There’s more change ahead for a radio station on Minnesota’s North Shore that has seen plenty of it over the past few years.
Shire & Shore Communications is selling WVVE/95.3 (Grand Marais) to Daniel Hatfield of Duluth for $25,000, according to an application filed with the FCC to transfer the license.
Hatfield owns 40 percent of Twin Ports Radio LLC. which owns two Sports-formatted stations in Duluth: 92.1 “The Fan” (WWAX Hermantown) and “The Jock” on KJOQ/1490 and W265DO/100.9. He was also formerly with the Refuge Radio Christian Hits network.
By coincidence, the sale reunites the Grand Marais station with the station that originally launched it: WXXZ/95.3 signed on in 1999 relaying WWAX when it carried a Modern Adult Contemporary format as “Kiss FM.”
WXXZ (and two other WWAX satellites) switched over to Classic Rocker KQDS-FM/94.9 (Duluth) in 2001.
The KQDS-FM rebroadcast continued until 2017, when Aurora Media bought WXXZ and KAOD/106.7 (Babbitt) from Midwest Communications. It changed their callsigns to WVVE and KZJZ and launched an Adult Alternative format on the stations in spring 2018.
However, KZJZ was sold to a Catholic broadcaster later in 2018. WVVE was transferred to sister company Shire & Shore Communications and went silent last winter due to transmitter issues.
Over the summer, the FCC approved Shire & Shore’s sale of WVVE to Wisconsin-based Zoe Communications, but the deal was not consummated (though WVVE did briefly rebroadcast Zoe’s WGMO/95.3 Spooner during transmitter testing).
Then in September, WVVE returned to the air relaying the Classic Hits format of Baroka Broadcasting’s WHRY/1450 and W275CR/102.9 (Hurley, WI-Ironwood, MI). The simulcast continues as of Friday, Dec. 27.
Now, the application to transfer WVVE’s license states that Hatfield is tentatively set to take over programming on WVVE around Jan. 15 through a local marketing agreement.
WVVE is licensed to transmit with 63kW/209m (class C1) from Lutsen Mountain. Its signal reaches Cook and Lake counties and also jumps across Lake Superior to the shoreline areas of northern Wisconsin and western Upper Michigan.