Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by MrSchimpf (talk | contribs) at 07:30, 11 December 2014 (station now permanently on-air). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Template:Two other uses

WEMP (98.9 FM) is an FM radio station licensed to Two Rivers, Wisconsin carrying a mixed easy listening, soft oldies and Christmas music format. The station transmits from the WLKN tower in Newton and covers the Manitowoc/Two Rivers market, along with eastern Sheboygan County, including Sheboygan. The station is owned by Mark Heller via Metro North Communications, Inc., which is the station's licensee. The station's allocation has been proposed by the FCC since 1996, going through three owners who failed to build the facilities before Heller's purchase of the license in 2013.

The station began broadcasting via program test authority on the evening of December 7, 2013 at 10pm, broadcasting until December 9 at midnight, using a limited hour loop of easy listening music with some Christmas music mixed in due to music licensing concerns, along with weather and sports updates and small talk from Heller, and pre-recorded station identifications done by WGN's Orion Samuelson and Max Armstrong. Also part of the PTA were several jingles from the original WEMP in Milwaukee during their prime in the 1960s; the WEMP call letters were coincidentally made available when the last holder in New York re-called their station in mid-2012 during an unstable period.

The PTA happened nine days ahead of the expiration of the station's construction permit after the station's original plan to build a new tower in Newton was rejected by the town board. The test was performed using the studio facilities of Cleveland's WLKN (98.1), along with their antenna and transmitter just west of Newton. WLKN went off the air to allow the PTA to go forward, and also streamed the PTA in full using their website. The test ended with the signal re-tuned to 98.1 and WLKN's programming resuming as scheduled.

WEMP began permanent service a year later on December 7, 2014, broadcasting from the WLKN tower with its current format, and will remain commercial free during a week-long test period. Heller plans to simulcast WEMP on sister New Holstein-licensed WLWB (1530).

The station has an unactioned request to move the city of license to Howards Grove, north of Sheboygan, which is reflected in the on-air station identification as "WEMP, Two Rivers, Howards Grove". If successful, Heller intends to broadcast high school sports from across the station's coverage area, which is neglected as Manitowoc stations focus mainly on that area, while Sheboygan radio stations focus on their local teams and high schools further south.

External links

• Template:FMQ
• Template:FML
• WEMP in Nielsen Audio's FM station database

This article about a radio station in Wisconsin is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• Radio stations in Wisconsin
• Wisconsin radio station stubs