Getting students excited about manufacturing
Keeping nostalgia alive in Northeast Wisconsin
May 19, 2025
APPLETON – While listeners have tuned into WHBY for 100 years (and counting), B.J. DeGroot, brand manager, Woodward Community Media, said the station has been equally “in tune” with what its listenership seeks in terms of news, talk and sports.
DeGroot said that’s proven to be a winning combination for the station that touts itself as “Real. Local. Radio.” on 1150 AM, 103.5 FM and 106.3 FM.
Since its origins as an experiment on the St. Norbert College campus, first airing April 5, 1925 – DeGroot said WHBY has established itself as a solid source for Northeast Wisconsin news, talk radio and sports coverage.
“WHBY reaches throughout Northeast Wisconsin in a big radius that reaches out in a circle from Appleton,” he said. “If you’re in Northeast Wisconsin and hungry for news, talk and sports, WHBY has it for you, and you should be able to get it.”
Though the station started with a focus on music with some news and talk, Kelly Radandt – general manager and national sales manager, Woodward Community Media – said it has evolved over the decades to make news and talk radio its forte.
“WHBY has always had extremely strong ties to the community and has always been about that local connection and sharing information with our listeners,” she said. “Now, more than ever, people want to know what’s going on in their local communities.”
Radandt said she’s not the only one who thinks so.
Along the way, she said the radio station has earned multiple accolades from the Wisconsin Broadcaster Association for its news coverage, programming, social media presence and community impact.
The proof, Radandt said, is also in the listenership.
And though the station attracts a demographic that skews 35 and older, DeGroot said it’s increasingly pulling in a younger demographic with its ever-evolving content.
“Every news talk station is trying to capture a younger audience, us included,” he said. “When podcasting and blogging came along, there was a ‘freak out’ that radio was going to die. But we’re seeing a wraparound with that now as young listeners are looking for local content in news, talk and music. You can’t interact with a podcast that was recorded. And while it has its place, radio is fun. It’s the ‘OG’ influencers.”
Then and now
What started as WHBY – call letters and an acronym for Where Happy Boys Yodel, a nod to its music-oriented origins – DeGroot said, has evolved to become what former Radio Host Josh Dukelow revised to be “We’re Here Because of You.”
DeGroot and Radandt said that’s a spot-on assessment of the station’s purpose and goals.
“We’re here to serve the community that listens to us, the businesses that advertise with us and our internal stakeholders, as Woodward has been employee-owned since 1992,” Radandt said. “That’s unique within the media (industry), and it holds us accountable to each other.”
DeGroot said Woodward acquired the station in 1975, halfway into the station’s current 100-year history, and doubled down on the news, talk and sports focus amid a flurry of music stations.
WHBY, he said, resides within Woodward Community Media, a division of Woodward Communications, Inc., out of Dubuque, Iowa, that includes radio groups, TV stations, print publications and printing services.
Today, DeGroot said the station kicks off its weekday programming with AM Fox Valley with Dave Edwards – who is closing in on 15 years on the air with the station.
“He’s the most professional voice we have,” he said. “The idea is that when it’s the morning drive time, (listeners) get everything they need within a half hour: the latest headlines, business news, sports and traffic. We try to be hypersensitive to travelers in the a.m. and sprinkle in intriguing interviews.”
When 8:30 a.m. rolls around on weekdays, DeGroot said Ben Cominos welcomes listeners to Outside the Box, a program focused on conversations with guests and listeners on both sides of the political aisle, oriented to finding ways to unite and improve the community.
“There are so many things that separate us and are polarizing, and our approach is to offer engaging content and engaging conversations so that while you may not agree with the host, you leave the conversation with respect and feel like it was a good conversation,” he said.
Cominos is followed by Hayley Tenpas’ “Focus Fox Valley,” an interview-based segment that DeGroot said highlights what’s good in Northeast Wisconsin.
Tenpas, he said, hosts informative, fun and community-minded conversations that focus on the people and organizations that make the region what it is.
Like many of WHBY’s listeners, DeGroot said Tenpas grew up listening to the station and even calling in to the ever-popular “Good Neighbor” program hosted by Kathy Keene until her retirement.
“We’re lucky to have Hayley, as it wasn’t an easy spot to follow Kathy, as she was Google on the radio before Google (was around),” DeGroot said.
DeGroot said the station’s schedule also includes several other weekday programs oriented to business, investments and more – as well as hosting a variety of weekend programs the station tests to gauge interest.
These, he said, include a Sunday food and travel block that starts at noon, a syndicated show with a chef, a barbecue show and a lifestyle show.
In addition, DeGroot said there is an ongoing effort to offer local shows.
“We’re always exploring ways to offer local programming, as we haven’t forgotten people’s desire to be local and live,” he said.
DeGroot said WHBY is also the home of the Milwaukee Brewers, Milwaukee Bucks and Wisconsin Badgers sports.
Radandt said she is the first to acknowledge that offering a well-run news, talk radio and sports station is not inexpensive to do well.
The Appleton facility that houses WHBY, she said, also houses five other radio stations (four music and one other talk radio station) and Insight on Business and Insight on Manufacturing magazines – bringing the team onsite to 45-60 people.
Radandt said about 15 of those employees are significant contributors to WHBY.
“It’s not cheap to run, but we’ve made the commitment to provide news and info to our local communities, and WHBY has always been a well-staffed and well-informed radio station,” she said.
Celebrating a milestone
To commemorate 100 years of serving the community, DeGroot said WHBY hosted a kickoff event April 4 with Junior Achievement of Wisconsin at its Winnebago Area Community First Career Exploration and Financial Literacy Center on the Fox Valley Technical College campus.
The event, he said, welcomed several past hosts and other long-tenured employees to celebrate various stages along WHBY’s journey.
DeGroot said the celebration will continue throughout the year with broadcast features and digital content highlighting each year of the station’s history from 1925 to today, with team members splitting up the years’ achievements from a news coverage perspective.
Being responsible for the years 1930-34, DeGroot said the walk down memory lane provided him with additional insight and context on the station’s heritage, in addition to his lived experience during his 11-year career at the station.
“Those were some very busy years and fascinating to dive into, as it was a time of experimentation and learning,” he said.
DeGroot said he even uncovered a 1963 graduate school thesis from a student at the then-named University of Marquette about WHBY entitled, “WHBY: The Inception and Early History of ‘The Voice of the Fox River Valley.’”
He said it focused on the particular challenges WHBY and other radio stations faced in the 1930s.
In the thesis, DeGroot said the student wrote that the station can credit its sustainability to a group of individuals who worked as a closely-knit unit to achieve success through “dedication, loyalty and intense interest in their radio station and the listening public” – direct parallels to what rings true in 2025.
In addition, DeGroot said the WHBY team learned during that same timeframe that they needed to increase power and embrace ever-changing technologies to remain current.
“WHBY saw from other stations that they needed new, inventive ways to broadcast and form a lineup,” he said. “Things were coming so fast, which is not altogether different from today with so much changing from a technological standpoint and so much going on.”
Today, DeGroot said WHBY remains focused on its on-air programming, tapping into social media, websites and other digital offerings as enhancements to its core business model on air.
And yet, while technology evolves and programmatic aspects may change, DeGroot said WHBY’s fundamental focus on relationships with its listeners and communities and focus on news, talk and sports remain.
“We know from being part of the community that what’s being consumed is being consumed by neighbors and people we see at the grocery store,” he said. “It just comes back to the local and community.”
