Ely’s WELY Finds Buyer But Will Temporarily Go Silent

The storied radio station at the end of the road in Ely, Minn., has found a buyer but will temporarily go off the air later this week while the sale is pending.

The Bois Forte Band of Chippewa announced Tuesday, Nov. 29, that it has reached a deal to sell WELY-FM/94.5 and WELY/1450 to Wisconsin-based Zoe Communications, headed by Mike Oberg, for $130,000.

The tribe also announced that it will continue with plans to take WELY off the air Dec. 1, a date which was pushed back from the originally-announced June 1 silence date. Oberg will return the stations to the air once the deal closes.

The sale price will include the FCC licenses, equipment, and tower, but not its high-profile downtown building, which the band will retain and may use as retail space.

The news release quoted Oberg as saying that he plans to find a space that is “better sized” for the station.

“We believe radio is still very important to a local community, and we hope to continue the tradition of keeping the local feel of Ely radio alive,” Oberg said in the news release.

The release also said Oberg doesn’t expect any major changes to WELY-FM’s well-known eclectic Adult Alternative format when it returns to the air. He said he’d like to preserve the station’s history.

Charles Persons signed on WELY in 1954 and WELY-FM launched in 1992. The stations briefly went silent in the 1984 and again in 1995. Retired CBS “On the Road” reporter Charles Kuralt bought them in 1995 but died just two years later.

The news release quoted Bois Forte Tribal Chair Cathy Chavers as expressing sadness that the tribe, which also owns a non-commercial KBFT/89.9 (Nett Lake), could no longer retain ownership of WELY.

“We tried our best to keep it going, but we just couldn’t keep putting money into it every month without a return on our investment,” she said. “We are hopeful Zoe Communications can keep this tradition alive for the hard-working residents of Ely and the surrounding communities that WELY serves.”

The tribe said most of the station’s employees left prior to June 1, but general manager Brett Ross and a remote employee who handled billing have remained on staff. It hasn’t been announced whether they will continue to work at the station after the ownership change.

Zoe currently owns seven full-power FM stations, five FM translators, and four AM stations in northwestern Wisconsin. It’s in the process of selling two of the AM stations, one FM translator, and one full-power FM to Civic Media.