Thank you, Harry.

Some people you meet in life are the kind who, in their company,  make you feel a little closer to the kindness that can only come from God. You notice it in their voice, mannerisms, and it's something you just ...know. My father was one such individual.  Another was Mr. Harry Boyes of Ionia, a former News Director of WION Radio who passed away on September 20th 2019.  I'm told it was his 95th birthday.

I met Harry at the Lamplight Grill when I had only been at WION a short time. He was with his wife, leaving the restaurant after his meal. I introduced myself, we spoke briefly, and I told him I'd seen his picture at the radio station in some of the staff pictures from years past. We didn't speak long as I didn't want to be rude or bore his wife with "radio" conversation.

It wasn't long after that, however that I learned Harry's wife had passed away and he was alone.  He still came to the Lamplight Grill, however...and one night, as I arrived, I saw him eating alone. I don't like to eat alone. Eating is a kind of celebration and should be shared, which left me with a choice: Ask Harry if I could sit with him (risking the fact he may want his solitude and hearing the word "no" or...having an interesting evening if "yes" was the answer.) ....or just sit at a table and wonder if I should have asked. Harry's answer was, "That would be very nice, please sit down." It was the beginning of a very strong friendship, though we didn't see each other very  often, and almost always at the Lamplight Grill. (I did have the opportunity to visit with him in his home this year, and it was a wonderful afternoon.)

Harry always made time to chat with me at the Lamplight, and we'd talk about the (Episcopal) Church,  Ionia,  my WION of today, "His" WION, and so many other things. Some conversations were lengthy, some shorter.  Always I enjoyed these conversations, more than he may have ever known.

On the 5th Anniversary of WION coming back on the air with our team in 2009  we invited Harry to stop by. The studios were humming with people, we had a tent out front with Lamplight food, face painting, guests from far and near, and studio tours. Harry came to that celebration, and later...I found it was the first time he was invited back to WION since he worked with Monroe MacPherson the original owner. They had parted ways after the sale of the FM station in which Harry had invested.  Harry was happy to be with us that afternoon, and volunteered to go through old staff pictures and help me identify some of what is now my "shared past" with other  WION owners and staff who we only know now by their portraits. 

It made my day to have him here, along with representatives from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters, friends, and listeners. As I've said, some people just make your day by their being part of yours. I considered it a great honor to have Harry as part of our celebration.

Harry looks over the very first WION broadcast log as he visits
our 5th anniversary celebration in 2009

Harry's gentle yet deep voice was most distinguished, and as his years went on, it may have taken a little more listening to catch every word, but his gentlemanly manner never changed. Always the gentleman.  Harry was proud that the station for which he worked locally was back on the air, and in good hands, though he worked at one time for much more prominent and powerful  WJR in Detroit.  Chances are as I grew up,  since my family played WJR frequently, at one time or another I heard him on our radio in my younger years and never  knew I'd someday meet him. 

I once told Harry of our recreating the 1939 Campbell Playhouse version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", and that we had won an award for it from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters in our first year of doing this.  He was as proud of WION as if he, himself were back behind the microphone.   Then, somewhere between that first year we produced it, and year number 5 in 2014, Harry asked if he could play Ebenezer Scrooge, should we ever do it just one more time.  I took Harry up on that offer, and we had a wonderful day in 2014 sharing time, and some stories of WION, many of which I have forgotten, all of which I wish I had recorded.  Nevertheless, the day was something special.  Later, I found out from Harry that the room in which we now stream WION (my office and recording studio)  used to be his office when he was News Director, and that may explain how he seemed comfortable  as he pulled the microphone close and began recording.  I didn't know this until after he recorded his part as Ebenezer Scrooge, but it was so nice to find that out later that day in our conversations and to imagine all the thoughts he may have had as  he sat down in the chair in his former room. I guess my office is something we share, as well, though in very different eras.

Harry nailed the part of Mr. Scrooge, and seemed to enjoy doing it. It made me happy to know his voice was preserved, not just for history's sake, but in my favorite story, and...co-starring with other local people and WION staffers. People like Rich Thompson of the Lamplight Grill, WION's "Popeye John," Darin Elliott and Todd Reurink to name a few.

Harry will be missed, but will always be a part of WION as long as this team is at the helm. His picture and those of his co-workers of the 1960's are on the wall in our main studio in a framed, proud advertisement of WION's "Now 5000 Watts" from when the station got it's power increase.  

A gentleman for sure, and someone who I am very glad to have known even for just a few short years.   Harry; you will be missed but surely remembered.  Thank you for your friendship, and your voice...at WION and in our community... long before my time at the helm of WION...and in "A Christmas Carol."

May God continue to bless you.

-Jim Carlyle

Jim Carlyle and Harry look over  historic WION pictures and I.D. some former staffers.

(2009) at WION's  5th year celebration with the current team.

"And They Said it Couldn't Be Done"...a/k/a It's our 15th year here at WION!

Another milestone comes to WION September 1st.

It's our 15th anniversary, or "birthday" if you will...as "I-1430."

Certainly, the station itself, and the heritage call letters have existed since 1953, and the founding family and the staff of those days helped build it, but...in the 1980's and 1990's, WION had less attention paid to it's care in technology, in it's building and grounds, and even on the air.

The owner before our team, Bob Driscoll was making a great effort to bring local radio back to Ionia, but didn't live to see his vision of WION come to fruition...and, through quite the unexpected meeting, his family and our team, together, in 2004 saved WION from being forever silenced.

How did the beginning of the current team find WION?  An engineer friend of mine, Michael Bradford was working with the station where I  was morning host.  (WCSR, Hillsdale.)  Michael came in one morning, found me a bit down in the dumps, asked why, and was told, "My deal for the station in Alabama has been pulled." It was only three weeks til signing for what was then station WZPQ.   Michael suggested, "why don't you check out Ionia?" to which I replied, "why?"....and the answer..."It's off the air and need an owner!"

Fast forward.  A couple of trips to Ionia and it seemed like a good place to have a station, nicely distanced from Grand Rapids and Lansing, ripe for a local full-service format of music and information, and...it had a deadline to get on the air.  I called Mrs. Driscoll, who didn't know me from a stack of hay, explained I wanted to buy her husband's radio station, and she was very polite in explaining that his estate was in the process of selling to the folks in Greenville who owned (then) WSCG AM & FM, and the newspaper. (The Stafford family.) ...She did, however tell me if that deal fell through, I'd be next on the list.

Long story short,  (which I'm not good-at doing);  The FCC said Stafford could not buy WION.  They'd own too much media and have too much control. So, right after the decision, the call came in to me to "make it happen" from Mrs. Driscoll.  The only thing standing in my way was that the station in Alabama was going to be a private financing note with the seller, and here, in Ionia, it was not. I had to find financing.

Back then, it was easier than today. Steal a phone book while in Ionia, look for banks that have the word "Ionia" in them, and start there. ICNB existed at that time.  I made a call to the commercial loan department, asked if they'd consider me if I provide a good credit history, a stack of references, and around 15 years in the business.  For once in my life, I was not put on the back burner. The application was made, the references read, and...ICNB worked quickly to get the station into our hands so that we could save the license, as the days to license revocation by the FCC got closer and closer. By the way, our staff and our station has now out-lasted two bank names, working on our third. We've kept our format longer than the bank has kept it's name!

The arrangements were made, the keys given to me on August 14th of 2004, and we had until September 4th to get WION back on the air...and we did!  Jim Aaron, co-owner and music director worked many hours to get the music mix planned, the music scheduler programmed, the billing system updated, and the actual building presentable after nearly a year of sitting. Engineers were called in to see if the transmitter would fire up...it did... very loudly...causing me to jump quite high and I believe I had to go change my shorts, too!  The Transmitter arc'd some high voltage after sitting a year, and in the relatively small transmitter room it sounded like firing off a very loud gun or fireworks!

 

Engineer Ed Trombley of Munn-Reese engineering prepares to fire up the tube-type WION transmitter we inherited in 2004. That monster box is long gone, replaced by a solid state stereo AM transmitter...but we were glad to hear the ol' girl come to life back in 2004!

Engineer Ralph Haines measures the old transmitter's frequency stability
to make sure we're legal once we get the "OK" to go back on the air
from the FCC.  Buddy of Jim's, Tracy Truman looks on after a day
of fixing pipes and many other repairs in the building.  

(below)...And yet another engineer, Chris Arnaut, then an engineer for WJR in Detroit,  would park his camper in the parking lot and work late hours the weekend before going on the air to rewire our (very old, monophonic) control board to work with our upgraded digital computers, phones, and to make WION a comfortable studio for any announcer who may sit in the air chair.  

 Those of you who are regular visitors to the station can see the huge difference in the "basic" studio" of 2004, and the "themed" studio of today. (shown at article's end)

It took calling an old friend with a tractor and brush hog to bring down grass that was 3 feet high or more...getting utilities in our name, repairing broken pipes in the bathrooms that had frozen,  and hours of work to make the station presentable and usable again.  

 The kitchen fixtures were all gone ,the toilet off it's base, one broken vanity, and no hot water. All of this got fixed...and WION was off and running on September 1st of 2004.  As the legend goes, there was no hot water because originally hot water was plumbed to outside the sister station's building (back when WION also owned WYON) and employees were washing their cars in the water, costing the owner money. WION apparently also paid the price, and as new owners we had a water heater re-installed replacing the one ripped out sometime in the past.  I should also mention that the bank president at ICNB knew we had to rebuild the kitchen and literally gave us a kitchen sink!  Now THAT's personal banking!

September 1st came, and at 6AM, Jim Aaron and I pushed the "on" button for the big electron tube plates that powered WION's signal, and on the air she came. Engineers had tested the transmitter and air chain earlier in the week, and....despite the dismal sound we put out back then, the station was alive, the paperwork was filed with the FCC that WION had resumed operations, and the license was saved.   The battles for small town radio had begun!

Since signing on the station in 2004, our team has learned much, and come a long way.  We have had great engineering, and in the past 15 years have accomplished many things even bigger stations wouldn't dare to do:

            1) Enlarged the AM daytime signal to include more of West Central MI

            2) Added FM 92-7 before it was even known as "AM revitalization"

            3) Converted the AM signal to AM stereo for fun, and to draw      
                attention to AM's potentially great sound.
            4) Streamed the AM stereo sound and got our own app

            5) Added FM 100.3 in Lowell to better our coverage and reach our

               Kent County listeners better, sharing an antenna with a school's
               FM already located in Lowell.

That list of accomplishments is only possible due knowing and hiring the best  engineering and talented engineers!  Munn-Reese with Ed Trombley, Don Baad, Wayne Reese (now retired) and Rick Grzebik.  We also have Ralph Haines, owner of WGDN in Gladwin on the engineering "bench" and more recently, Greg Buchwald from Illinois, who found us when the web picked up on the fact we were streaming our AM signal. He's the man behind the great AM stereo sound we now send out to the world on the web and enjoy in our studios. (and some folks in their vehicles, too.)  You can still find an email letter he wrote me on our "comments" page at www.i1430.com when he first heard our AM stereo being broadcast on the web.  We're so glad he's  adopted our WION for a place to "play." We benefit from his enthusiasm and great knowledge of AM audio processing.

We also had our battles along the way, however.  Lightning killed our transmitter in 2005.  Auto Owners' Insurance did not want to play ball, but eventually came around and bought us the new AM stereo transmitter that you hear every day on the air.   The studio roof was in deplorable condition, and needed replacing, so we bought locally from Reurink Roofing & Siding Sales back in their infancy as a company and had the new roof installed.  Our water well even went dry and had to be replaced at big expense. Walkington Well Drilling did a fantastic job and did the job in mid-winter.   The tower fencing was no longer FCC legal and had to be replaced in our first year or so, the towers needed painting, and we had a glass insulator that holds up the middle tower crack and need to be replaced as well. The on-air computer systems needed upgrading to a new Windows system, and new software and licenses. Drop another ten grand on that.  All of these things worked against our checkbook, but we got through every one of them.  It's not been easy, but we've never gone back to the bank for money to operate. It's been our advertisers' support that has allowed us to grow and provide more and more services over the past 15 years while improving the studios and maintaining service to our communities.

I think our biggest battle, however was proving to this community that we weren't the same WION as they grew up-with. We had radically changed the programming to be more modern, and listenable in businesses, and at the same time had kept the heritage call letters which for many area residents meant "cows, conversation, obituaries, and all over the road programming."  We had much to overcome in the perception of what we had created, and it wasn't easy, nor was getting our early advertisers.  Gladly, that problem is long gone.

Over 15 years we've sponsored local events. We've given cash from advertising packages to Ionia Public Schools, Bertha Brock Park, and others. We've returned some home football games to the radio, donated a homecoming football tailgate broadcast to the organization "Link Crew" at Ionia High School,  and we've added a live Monday night show with Popeye John.  We held "guilt free" food drives for a number of years, and then switched our focus, now each autumn,  broadcasting  to gather items to ship overseas in our "Treasures for Troops" campaign. (with the Blue Star Mothers organization.)  We've given to Big Brothers/Big Sisters through the Chili Dawg event,  donated yearly broadcasts to the folks at our county's 9-1-1 dispatch center open house,  and sponsored Ladies' Day at the Ionia Freefair now for a couple of years.  We also provide equipment for music in the fair's "Antique Village" each year.

My favorite broadcast each year is our Christmas Community open house broadcast, in which everyone is welcomed, format is out the window, the microphones in our studios roam the building, and we share food, fellowship, and Christmas greetings in the studio building and on the airwaves.  No station for which I've ever worked in 31 years has done anything like it, and you have to experience it to know of the power it has to make Christmas more special for listeners and for me.  Oh, and let's not forget.. WION produced FIVE years' worth of radio plays using the 1939 Campbell Playhouse script of, "A Christmas Carol," one of which won WION an award from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters.

Ionia Mayor Dan Balice teases Jim Carlyle at on-air Christmas Party
about all the rumors he's managed to start on the air.

WION's been blessed with talent over the years since 2004 as well. Local well-known mischief-maker Phil Cloud rejoined the team just days after we went on the air.  Garry Osborn, who we hired for temporary afternoon host gets a great following and has stayed with us not for a month, not a year, but every year since WION was reborn.  Jim Aaron still helps us with music additions to the huge library even since moving on to manage WGLM in Greenville, our sister station.   "Steve, the Voice Guy" was the first voice heard on WION on sign-on day as he read the legal ID, and continues to bring us weather on the midday show, information between songs, promotional announcements, and general support 24/7 as needed.  Pastor Ken Harger's message from the lighthouse is on every Sunday at 8AM, and he rejoined the WION family around 5 years into our owning WION. I enjoy seeing him each week as he brings his program in for us to load into the WION on air system.  Conversation with Pastor Harger is a true gift.  Popeye John joined our team about 5 years ago, and has gone from no radio experience to his own (volunteer) show on Monday nights, and enjoys the calls and posts on his show's Facebook page.  His radio knowledge is growing and he may pursue engineering someday.   Along the way, "Big Mike," Chris Gerard, and others have had jobs producing shows, commercials, and other special elements of WION, and I'm sure I'm leaving someone out.  "Leftlane" and others have co-hosted Friday shows with Phil and Jim, and there's always a seat for local officials and those who want to promote community events.  The "round table" has become famous for the quality of, "who's visiting today?"  Behind the scenes, we also have Scott Greczkowski from Satelliteguys.us keeping our streams going and the man to thank for initially pushing me into streaming the station publicly. I had been a member of his satelliteguys website, and we maintained an owners-only stream to check on when away from the station which I shared with him, and from that came the kick in the pants to publicly stream WION to the world. His help is what keeps that stream going as the industry changes, too!

I came to WION and Ionia thinking that this was a stop along the way for me in radio. I was waiting for the FCC to grant my Colorado license for which I filed way back in 1998.  It was auctioned, two years ago, to someone else. I was in that auction, but pulled-out because I didn't feel I could do justice to owning a station that far away, and keep "home" here.

Fifteen years is a long time. There's much more to this story, but...if you were asked,, "Does your town, county, or nation need radio?" the answer may be, "no."  However, if the question was, "Can radio in a small town survive, and even grow and  make a difference?"  I'd hope WION would come to mind with the answer being, "yes" and..you'd think of us as a shining example of what radio can do, even if it's flagship signal is small town AM.  (You have to remember, we were on the air 5 years before getting our FM for Ionia County, and were paying our bills with no streaming, no FM, and no "revitalization" effort from the FCC or government.)  To adapt a phrase, "we were revitalizing AM before AM revitalizing was COOL!"

All we ask in return is that you please, support our local advertisers that are heard on our airwaves. TELL them you're hearing them.  They like to know that.

And, one more thing. If you're a business owner who wants truly local advertising that is tailored to you, on the one medium not owned by a big corporate conglomerate monster, which still reaches people on a person to person basis and.. does not decide WHO hears your message and WHO DOESN'T (unlike social media ads and posts)....Please join our list of on-air advertisers!  As you can see from what we do, giving back to our community is high on the list.  We may have a small staff, but we try hard to do BIG things in the community, and it only gets better with more (advertising) support and listeners...loyal to WION.

Here's to many more years of local radio....from America's Biggest Little Radio Station....

-Jim Carlyle

AM STEREO 1430

FM 92-7 in Ionia County

FM 100.3 In Kent County...

and...on any device, anywhere...

W I O N!

Our studio's announcer work area today at 15 years here...

WION Studio guest interview area in-studio including the famous "round table" 

Transmitter room: FM on the left with (AM) Day/Night Pattern switcher
AM (stereo) processing in the middle rack and remote control/monitoring
Broadcast Electronics 6kw AM Stereo transmitter on the right

And, our on air "home" on Haynor Road, Ionia today.
One of our favorite picctures because of the clouds!