WVCB-LP brings community radio back to the Bay Area
After more than nine years without one, the Chequamegon Bay area has a community radio station again. WVCB-LP, which calls itself “The Voice of Chequamegon Bay,” went on the air Nov. 7 at 97.7 FM. The nonprofit, low-power station broadcasts with 100 watts from the Ashland transmitter site of Wisconsin Public Radio, and its signal can be heard in most of the Bay Area. “Our programming–music, news, documentary, and discussion–strengthens our sense of place and connection among communities along the South Shore of Lake Superior,” the station’s website, wvcb.org, says. WVCB board member and finance director Tim Pavlish said the idea for a new community station took shape shortly after Northland College’s campus station, WRNC-LP, went off the air in May 2017, a victim of budget cuts. “It sort of felt that we’d never get to the finish line,” Pavlish said. “It’s super exciting, and I am so glad that we have been able to build this out for the community. At this point it is now in the hands of the community to make the station what they want to make of it, to make shows that discuss things that are happening in the area or play their favorite
