WELY’s FM station finally returns to the airwaves

REGIONAL—WELY is officially on the air.
After more than a year of delay, WELY’s 94.5 FM station is finally on the air with its own programming. It marks the completion of an 18-month project by new station owners Civic Media to restore the signal to full capacity and establish two distinct WELY stations.
After a brief stint of simulcasting to both its 94.5 FM and 103.9 FM/1450 AM stations that began during this summer’s wildfire outbreak, WELY is moving forward with its original plan for two stations with different music formats.
94.5 FM will feature music from the “80s, 90s, and more,” according to Terri Pylka, who manages the station. With a 35,000-watt signal, the station is strong through Virginia and continues all the way to Duluth, Pylka said.
The 103.9 FM and 1450 AM stations, which are branded as Hometown Radio, will continue playing music from the 1960s and 1970s.
Both stations will play music 24 hours a day, as well as legacy programming, including the trading show from 9 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday and the polka show from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday. Local high school sports coverage will also continue.
“People are tuning in from all over. People just love Ely, and I think we’re part of Ely that they get to take with them when they’re listening from Texas or Indiana or Illinois or wherever,” Pylka said.
Listeners can also stream both stations from anywhere through the Civic Media app, WELY’s website or TuneIn. Civic Media, based on Madison, Wis., owns and operates 42 radio stations across the Upper Midwest.
The Ely station is the company’s most northerly and most remote, factors that contributed to the challenges the company faced getting the operation back on the air.
“Any time we got to a point where we thought this was going to happen, there would be a roadblock,” Pylka said. “We hit weather delays. We had shipping issues with our transmitter. We’ve just had one pivot after another.”
While WELY was able to get 94.5 FM up and running in July, it was only a simulcast hastily set up to help transmit news during the summer’s wildfires. The station continued carrying the existing programming from 103.9 FM and 1450 AM until engineers could return to Ely to complete the installation.
Now 94.5 FM is carrying its own distinct programming.
“We wanted to do this all right back when we purchased it last year in 2025. It was all supposed to be like, here we are, and here’s two music stations, and then it just became one thing after another,” Pylka said.
The infrastructure overhaul also included a new digital board and a new transmitter, both provided by Civic Media.
“You have to be a radio geek to really truly understand what we have. But the fact that we have this in Ely, Minnesota, is just mind-blowing,” Pylka said.
Pylka said Civic Media has given WELY the freedom to broadcast what it deems important to the local community.
Looking to the future, Pylka hopes to launch a daily morning show. Pylka said the new show could be on air as soon as November or early December.
The show will be a three-hour format with interviews, news and updates about community events.
Pylka said she wants something people can listen to when they wake up in the morning and on commutes.
The station also hopes to expand its local news coverage and become more active at community events throughout the region.
Pylka will also be hosting a request show on Saturdays during deer season when hunters can call in and request specific songs.
“That’s always been a popular show in the past, where people call and shout out to this deer camp over here, to this deer camp over there, that type of thing,” Pylka said.
Pylka is also looking to bring Minnesota Wild games to 1450 AM this winter, and the Twins will also have games broadcast on the AM station beginning in February.
Vikings games will continue to be broadcast on 94.5 FM.
Pylka credited the station’s advertisers and sponsors for helping fund the upgrades and said WELY is now financially sustaining itself.
“I’m still in the pinch-me phase. You know, it’s just, it’s kind of like, wow, we’re finally here. We finally did it,” Pylka said.