in the air and soil my drawers!  (I was warned there may be noise as moisture from a year worked it’s way OUT via some very high voltages.)

With all the (extremely basic) repairs and improvements in place, WION hit the air on-time, and saved the license.  Mono, of course.  A-M only, of course. Without much range, of course (due to the sad processing of our signals we were left to use.)…. You see, WION had been ignored for a very long time.  Few, if any improvements had been made.  If it made any money, it got used in ways OTHER than keeping the station looking and sounding good, and of course, SOUND is what we sell….so…that was next on the list of things to fix.  and, we did.   My first improvement in signal was by using an old remote microphone mixer which had a compressor built into it which kept the levels going to the other equipment at least somewhat consistent.  Later I learned from my longtime friend and engineer, “E.T” that I was actually using a small lightbulb and a photocell inside that mixer to pass and process everything on the air.  It worked for awhile, anyway.  Soon, we found better ways to improve our sound.

It was rough EDUCATING people that we were back on the air, as many folks had written off this station to “lost cows and obituaries” long before I got my keys.   Back then, the town HAD a local paper which helped along the way, even allowing trade advertising until it was sold, then we became “the enemy” and trading was OUT!  Dumb move by the paper.  We may have been in some competition for advertising dollars, but back then, the dollars existed.   We were literally in a trade agreement with them when they were going to start printing color papers locally, then the paper was sold, the printing locally scrapped, and the agreement to assist each other was OVER.  The Shopper’s Guide, however, remained loyal to us and vice versa until their final publication not so long ago.  Now WION is the last media standing and operated locally in this county.

You get the idea. This was no cake-walk.  It has NOT been and still is not one.  Dollars are tighter than ever. Taxes on employees are higher than ever.  Wages are higher than ever without the appropriate rise in revenue, which means we run on a staff of about 3 total people….1.5 people on the air, and two part-time salespeople. That’s IT.  But still, the station works miracles.  Even when we needed to buy a new roof, and when the well went dry (Thank you Reurink’s Metal for the roofing and Walkington well Drilling for being part of the community)
 
Since that sign-on date….much has been invested and improved here…..with some of our audience and market helping, and some unaware of the commitment it has taken.  
Since 2004 we:

Enlarged the AM daytime signal to cover more of I-96, more population and with stronger reception.

Added our first FM signal for Ionia County on 92-7 by buying-out a religious small signal, moving it here, and asking for full allowable power for it.

We converted to AM stereo after replacing the old transmitter, because we COULD…AND,  because I knew I wanted to begin streaming and we were going to stream AM STEREO.
We DID begin streaming thanks to the owner of Satelliteguys.us  who begged me to do so after hearing our private employee stream.  Some people asked, “why in the world stream this small local station?”…..well, for one thing it keeps those who travel in contact with home, and for another, it’s put IONIA on the map in many parts of the world., We now average 7 thousand hours per month listened online across Michigan, the United States, and the world!  Pretty impressive!

We filed with the FCC and were granted a license for our 100.3 FM signal in Lowell. We’ve picked up many friends in Kent County with this signal, despite having to deal with two different internet companies to GET the audio to the transmitter….and, we’re grateful to the City of Lowell for hosting us on their tower. 

In these 22 years, we’ve modernized the studios, making them comfortable in which to work.  We’ve interviewed local people, Mary Cusack was my first interview for “Young People’s Theatre” in 2004 as a matter of fact, and our first drop-in visit was from the late Joe and Joan McCord of Easton Township and the Historical Society to welcome us to the area.  Our first check written was to the Ionia area Chamber of Commerce, the director at that time was Dawn Ketchum. 

We held years of food drives.
We founded and headed 10 years of “Treasures for Troops.”
We broadcast from years of the “Chili Dawg Challenge” under the direction of Bill Lynch.
We covered Christmas parades, and we took our “silver studio” to the Freefair for many years.
We held benefits in the front yard for charity and assisted with the walks for Cancer.
At our 5th anniversary, nearly 500 people came and went through our studios…and we were blown away by the response.

We recorded 5 years’ worth of the 1939 radio script of “A Christmas Carol” using all local-voices, and our first year Scrooge was Pastor Ken Harger (rest his soul.)…His church sold copies to help re-roof their facility.  We were honored. That first year edition won us an award of excellence from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters.

Many more things have transpired in our 22 years.  We’ve been here through ice-storms and on generator for DAYS at a time. We’ve been on the air through tornadoes and other severe weather when most stations don’t even have staff in their buildings, and we continue to do this as much as humanly possible.  We have always had a source of Michigan and National/International news for you, even when networks quit being there!  (CBS recently quit radio, CNN did, too some years ago)….and, we still have live people available to you on a regular basis to enjoy!

So, it’s National “Radio Day.”  What can YOU do for US?  The same thing I’ve asked you to do for years.  THANK OUR ADVERTISERS whose check each month for commercials literally pays our bills.  Without them, there is no WION on the air OR online.  And furthermore, if you’re frequenting a local business that is NOT heard on the air, encourage them to contact us, please!  We offer REAL advertising that gets to anyone listening.  Unlike the “FaceMonster” (my name for it) where a computer decides who sees a business post, EVERYONE listening hears our local advertisers. WE don’t cover them up on streaming, and we don’t insult them by having “commercial free” hours during the workday and up to midnight. It’s an INSULT to advertisers to say to listeners, “we’re not going to play any commercials this hour”….after an advertiser puts their trust IN the local station.  Only corporate stations pull that farce, and it is (one.).  

Music licensing costs more than ever and is retro-active thanks to our government’s Copyright Board.  It’s hurting radio, including us.
Electricity, generator fuel, and all other expenses are up as you know….whether you’re a business owner or a consumer.
We provide MANY services that cost money to offer the listener, and all we ask is your local loyalty to our advertisers, and remember….”LOCAL MEANS LOCALLY OWNED, NOT “I CAN DRIVE TO THERE IN 10 MINUTES ”  (ending up at a box store that helped kill off our downtown or local stores.)

Help us celebrate National Radio day by appreciating your local radio station.  For you, it’s a click on a switch or a press of a streaming icon.  For ANY local station, it’s hard work, It’s a 24 hour a day commitment  (speaking here of non-corporate local ownerships)  and, the competition for listeners is bigger than ever.   We appreciate every listener near or far (as Grover the blue Sesame Street monster used-to demonstrate)….and, we hope you’ll take stock in what operating a local radio station takes to be there for you every day.  

Happy National Radio Day!  We’ve made it this far, right????