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WTCM (AM)
Encyclopedia
WTCM is an AM radio station broadcasting in Traverse City, Michigan
, operating on 580 kHz. The two stations are owned by Midwestern Broadcasting, which started WTCM-AM in 1940. Today, WTCM, along with FM sister WTCM-FM
is at or near the top of the Arbitron ratings, and are part of a dying breed of family-owned-and-operated radio stations.
WTCM has a news/talk format, carrying syndicated talk shows hosted by Rush Limbaugh
, Sean Hannity
, Mark Levin
, Allen Hunt
, and Coast to Coast AM
, plus local talk hosts Ron Jolly and Norm Jones. It is an affiliate of ABC Radio.
and several of his friends - engineer Bill Kiker and financier Drew McClay among others - wanted to start a radio station, but in an undeveloped radio market. They decided that Traverse City, Michigan was a city destined for growth and had no local radio station, so Biederman and Kiker moved to the city and built the 250-watt transmitter that would be Traverse City's first radio station.
Traverse City "looked like three main streets with false front stores crowded against each other, all built around 1890 and hardly updated since," according to Les.
WTCM initially broadcast from a small studio at the base of the tower on Morgan ("Radio") Hill, west of town. The WTCM-AM control console was hand built by Biederman and Kiker, and served the station from 1940 until its replacement around 1980.
When WTCM signed on in 1940, it was a local channel station at 1370 kHz briefly before moving to 1400 kHz. The station was licensed to broadcast 24 hours at 250 watts, but only broadcast from 6 AM to 11 PM. WTCM was an NBC affiliate and like most radio stations at the time, aired block programming - some local shows, network shows, music programs, etc.
They soon outgrew the tiny studio and moved to the Anderson Building in the 100 block of downtown Traverse City in the mid 1940s. Long-time Midwestern employees Kenn Haven and Merlin Dumbrille began working there in the 40's.
Because WTCM had a limited reach, Biederman wanted to start other small stations aimed exclusively towards the towns they broadcast in. After fighting in World War II
, Biederman started WATT
1240 Cadillac, Michigan
in 1945, WATZ
1450 Alpena, Michigan
in 1946, WMBN
1340 Petoskey, Michigan
in 1947 and WATC 900 Gaylord, Michigan
in 1950, all collectively known as the Paul Bunyan Network. All but WATC are still on the air today, but Midwestern still owns only WTCM and WATZ.
WPBN-TV
7 in Traverse City, just months after the Traverse City market got its first TV station, Sparton's CBS
/ABC
/DuMont
WWTV
13 in Cadillac, now known as 9 & 10. In 1959, WPBN increased its reach to WTOM 4 in Cheboygan
, bringing NBC shows to the eastern upper peninsula.
Big changes came to WTCM and the rest of the Paul Bunyan Network in the 1960s as the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) allowed local channel stations to increase their daytime power to 1,000 watts. All of the local channel stations complied, and boosted their power.
In 1964, long time WTCM air staffer Merlin Dumbrille started hosting the popular "Farm and Orchard Time" program, a WTCM staple since 1941. He retired as host of the show on October 30, 2009.
Long time Midwestern employee Bill Gravelin also started working for the station in the 1960s and was the "late night" host of Traverse Citys first "top 40" music in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Daytime at WTCM in this period was mostly "middle of the road" or "MOR" music featuring artists such as Frank Sinatra, Mario Lanza and others.
It is a local legend (urban myth?) that the Beatles and other "early rock" was seldom played in the market at this time other than late at night.
A difficult but necessary task was moving "old school" morning show host Kenn Haven to a role as news director.
Havens now-dated morning news and music show featured bits such as "first call" and "last call" to breakfast, and use of the NBC "Chime" and a hand bell.
McRae lasted but a short time, finding frustration in many aspects of bringing a 1960s MOR station into the 1970s. Meyer soon also departed, to purchase "Murray Boat & Motor" on the Boardman River (then moving it), then become news anchor for WWTV 9&10 news (a position he held for many years), and finally run for a state legislative seat in the 1990s before retiring.
In 1977 former WCCW afternoon host Lin McNett ("Michael O'Shea") replaced McRae and Meyer as WTCM-AM's program director and morning personality.
Many out of town talents were brought to the market in this short (2-3 year) period for the first time in the stations history as it attempted a metamorphasis from "old school" to "modern" in the face of the growing potential Fm band competition.
Other air staff during this period included Jon McRae, and "Downtown" Ed Brown from WTAC-Am in Flint, MI (Brown is now with "All Access", a national broadcasting trade publication as its contemporary radio editor); Delbert "Tim" Nixon (now with MacDonald-Garber Broadcasting in Petoskey); Don Schuster (who came from Detroit free-form radio legends WWWW/W-4 and WABX and is now back there 40 years later in sales capacities); local talent Marty Spaulding (later with WRKR in Kalamazoo for 10 year hosting an internationally recognized blues format "netcast" in the early days of internet broadcasting); Jon "Patrick" Rekeweg from Am radio in Fort Wayne; Bob Greenwood (from the legendary free-form rock station WHNN in Bay City); Dave "Leighton" Elliott; and Alan "White" Vasquez, a former host of the avante-garde "Pen Ultimate" late night alternative rock show on competitor WCCW) who went on to numerous roles in broadcast programming where he still resides in Colorado.
Rekeweg is now the longest serving member of the Midwest air/management staff.
The contemporary format was initially successful, but the 1977 format change of WJML
-FM, and the 1980 entry of WKHQ
-FM, both from north of Traverse City but with strong regional signals into the market caused the predictable result, and listeners gravitated over a period of a couple years to the clear, static-free stereo FM contemporary format signals. It was the fading days of Am radio as a competitor just about everywhere.
WTCM-AM became simulcast to the FM signal not long after that.
WTCM-FM became country in the early 1970s, at the urging of WTCM salesman Leon Purchase, a local country musician, who was convinced that a country format would work in rural northern Michigan. Purchase convinced Biederman of this the old fashioned way, by making WTCM-FM - even though automated other than the morning simulcast period - a highly salable and accepted product in the market. Today that opinion is a well proven fact, as WTCM-FM maintains market dominance as the #1 rated station.
Les Biederman was not a fan of contemporary music or even less so country music, preferring to listen to classical music in his "pad", a private office in the rear of the adjacent co-owned Midwestern Cablevision building (where their "Radio Center" complex now stands). The "pad" was a regular stop for notable politicians like Governor William Milliken
and Senator Robert Griffin, among others. It was a short stroll for Les from "the pad" to the trunk of his car where he typically stored a case of his favored Velvo brand cigars. "They stay fresh out there in the trunk" he was known to say.
Biederman traditionally came to the WTCM studio (almost nightly) after the conclusion of the TV 7&4 newscast and recorded an editorial on topics of the day, and these editorials and his strong sense of local stewardship culminated (among other things) into a local college (Northwestern Michigan College
) and other more abstract realities including the city power plant converting from coal to wood as a source of fuel.
In the late 1970s, Biederman also began ambitious plans to increase the power of both WTCM AM and FM. In 1978, Biederman started turning over more of his duties to his son, Ross Biederman. Because of FCC restrictions and WTCM's growth plans, several properties were sold, including the Petoskey and Cadillac stations (to MacDonald Broadcasting, founded by long-time Biederman broadcast pal Kenneth MacDonald
) and the Gaylord station was sold to William Barr, but fell silent several owners later in the early 2000s due to financial troubles.
In 1982, after years of planning, engineering and FCC permitting, a major change was made to WTCM-AM, which had since started simulcasting with WTCM-FM. The station was moved to its current position at 580 and boosted power to 2,500 watts daytime.
The 1400 frequency was donated to a local church, who made the station Traverse City's first religious station, WLJN
(We Lift Jesus' Name). WLJN broadcast from the original WTCM studio on Morgan Hill ("Radio Hill" to the locals), at the base of the 1400 kHz tower.
Les Biederman still considered Am radio to be "the" signal and made many long-term plans to make WTCM the dominant signal in the region, leaving implementation to his son, Ross.
Many current-day and long-run WTCM air staffers began association with the stations in this "rebirth" period including Dave Gauthier (who had worked there briefly in the 1970s), Carey Carlson, Ryan Dobry, Ron Jolly, and Jack O'Malley.
Lin McNett ("Michael O'Shea") returned from other out-of-state broadcast employment for a second and long standing stint.
Les Biederman died in 1986 after enjoying much of his leisure time on his boat "Happy Days".
In the late 1980s, WTCM-AM (and other AMs) were struggling. Although he has Democratic
leanings, Ross Biederman decided to start airing Rush Limbaugh
's program because he thought it would help ratings, and made the station full-time news/talk.
). Also, in the 1990s, Biederman purchased WCCW (AM)
1310 (then standards from ABC's "Stardust" network, now sports from ESPN Radio) and FM 107.5 (oldies), which had been WTCM's primary local competitor in the "early days" after being founded by a former Midwestern employee, John Anderson, in 1960.
In 1994, Ron Jolly was hired to host a local morning program between 7 - 10 am. Jolly was an award-winning newscaster for WTCM AM and FM between 1986-1990. Before returning to WTCM to host the morning show he worked at WJIM-AM Lansing, and WLXT-FM, Petoskey/Traverse City. His program features a blend of news, information and interviews with local and statewide figures from politics, arts & entertainment, education, business, etc. Jolly left the station for ten months in 2001 to join the Michigan Talk Radio Network based in Charlevoix.
In 2008, Norm Jones joined the airstaff hosting a newly created local program between 10am - Noon. Jones has been associated with the station on and off since the early 1980s.
In 2010, Merlin Dumbrille, longtime host of the Farm and Orchard Show, retired after fifty plus years at WTCM.
Recently, WTCM-AM boosted its power once again, this time to a full 50 kW daytime, allowing its directional signal to penetrate Canada. They, however, only broadcast with 1,100 watts overnight. Because AM transmits mostly through groundwave signals, and Northern Michigan's terrain is mostly sand, transmission is difficult, although WTCM's signal footprint is larger than those of other stations due to its low dial position.
Because of two generations of Biederman management and attention, and a faithful northern Michigan audience, WTCM-AM/FM are the clearly dominant stations in their given formats in the market.
Traverse City, Michigan
Traverse City is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population was 14,674 at the 2010 census, with 143,372 in the Traverse...
, operating on 580 kHz. The two stations are owned by Midwestern Broadcasting, which started WTCM-AM in 1940. Today, WTCM, along with FM sister WTCM-FM
WTCM-FM
WTCM-FM consists of two radio stations: WTCM-FM 103.5 in Traverse City, Michigan and simulcast WBCM 93.5 FM in Boyne City, Michigan. The two stations carry a country music format and are owned by Midwestern Broadcasting. Today, WTCM-FM/WBCM is on or near the top of the Arbitron ratings...
is at or near the top of the Arbitron ratings, and are part of a dying breed of family-owned-and-operated radio stations.
WTCM has a news/talk format, carrying syndicated talk shows hosted by Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...
, Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity
Sean Hannity is an American radio and television host, author, and conservative political commentator. He is the host of The Sean Hannity Show, a nationally syndicated talk radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks. Hannity also hosts a cable news show, Hannity,...
, Mark Levin
Mark Levin
Mark Reed Levin is a lawyer, author and the host of American syndicated radio show The Mark Levin Show. Levin served in the cabinet of President Ronald Reagan and was a chief of staff for Attorney General Edwin Meese...
, Allen Hunt
Allen Hunt
Allen R. Hunt is an American radio personality. He is the host of the nationally syndicated talk radio program, The Allen Hunt Show...
, and Coast to Coast AM
Coast to Coast AM
Coast to Coast AM is a North American late-night syndicated radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics, but most frequently ones that relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was created by Art Bell and is distributed by Premiere Radio Networks. The program currently...
, plus local talk hosts Ron Jolly and Norm Jones. It is an affiliate of ABC Radio.
Founding
In 1939, WTCM founder Les Biederman of PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and several of his friends - engineer Bill Kiker and financier Drew McClay among others - wanted to start a radio station, but in an undeveloped radio market. They decided that Traverse City, Michigan was a city destined for growth and had no local radio station, so Biederman and Kiker moved to the city and built the 250-watt transmitter that would be Traverse City's first radio station.
Traverse City "looked like three main streets with false front stores crowded against each other, all built around 1890 and hardly updated since," according to Les.
WTCM initially broadcast from a small studio at the base of the tower on Morgan ("Radio") Hill, west of town. The WTCM-AM control console was hand built by Biederman and Kiker, and served the station from 1940 until its replacement around 1980.
When WTCM signed on in 1940, it was a local channel station at 1370 kHz briefly before moving to 1400 kHz. The station was licensed to broadcast 24 hours at 250 watts, but only broadcast from 6 AM to 11 PM. WTCM was an NBC affiliate and like most radio stations at the time, aired block programming - some local shows, network shows, music programs, etc.
They soon outgrew the tiny studio and moved to the Anderson Building in the 100 block of downtown Traverse City in the mid 1940s. Long-time Midwestern employees Kenn Haven and Merlin Dumbrille began working there in the 40's.
Because WTCM had a limited reach, Biederman wanted to start other small stations aimed exclusively towards the towns they broadcast in. After fighting in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Biederman started WATT
WATT
WATT is a radio station broadcasting a news-talk-sports format. Licensed to Cadillac, Michigan, it first began broadcasting in 1945.-External links:...
1240 Cadillac, Michigan
Cadillac, Michigan
Cadillac is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is the county seat of Wexford County. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 10,000. The city is situated at the junction of US 131, M-55 and M-115...
in 1945, WATZ
WATZ (AM)
WATZ is a radio station broadcasting an News-Talk format. The station is licensed to the city of Alpena, Michigan, it serves the Alpena metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting in 1946 and has maintained the WATZ call sign since it signed on...
1450 Alpena, Michigan
Alpena, Michigan
Alpena is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Alpena County. It is considered to be part of Northern Michigan. The Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary is located in the city. The population was 10,483 at the 2010 census...
in 1946, WMBN
WMBN
WMBN is an AM radio station broadcasting at 1340 kHz in Petoskey, Michigan, United States. The station, owned by MacDonald-Garber Broadcasting, airs Dial Global's satellite-delivered America's Best Music format of adult standards and soft adult contemporary oldies.WMBN went on the air in April...
1340 Petoskey, Michigan
Petoskey, Michigan
Petoskey is a city and coastal resort community in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 6,080. It is the county seat of Emmet County....
in 1947 and WATC 900 Gaylord, Michigan
Gaylord, Michigan
Gaylord is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 3,681. It is the county seat of Otsego County. The city is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gaylord; it is by far the smallest settlement serving as the location of an active Roman...
in 1950, all collectively known as the Paul Bunyan Network. All but WATC are still on the air today, but Midwestern still owns only WTCM and WATZ.
1950s and 1960s
In 1954, Biederman signed on NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
WPBN-TV
WPBN-TV
WPBN-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Northern Lower and Eastern Upper Peninsulas of Michigan that is licensed to Traverse City. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 47 from a transmitter east of Kalkaska...
7 in Traverse City, just months after the Traverse City market got its first TV station, Sparton's CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
/ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
/DuMont
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
WWTV
WWTV
WWTV is the CBS-affiliated television station for the northern Lower and eastern Upper Peninsulas of Michigan. Licensed to Cadillac, it broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter at its studios on 130th Avenue, northeast of Tustin, in Osceola County. At 1,631...
13 in Cadillac, now known as 9 & 10. In 1959, WPBN increased its reach to WTOM 4 in Cheboygan
Cheboygan, Michigan
Cheboygan is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 5,295. It is the county seat of Cheboygan County....
, bringing NBC shows to the eastern upper peninsula.
Big changes came to WTCM and the rest of the Paul Bunyan Network in the 1960s as the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) allowed local channel stations to increase their daytime power to 1,000 watts. All of the local channel stations complied, and boosted their power.
In 1964, long time WTCM air staffer Merlin Dumbrille started hosting the popular "Farm and Orchard Time" program, a WTCM staple since 1941. He retired as host of the show on October 30, 2009.
Long time Midwestern employee Bill Gravelin also started working for the station in the 1960s and was the "late night" host of Traverse Citys first "top 40" music in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Daytime at WTCM in this period was mostly "middle of the road" or "MOR" music featuring artists such as Frank Sinatra, Mario Lanza and others.
It is a local legend (urban myth?) that the Beatles and other "early rock" was seldom played in the market at this time other than late at night.
1970s
WTCM-AM became contemporary (as "14-T") in 1975 under the supervision of long-time Traverse City broadcaster Jerry Meyer who came from WCCW by the hand of General Manager Jack Walkmeyer, and who soon hired Flint, MI talent Jon McRae as the first program director of the fledgling contemporary radio effort.A difficult but necessary task was moving "old school" morning show host Kenn Haven to a role as news director.
Havens now-dated morning news and music show featured bits such as "first call" and "last call" to breakfast, and use of the NBC "Chime" and a hand bell.
McRae lasted but a short time, finding frustration in many aspects of bringing a 1960s MOR station into the 1970s. Meyer soon also departed, to purchase "Murray Boat & Motor" on the Boardman River (then moving it), then become news anchor for WWTV 9&10 news (a position he held for many years), and finally run for a state legislative seat in the 1990s before retiring.
In 1977 former WCCW afternoon host Lin McNett ("Michael O'Shea") replaced McRae and Meyer as WTCM-AM's program director and morning personality.
Many out of town talents were brought to the market in this short (2-3 year) period for the first time in the stations history as it attempted a metamorphasis from "old school" to "modern" in the face of the growing potential Fm band competition.
Other air staff during this period included Jon McRae, and "Downtown" Ed Brown from WTAC-Am in Flint, MI (Brown is now with "All Access", a national broadcasting trade publication as its contemporary radio editor); Delbert "Tim" Nixon (now with MacDonald-Garber Broadcasting in Petoskey); Don Schuster (who came from Detroit free-form radio legends WWWW/W-4 and WABX and is now back there 40 years later in sales capacities); local talent Marty Spaulding (later with WRKR in Kalamazoo for 10 year hosting an internationally recognized blues format "netcast" in the early days of internet broadcasting); Jon "Patrick" Rekeweg from Am radio in Fort Wayne; Bob Greenwood (from the legendary free-form rock station WHNN in Bay City); Dave "Leighton" Elliott; and Alan "White" Vasquez, a former host of the avante-garde "Pen Ultimate" late night alternative rock show on competitor WCCW) who went on to numerous roles in broadcast programming where he still resides in Colorado.
Rekeweg is now the longest serving member of the Midwest air/management staff.
The contemporary format was initially successful, but the 1977 format change of WJML
WJML
WJML consists of AM stations WJML 1110 in Petoskey, Michigan and WJNL 1210 in Kingsley, Michigan. Both stations are owned by Rick Stone, and both stations have simulcast the same programming, with a mixture of liberal talk format and conservative talk....
-FM, and the 1980 entry of WKHQ
WKHQ
WKHQ-FM is a 100,000-watt radio station licensed to Charlevoix, Michigan, with studios located on U.S. 131 South Petoskey, Michigan and 8th Street in Traverse City, Michigan...
-FM, both from north of Traverse City but with strong regional signals into the market caused the predictable result, and listeners gravitated over a period of a couple years to the clear, static-free stereo FM contemporary format signals. It was the fading days of Am radio as a competitor just about everywhere.
WTCM-AM became simulcast to the FM signal not long after that.
WTCM-FM became country in the early 1970s, at the urging of WTCM salesman Leon Purchase, a local country musician, who was convinced that a country format would work in rural northern Michigan. Purchase convinced Biederman of this the old fashioned way, by making WTCM-FM - even though automated other than the morning simulcast period - a highly salable and accepted product in the market. Today that opinion is a well proven fact, as WTCM-FM maintains market dominance as the #1 rated station.
Les Biederman was not a fan of contemporary music or even less so country music, preferring to listen to classical music in his "pad", a private office in the rear of the adjacent co-owned Midwestern Cablevision building (where their "Radio Center" complex now stands). The "pad" was a regular stop for notable politicians like Governor William Milliken
William Milliken
William Grawn Milliken , is an American politician and served as the 44th Governor of Michigan from January 1969 to January 1983.-Biography:...
and Senator Robert Griffin, among others. It was a short stroll for Les from "the pad" to the trunk of his car where he typically stored a case of his favored Velvo brand cigars. "They stay fresh out there in the trunk" he was known to say.
Biederman traditionally came to the WTCM studio (almost nightly) after the conclusion of the TV 7&4 newscast and recorded an editorial on topics of the day, and these editorials and his strong sense of local stewardship culminated (among other things) into a local college (Northwestern Michigan College
Northwestern Michigan College
Founded in 1951, Northwestern Michigan College, known as NMC to local residents, is a community college in Traverse City, Grand Traverse County, Michigan. Its annual enrollment is around 5,100 students...
) and other more abstract realities including the city power plant converting from coal to wood as a source of fuel.
In the late 1970s, Biederman also began ambitious plans to increase the power of both WTCM AM and FM. In 1978, Biederman started turning over more of his duties to his son, Ross Biederman. Because of FCC restrictions and WTCM's growth plans, several properties were sold, including the Petoskey and Cadillac stations (to MacDonald Broadcasting, founded by long-time Biederman broadcast pal Kenneth MacDonald
Kenneth MacDonald
Kenneth MacDonald was an English actor who was best known for the parts of Gunner Nobby Clark in It Ain't Half Hot Mum and Mike Fisher in Only Fools and Horses.-Personal life:...
) and the Gaylord station was sold to William Barr, but fell silent several owners later in the early 2000s due to financial troubles.
1980s
In 1980, Les Biederman traded WPBN-TV to US Tobacco for stock, and became its largest individual shareholder.In 1982, after years of planning, engineering and FCC permitting, a major change was made to WTCM-AM, which had since started simulcasting with WTCM-FM. The station was moved to its current position at 580 and boosted power to 2,500 watts daytime.
The 1400 frequency was donated to a local church, who made the station Traverse City's first religious station, WLJN
WLJN
WLJN are the call letters of 2 radio stations, AM and FM, located in Traverse City, Michigan. Both stations broadcast Christian music and programming. The call letters stand for "We're Lifting Jesus' Name."-History:...
(We Lift Jesus' Name). WLJN broadcast from the original WTCM studio on Morgan Hill ("Radio Hill" to the locals), at the base of the 1400 kHz tower.
Les Biederman still considered Am radio to be "the" signal and made many long-term plans to make WTCM the dominant signal in the region, leaving implementation to his son, Ross.
Many current-day and long-run WTCM air staffers began association with the stations in this "rebirth" period including Dave Gauthier (who had worked there briefly in the 1970s), Carey Carlson, Ryan Dobry, Ron Jolly, and Jack O'Malley.
Lin McNett ("Michael O'Shea") returned from other out-of-state broadcast employment for a second and long standing stint.
Les Biederman died in 1986 after enjoying much of his leisure time on his boat "Happy Days".
In the late 1980s, WTCM-AM (and other AMs) were struggling. Although he has Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
leanings, Ross Biederman decided to start airing Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...
's program because he thought it would help ratings, and made the station full-time news/talk.
1990s - present
With FCC restrictions lessening, it created opportunities for the younger Biederman to rebuild the Paul Bunyan Network. In the 1990s, he purchased or erected several stations in other northern markets, and designed them to rebroadcast his Traverse City signals. WBCM 93.5 Boyne City (formerly WCLX) simulcasted WTCM-FM and WKJF 1370 Cadillac eventually simulcasted WCCW-AM. WKJF has since been donated to the same ministry that received the original 1400 signal, Good News Media (which changed the calls to WLJW in March 2004 and has since used it to simulcast WLJN-AMWLJN
WLJN are the call letters of 2 radio stations, AM and FM, located in Traverse City, Michigan. Both stations broadcast Christian music and programming. The call letters stand for "We're Lifting Jesus' Name."-History:...
). Also, in the 1990s, Biederman purchased WCCW (AM)
WCCW (AM)
WCCW is one side of a radio combo in Traverse City, Michigan. It is owned by the Midwestern Broadcasting group, which to this day includes the family members of its original partners from the early 1940s, the Biedermans, Kikers and McClays. Midwestern acquired WCCW AM/FM, its long-time "local...
1310 (then standards from ABC's "Stardust" network, now sports from ESPN Radio) and FM 107.5 (oldies), which had been WTCM's primary local competitor in the "early days" after being founded by a former Midwestern employee, John Anderson, in 1960.
In 1994, Ron Jolly was hired to host a local morning program between 7 - 10 am. Jolly was an award-winning newscaster for WTCM AM and FM between 1986-1990. Before returning to WTCM to host the morning show he worked at WJIM-AM Lansing, and WLXT-FM, Petoskey/Traverse City. His program features a blend of news, information and interviews with local and statewide figures from politics, arts & entertainment, education, business, etc. Jolly left the station for ten months in 2001 to join the Michigan Talk Radio Network based in Charlevoix.
In 2008, Norm Jones joined the airstaff hosting a newly created local program between 10am - Noon. Jones has been associated with the station on and off since the early 1980s.
In 2010, Merlin Dumbrille, longtime host of the Farm and Orchard Show, retired after fifty plus years at WTCM.
Recently, WTCM-AM boosted its power once again, this time to a full 50 kW daytime, allowing its directional signal to penetrate Canada. They, however, only broadcast with 1,100 watts overnight. Because AM transmits mostly through groundwave signals, and Northern Michigan's terrain is mostly sand, transmission is difficult, although WTCM's signal footprint is larger than those of other stations due to its low dial position.
Because of two generations of Biederman management and attention, and a faithful northern Michigan audience, WTCM-AM/FM are the clearly dominant stations in their given formats in the market.