WTCM Celebrates 75 Years On The Air

In 1939, Les Biederman and several friends built a 250-watt transmitter from scratch with the goal of launching Traverse City’s first radio station. More than seven decades later, WTCM Radio remains a signature presence on local airwaves, broadcasting community news, talk, personalities and programming on its AM and FM stations.

As the station celebrates its 75th anniversary today (Friday), Midwestern Broadcasting President Ross Biederman – Les’ son – sits down with The Ticker for a colorful look back at WTCM’s history.

Early Days
“When he started, there were no radio stations north of Grand Rapids.” Ross describes his father’s interest in starting Traverse City’s first radio station as a combination of passion for broadcasting and “looking at a map with this big vast area with no stations in it.” Les and engineer Bill Kiker moved to town and built their own transmitter, officially joining the airwaves on January 8, 1941. WTCM (W Traverse City Michigan) operated from a tiny studio at the base of Morgan Hill, which locals affectionately nicknamed “Radio Hill.”

The station aired programs from Mutual Broadcasting System – popular for its war dispatches and shows like “The Adventures of Superman” – as well as local talent. “There was a woman who’d come in every evening and play the organ for an hour,” says Ross. “Santa Claus would also be in the studio, and the kids would come visit and that’d be broadcast live.”

Ross recalls a humorous story in the station’s early days when composer Ferde Grofé was driving through Traverse City and happened to hear a young pianist playing his “Grand Canyon Suite” on WTCM. Appalled by the performance, Grofé flagged down a passerby for directions to the station, which by then had relocated to Front Street’s Anderson Building. Grofé “walked into the studio, pushed the kid aside and said, ‘My name is Ferde Grofé, and this is how you play the ‘Grand Canyon Suite,’” proceeding to perform live for listeners.

Going Contemporary
Over the next few decades, WTCM would continue to expand both its roster of on-air talent and listenership. Merlin “Zeke” Dumbrille – who first joined the station in the 1940s – began hosting the “Farm and Orchard Time” show in 1964, a program that dated back to the station’s beginnings and would remain a popular staple until Dumbrille’s retirement in 2009. “He was a super loyal employee…and had a very unique delivery,” Ross says of the host, who passed away in 2014. 

Other hosts including Bill Gravelin and Lin McNett (“Michael O’Shea”) made their mark during this time. In the 1960s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave permission for stations to increase power to 1,000 watts; by 1975, WTCM had launched its FM station – showcasing a country music format – and was playing contemporary music on AM. Competitors including WJML in 1977 and WKHQ in 1980, however, soon began challenging WTCM’s control over the market.

“We were playing contemporary music on the AM station, but competing with FM stations, and we were not very successful at it,” says Ross, who was now leading the company following Les’ retirement (Les passed away in 1986). In the late 1980s, Ross made the decision that WTCM AM – now on its permanent home frequency of 580 – would abandon music and become a full-time news/talk station. The transition, completed in 1991, paid off.

“When Rush Limbaugh was on between 12-3pm, we had more people listening to AM than any FM station here,” says Ross. “We invented a news talk station (in Traverse City).”

WTCM Today – And In The Future
Since its pivotal format switch, WTCM has continued to expand, both in its broadcasting power – now at 50,000 watts, strong enough to reach Canada – and its market share. In the 1990s, Ross purchased and/or built several “rebroadcasting” stations, designed to simulcast Traverse City’s signals, and bought up competitors WCCW 1310 and 107.5 FM (the “Oldies” station).

WTCM’s introduction of newscaster Ron Jolly as a host in 1994, meanwhile, bolstered the station’s ratings in the competitive morning slot. A rotating cast of including Norm Jones, Peter Forton, Colleen Wares, Christal Frost and Bill Froehlich continued to build the station’s rapport with listeners on the AM station in the following years, as did personalities like Jack O’Malley, Mike Sinclair and Joel Franck on the FM side. The station continues to broadcast out of downtown Traverse City, located since 2002 in Front Street's Radio Centre.

Through it all, Ross says WTCM has remained its focus on being a “community-oriented, local radio station.” The same spirit that decades ago drove a teenage Ross to haul heavy radio equipment to the Park Place Hotel dining room each week to interview community members eating lunch still guides the station today.

“What we do is a service – we’re here to serve the community,” says Ross. “The community has been very good to our company."

Pictured above (clockwise from top left): Les Biederman and concert violinist David Rubinoff; Kenn Haven and listener in-studio; Ross Biederman; Jack O’Malley, Rush Limbaugh and Ross Biederman; Ron Jolly. Photo credit: WTCM.