Hello!

It's July 1, 2012.  We've brought back the "Carlyle Comment" online here, and may resurrect it in its "blog" form at sometime soon, but YOU are my intended audience. The people who support, listen-to, and respond-over things on WION radio.

Much to tell, so we'll do it like a "lightning round."

1) Again this year, WION is taking NO political money from candidates at the local and state levels. We're also not accepting advertising from issues-related groups on our airwaves. Why?  You won't like the answer. The people who handle political advertisements are a pain in the butt for the most part. The paperwork they cause is unruly, and, we'd rather give our attention to advertisers who support us and need us every day of every year. While we can't stop our newscasts from containing politics, we CAN determine that WION will be a nice, quiet island in the middle of the ocean known as "Political Advertising Hell."  Please note, however: WION, being federally licensed IS required to carry Federal candidates' advertising, if placed directly on behalf of the campaign.  So, ENJOY the music you know and the information you need without the political arguing and mudslinging.

2) Summer's going Fast!  WION wants to say, "Thank you" to our Ionia City DDA for partnering with us and reducing the cost of advertising for DDA district businesses.  24 businesses and organizations joined us on the air July 1st, and we hope it will help you to "Shop locally" and realize that Ionia really DOES have diversity in business offerings. We all win when the businesses in our community thrive. Please listen to their ads, and thank THEM for being on the air, and in our midst. Being in business these days is NOT easy for anyone.

3)  WION is supporting "Relay for LIfe" in Ionia actively.  There's a contest between our morning and afternoon shows to see who can raise more funds, all of which are credited to the team known as "Volunteers for a cure." The morning show is winning as I write this, but the BIG winner is the ACS and cancer research. Please have fun with the fundraisers this month, and even if your business already donates, if a fun opportunity comes along to play with a new Relay for Life promotion, please DO!  It can only HELP you to look better!  Turn it into a POSITIVE thing for your business. Flocks of Flamingos and Toilets that travel are two ways some teams are doing this, its creative, its fun, and its all for a good cause.  Please play along in the spirit intended. We ALL know someone whose life was impacted by cancer.  The cause bonds us together.

4) WION's engineer has done some GREAT work recently on both our AM and FM signals. Here in Ionia County, our FM 92-7 has the "fullest" sound its ever had, and really sounds fantastic. It's sending out a signal bringing you music the way we believe it was meant to be heard. It's clear, clean, and not "in your face" with too much bass, or all the "loudness" that the big city stations put into their signals to war with each other. We want you to enjoy our station, not "tire of listening to it".  Our AM is also the best sound on the AM dial!  We recently changed processors, and are getting GREAT comments from our long-distance listeners and those who commute in the Grand Rapids and Lansing areas, while listening daytimes. Some receivers even pick us up in AM stereo. Your "HD" radio may render stereo AM as well. Some do, some don't.  We hope you'll notice the increase in sound quality on both our AM and FM signals, we do it "because we can" and because the quest for the BEST sound on the dial never stops. Thank you for listening to Ionia County's I-1430 and FM 92-7!