ELY—A top manager and the morning show host at WELY were dismissed on Wednesday, as part of a decision by station owners to move the station towards a different format.

Joany Haag, who has been with the Ely radio station for years and served as general manager for the past three years, was fired along with Mike Jankovec, who has hosted the station’s morning show off and on for more than a decade.

The station is owned and operated by the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, but is managed by the Bois Forte Development Corporation. CEO Gary Gotchnik said the decision to fire Haag and Jankovec was purely a business decision. “There was nothing personal,” he said.

Gotchnik said the station anticipates no other changes in its staffing for now. “We’re going to post for a new general manager and we’ll be looking for a new morning show host.”

Gotchnik said the station will be seeing changes in its musical format in an effort to move away from what is known as a “Triple-A” format, which stands for Adult Album Alternative. It’s generally an eclectic mix of rock, blues, folk and world music that’s not quite mainstream, while still shying away from more hard-edged music. It’s generally geared towards younger, hipper adults, and is more common in urban markets, than in small towns or rural areas.

Gotchnik said Bois Forte Development wants to see the station move towards a format that includes more music that will be familiar to the bulk of their potential audience, which is generally older. “A lot of listeners want to hear some more of the music they remember,” said Gotchnik.

But Jankovec questioned Gotchnik’s rationale that the dismissals stemmed from a disagreement over format. “He said Joany had been asked to change the format, and she had not done it, but I know that isn’t true,” said Jankovec. He added that even if there was a dispute over musical format, it doesn’t explain his dismissal as host of the morning show, which he said remains the station’s most popular program.

Haag was not available as of deadline for comment on this story.