"Completely Ignoring" Conventional Wisdom, WNMC Flourishes

Today, it’s where local listeners tune their radio dials if they’re in the mood for something a little different than the typical radio fare. But before WNMC-FM (90.7 FM) was a full-fledged station known for its eclectic programming, its dynamic team of volunteer DJs, and a broadcasting radius that spans six counties, it was little more than a passion project of three Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) students. The Ticker takes a look back at WNMC’s extremely humble beginnings – and at the path the station has taken to become one of the most beloved radio institutions in northern Michigan.

According to Eric Hines, who has served as station manager for WNMC since 2000, the radio station got its start in 1967 as a student activity, with a broadcast capability limited to the NMC dormitories. “[It was broadcast] through a variety of different means,” Hines says. “Through a very low-power AM signal, and I think also through the electrical system at the college.” Of the students who launched the station - Bob Barko, Bob Brandt, and Mike Scoville – Hines says two of them took on engineer roles, while the other was the radio personality.

The original mission of the three founding students? According to Hines, it was a simple one: Get rock music on the airwaves.

“I think that, in 1967 in Traverse City, there was very little rock ‘n’ roll on the radio,” Hines explains.

“Rock ‘n’ roll, by that time, had really taken over the consciousness of young people. But up here, there was nothing; no rock on the radio at all. [WNMC] was founded to address that.” Hines adds that Barko, Brandt, and Scoville were all at least passingly involved in the growing rock movement, having spent the summer of 1967 as roadies for the Marquette-based band The Excels. They funneled that passion into WNMC, and Traverse City’s first college radio station was born.

Those early days were slow going. Based on the conversations he’s had with early WNMC alums, Hines says the 1967 launch ended up being a false start in a lot of ways. “I’ve talked to people who were at the station in 1970, and they actually talk about it as if they were restarting it,” he says. “As if it had gone completely moribund in the meanwhile.”

Despite the stumbles, WNMC found its footing in the 1970s, when a dedicated team of students – many of whom Hines says “became artists and creative people” in their own right – steered the station back on course. They had a strong assist along the way from local radio titan Les Biederman – founder of WTCM – who donated equipment and was “definitely a big backer of the station.”

Still, even as WNMC grew and stabilized, it had one major shortcoming: low wattage. The station could reach students living on campus – and broadcasting at its maximum power, could even achieve minimal “spillover” into the surrounding neighborhoods – but venture beyond the few blocks that made up NMC and it was as if the station didn’t exist. Fortunately for WNMC and its early players, the station’s spillover – while minimal – was enough to cause an organic surge of word-of-mouth.

“Community folks began to hear the station and get very interested,” Hines says. “People started registering for classes just so they could participate. By the end of the ‘70s, people involved in station began to realize that this was something that really should be a public medium, rather than just a student activity.”

The buzz ignited talks within the NMC administration and board about “applying for a real radio license” and taking WNMC to a broader audience. And in 1979, WNMC made its FM radio debut at 90.9. Even with an initial boost, the station remained low-power – “a mere 10 watts,” according to the WNMC website – but it was enough to “ have covered Traverse City fairly well [at that point],” Hines tells The Ticker.

WNMC would boost its wattage two more times. The first was in 1981, when Hines says a Reagan administration decision left low-power stations little choice but to level up. “The administration decided not to protect low-wattage stations anymore,” he explains. “So you had to get to 100 watts or they wouldn’t protect your channel space; anybody could just come in and take it.” A power increase to 150 watts solidified WNMC’s local reach, with a radius that covered “Traverse City and a six-mile radius of surrounding territory.”

The next boost would come 16 years later, when WNMC quadrupled its power to 600 watts and moved to its current frequency at 90.7 FM. Since 1997, the station has been able to broadcast across Grand Traverse, Wexford, Antrim, Leelanau, Benzie, and Charlevoix counties.

There were other evolutions along the way, too. In the 1980s, for instance, Hines says WNMC began its shift from a totally college-driven station toward a college/community hybrid. Eventually, the NMC administration ditched the requirement that forced locals to be registered for college classes if they wanted to volunteer at the station. Today, WNMC operates with a team of approximately 80 volunteers, and while Hines says students are still an important part of that contingent (15 percent to a third, depending on the year), the majority are community members.

The programming has also changed. While WNMC began with rock ‘n’ roll, Hines says it wasn’t long before just about every other radio station in Traverse City was shifting to that format. That prompted WNMC to expand into some of the alternative programming niches it offers today, from jazz and blues to hours that revolve around alt-country. The variety – and the potential for music discovery – are factors Hines thinks have helped WNMC keep an audience, even in the era of Spotify and music streaming.

“It’s kind of stupefying [how much different music we play],” Hines says. “We have a playlisting program that I can pull reporting from, and last week alone, we played [music from] 400 albums made in the last couple of years, 400 albums of just new music…Since 2000, when I got here, commercial radio is becoming more and more narrow [in what they play]. Part of that is just programming theory: Everyone thinks that every radio station should only ever do one thing. But we’re the radio station that completely ignores that advice.”