A Christian radio operation based out of Duluth for the past 37 years fell silent over the Labor Day weekend.
Refuge Radio, a Christian Hits format, was based at WJRF/89.5 (Duluth) and was rebroadcast on two full-power satellites and thirteen translators in Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota. In a post on the station’s website, General Manager Dan Hatfield said that recent years have been financially trying.
Hatfield said that they had decided to donate the network to the University of Northwestern-St. Paul, which operates a larger regional group of Christian radio stations under the “Life” and “Faith” names, so that the stations would continue to carry Christian formats. The donation was first reported here in July.
“We want to honor the vision and mission established by our founders in 1981. Combining Refuge Radio with Northwestern Media will allow our frequencies to continue Christian programming throughout the Midwest. We believe God has provided this opportunity, and in it we will honor the legacy of Refuge Radio,” Hatfield wrote.
Northwestern Sr. VP for Media Jason Sharp wrote that many of the Refuge stations may go off the air as they upgrade equipment and improve transmitter locations. In Duluth, WJRF has applied to move to what had been its backup tower.
Sharp also said that former “Refuge” midday and afternoon hosts Jill and Andy are joining KDNW.
North-Central Christian Broadcasting first applied for WNCB/89.1 (Duluth) in 1981, using a frequency that had previously been occupied by KUMD. The station signed on in 1982, reaching out to youth and young adults.
WNCB moved to 89.3 in 1993 and then to 89.5 in 2002, increasing its coverage area both times. It began building out a translator network in the early 1990’s, first with signals in Ashland, Moose Lake, and Sandstone.
But it was a 1995 expansion to the Twin Cities that briefly threw WNCB into the spotlight.
It signed on a translator on 91.9 in Bloomington, using a provision in FCC rules that allows translators in the 88-92 MHz portion of the band to receive their programming via satellite. The 91.9 signal fed a much larger translator on 96.3 (K242AI) transmitting from the IDS Center, and the station began ID’ing as “Duluth-Minneapolis-St. Paul.”
However, K242AI had only been on the air for a few months when KARP (Glencoe) moved to 96.3, forcing K242AI off the air. It moved to 97.7 but quickly became mired in interference complaints from Easy Listening outlet KNXR/97.5 (Rochester) in a situation that foreshadowed the translator interference battles that have become prevalent in recent years. The translator ultimately left the air, leaving behind 91.9 as a small suburban orphan.
Despite the Twin Cities setback, WNCB continued to grow by adding new translators in rural areas of Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota. It rebranded as “The Refuge” in 2003 and changed its callsign to WJRF the next year, later changing to “Refuge Radio” in 2012.
KRGM/89.9 (Marshall) signed on as WJRF’s first full-power satellite station in 2009 and in 2016, KRFG was added as a result of a divestiture required by a commercial radio merger.
However, many of Refuge’s larger translators were sold off to commercial broadcasters in recent years after changes in FCC rules that allowed them to instead be used to relay local AM stations. Refuge came to an end with 16 signals reaching from Grand Marais, MN, to Sioux Falls, SD.
Signals that were transferred to UNWSP are:
WJRF/89.5 Duluth, MN
KRGM/89.9 Marshall, MN
KRFG/102.9 Nashwauk, MN
K220HY/91.9 Spencer, IA
K210CG/89.9 Spirit Lake, IA
K208FJ/89.5 Fairmont, MN
K220BI/91.9 Grand Marais, MN
K256CW/99.1 Grand Rapids, MN
K215DU/90.9 Hutchinson, MN
K206DI/89.1 Mankato, MN
K270DZ/101.9 New Ulm, MN
K277CC/103.3 Pennock, MN
K208EX/89.5 Brandon, SD
K288EV/105.5 Brookings, SD
K288GA/105.5 Sioux Falls, SD
K220IT/91.9 Watertown, SD
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