We’re a close-knit family at WETS-FM/HD, and we tend to stay with the station a long time. With a staff of only ten full time and three part time employees, our combined experience at the station is over 225 years. So it’s not only difficult to say goodbye to a colleague – it’s very rare!

At the end of June, we said goodbye to Executive Aide Sandy Trivett. With only five years at WETS, Sandy was still “the new person” on the staff. But she made a big difference while she was here.

As if we didn’t have enough to keep us busy – on November 3rd, while correcting a problem, our engineers re-booted the computer that runs ENCO, the main operating system for WETS-FM and its new HD radio channels. Almost immediately, we started getting calls from listeners who told us they could no longer pick up our music channels, WETS-HD 2 and WETS-HD3. However, the station staff had no trouble picking up all three HD signals on the HD radios in our homes and vehicles. What was going on here?

If you have an HD radio in your home, car, or office, you may have heard our new HD signals. We now offer three HD signals in addition to our regular analog signal.  And if you were disappointed last year when we dropped most of our music programming, you’ll be pleased to know that two of those signals are devoted exclusively to music.

Dear WETS-FM supporter,

The WETS-FM spring fundraiser begins tomorrow. I’m asking you to make a pledge to help get the drive off to a good start. You can call 888-89-5- WETS tomorrow after 7 am – or you can pledge online – now or anytime:

Due to several requests made during our fall fundraiser, we are considering re-broadcasting Fresh Air (currently heard at 12 noon) at 7:00 pm. Until last February, Fresh Air had aired at 7:00, and many listeners found that a better time to hear the program.

The WETS-FM homepage has a poll; you can vote on whether you’d like to hear Fresh Air or All Things Considered during that hour. The 7 pm airing would be a re-broadcast of the show heard at 12 noon.

There’s a lot of noise out there, isn’t there? All day, every day, countless advertisers, self-proclaimed pundits, and questionable sounds and lyrics clamor for our attention. Yet, when you tune in to WETS-FM, you tune out the noise. That’s where you consistently find information and entertainment that respects your intelligence and your tastes.

Not that you’d know if from listening, but we’ve been operating for a few hours this past week on our new transmitter. We’re wrapping up a project that began last fall – the installation of a new transmitter, along with the expansion of our transmitter building on Holston Mountain. ETSU contributed over $58,000 to the cost of this project; the rest was paid for with listener contributions.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated in our Spring 2010 Fundraising Campaign. When the drive ended on Friday, 16 April, we had about $185,000 pledged to support WETS-FM in the coming year.

We plan to upgrade our listener database and make it simpler and quicker for us to send reminders. With our current system, we often take several weeks to generate reminders.; We hope to speed that process up before the next drive in the fall, but in the meantime, if you’d like to go ahead and send your check, our address is:

WETS-FM
Box 70630
Johnson City, TN 37614

You’ve long been able to count on WETS-FM for NPR news from Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Now you can hear news and information throughout the day, with five news, information, and talk programs Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. You’ll hear more insightful reporting and expert analysis to deepen your understanding of world and national events and thought-provoking conversations about the stories and topics that are important to you.