Chris Samara was here. And Chris is not only our general manager. He's also the, the president
of the Southern half Pacific media stations. What a title. Civic media owns like 31 stations
now with 50 signals now. Yeah. Yeah. Across the state. And you're in charge of the bottom
head. Which that line drawn somewhere north of Green Bay across to Oh Claire and still water
the equator itself. Yeah. The equator of Wisconsin. And you've got them all. I can see you're
ready for the bro is today. Yeah. Looking forward to it. We watched probably 150 or listen to
150 of the 162 games this year and fingers crossed. We get past this series. Well, that's good.
Now there is a person who works in this building. I won't tell you what his name is. I think
you know who it is. He's a rabbit Cubs fan. Yes. So this is going to be tough. Yeah. Because good
news is the unnamed person's on vacation this week. And we don't have to listen to his taunting.
Now we can't figure that out. Right. Right. Okay. Now Chris is here because something big is going
on at WRJN. Let's talk about it because it's it might be a little confusing to people. It's good
news, by the way. Very good news. Yeah. It may be confusing. Well, we recently made an agreement to
purchase a couple of radio signals in the Milwaukee area. And one of them is on the air this morning.
It's a new FM frequency that covers the south side of Milwaukee and most of the north side of
Racine. It's the towers right over by the Oak Creek power plant. And it's at 107.3 FM 107.3. So
now you can pick WRJN up in Kenosha 98.1 FM come a little further north 99.9 FM in Racine and
out to about the interstate. And then 107.3 FM heading north into southern Milwaukee County.
And that is further complicated by the addition of another AM station that you'll be able to
hear WRJN. And now right now it's it's on the air as of Friday at a very, very low power. But
we've ordered a new 5,000 watt transmitter for 1290 AM. And in the next hopefully two weeks,
you'll be able to carry WRJN on AM at 1400 where it's been for almost 100 years.
From the Illinois line up to southern Milwaukee. Actually gurney. Yeah, you can hear it down in
northern Illinois. And then 1290 will pick you up from the Racine Milwaukee County line and take
you up to West Bend, Shaboygan and points north. So what we're really doing is expanding the footprint
of Racine across all of southeast Wisconsin. Now it will remain WRJN Racine. This is our hometown.
This is what we do. This is what we serve. But if you're traveling to the north or want to
take the music with you, what a great way to do it on 1290. But that's about two weeks ago, two
weeks away. Until we get everything fixed. That transmitter site got hit by the flooding six weeks
ago. And it blew everything up. So we're in the process of getting new equipment. Now we didn't
own it when it got flooded. No, we always come in to clean up the post flood. Right. That's what we do.
So let's just assure everybody the way you've been listening to WRJN. If you want to listen to
it on 1400 or 99 9 FM or 98 1 FM, that does not change. Doesn't change a bit. Now we're just adding
the frequency of 107.3 FM in the Milwaukee year hip. Yeah. Excuse me. And we're also going to be
adding in two weeks, 1290 AM. So it's just adding, but it's still WRJN, a Racine radio station,
still recene folks on the radio. Yep. Nothing changes. It just now goes further, which is also
good news for advertisers. Well, yeah. Now for no extra charge, you're reaching an extra million
people with that 1290 signal. So yes, Racine advertisers get the boost. The price stays the same.
So no worries there. But more than anything, it just really, it expands Racine's footprint
to beyond Racine County. And it's the 1290 frequency is kind of a legendary frequency because
when I first came to town, the old WZU would library the legend. Right. Just to be on 1290.
Player of the legend and David Haynes were toasting coffee time. Yeah. They morphed it into an
oldie station. It became wheels 1290 WLLC for many years. Yeah. Great, great oldie.
Mark Stack was on that station. Yeah. Mark Stack Tom Carr Dan Marcus was on that station.
And and then Willie Davis owned it former Green Bay Packer, Willie Davis. And for many years,
it was really just a voice of the Milwaukee African American community. And Willie wanted it to
be that way. It did very well for them. But more recently, it was known as the Fonds, the company
that owned them, switched it to an automated oldies format much like the music you hear here. But
no people, no personalities. It was just kind of a filler on the dial. So people who were used to
1290 as the Fonds playing oldies music, I'm going to get the music back with Don Rosen and Dan
Marcus and Kurt Bolman and everybody else on WRJN. Okay. And the 107.3 is on now. I've heard it.
You can hear it that number scene. Oh, sure. Here's a belt. And the 1290 in about two weeks or so
when the new transmitter comes over. Yeah. Somebody's going to have it on their back coming over the
Canadian border wherever we get transmitters from. I'm not sure where they come from now.
Takes a while to get here. We'll get them like it'll be like a strap to their back and they'll
walk it to Racine. It's going to have to be a strong back. And transmitters are tiny now. They
used to be big, huge like refrigerators. Yeah. And now they're like little tiny college dorm
refrigerators. They kind of are. Yeah. And the one we have in there right now is a little 10 watt
transmitter. And it looks like, um, boombox. Not even. It's, it's maybe about two inches thick
and maybe six inches high and 10 inches wide. And it's, uh, not like the US. No, you can hear it
for two or three miles around the tower. But we needed that on in order for the FM to go on.
Thank you, Chris. Chris is our president and, uh, at civic media of the seven half of all the
radio stations, but you know, also our general manager here at WRGN and WAUK. Yeah.
Which it starts a new morning show today on 540 AM. They're starting an all news program. Yeah.
If you're a news donkey, this is a place to go. It's, uh, centered on Milwaukee in Southeast
Wisconsin, 540 AM, WAUK. But, uh, six to nine o'clock, all news all morning on 540 AM and 100.3 FM.
And they have another FM. Yeah. Yeah. So it's good. It's confusing.
