An FCC filing shows Wisconsin-based Civic Media has reached a deal to buy a pair of radio stations in northern Minnesota.
According to an asset purchase agreement filed with the FCC on Feb. 18, Civic Media will pay Zoe Communications $70,000 for WELY/1450 and WELY-FM/94.5 (Ely). They will be Civic’s first stations outside of Wisconsin.
WELY and WELY-FM are currently off the air. WELY-FM’s previous Adult Alternative format ended in 2022 as its previous owner, the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, sold the stations to Zoe. The stations have since briefly returned to the air twice, most recently going silent again in November. An FCC filing at that time explained that Zoe had experienced two unexpected managerial deaths.
WELY has had several periods of silence over the past four decades, including once in 1984 and again in 1995, when retired CBS “On the Road” reporter Charles Kuralt bought the stations and returned them to the air.
The 2022 sale to Zoe did not include WELY’s former downtown studio building. Since buying the stations, Zoe has obtained a construction permit to upgrade WELY-FM from 6kW/100m (class A) to 35kW/100m (class C2). WELY/1450 uses 1kW non-directional day and night, the same as virtually all stations on that frequency.
This is Zoe’s third sale of stations to Civic, which initially bought three stations from the company in 2022. Its purchase of WHSM-FM/101.1 (Hayward) from Zoe closed on Feb. 14.
Shell Lake-based Zoe, headed by Mike Oberg, retains seven full-power stations in northwestern Wisconsin.
Civic Media, formed three years ago and headed by Sage Weil, owns 20 full-power stations in Wisconsin. Some carry Civic’s Wisconsin-focused News/Talk network while others carry community-oriented music formats.