Legendary Minnesota Radio Stations to Shut Down Unless Buyer Found

The owner of legendary northern Minnesota radio stations WELY-FM/94.5 and WELY/1450 (Ely) has announced plans to close the stations unless a buyer is found by June 1.

The Bois Forte Band of Chippewa has owned the stations, branded as “End of the Road Radio,” since 2005. The band said in a news release Wednesday, May 4, that despite efforts to make the station profitable, it has lost $1.7 million on the venture. The news release said the decision to close the station was not easy or taken lightly.

“We have been working behind the scenes to find a buyer that could continue operating the station, but our latest plans recently fell through,” Bois Forte Tribal Chair Cathy Chavers said in the news release.

“While we would have preferred to keep the station open in the hopes another buyer would emerge, we needed to move ahead with this decision,” she said.

The station’s staff of one full-time employee and eight part-timers was informed of the decision last week.

Speaking on WELY-FM on Wednesday, General Manager Brett Ross said he’ll be with the station through May. Ross said he remains optimistic that the station will see its way through to a new era:

Chavers thanked Ross for sticking with the station during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying he has taken on additional duties as the staff shrank.

WELY-FM carries a broad Adult Alternative playlist with newscasts from the AP and Minnesota News Network on the hour, along with the Twins and Vikings. The AM station has also carried the FAN Radio Network.

The FM station had dropped the longtime Adult Alternative format for a few years in the mid-2010s for Classic Rock but later returned to the format.

Due to its location on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, WELY has the distinction of being allowed by the FCC to broadcast personal emergency messages. Programming also includes a weekday morning trade show and Polkas on Saturday morning.

WELY is the only commercial radio operation in Ely, which also receives signals from several Iron Range stations as well as two Minnesota Public Radio signals and the Catholic “Real Presence Radio” network.

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 indicated that if a buyer is not found, the owners plan to take the station off the air June 1 and request special temporary authority from the FCC to remain silent. Federal law stipulates that stations lose their license if they are off the air for more than a year.

“This is not something we wanted to do,” said Chavers. “The best-case scenario would be for a buyer to emerge to keep the station open, but we’re not sure that is realistic at this point.”

The Bois Forte Band also owns non-commercial outlet KBFT/89.9 (Nett Lake), which is not affected.