Our History
WLMN 84.7 has been transmitting from this stretch of coastline longer than most residents can trace in their own family histories. The station's founding records were lost in the fire of 1923, but oral history places the first broadcast sometime in the early part of the last century — a voice reading weather reports and tide conditions to fishing crews who were too far out to see the shore.
The frequency was chosen deliberately. 84.7 reaches where other signals don't. On clear nights it can be received more than two hundred miles offshore. On certain atmospheric conditions — which the old engineers called "open water" — the range is considerably further. The station's engineers have never fully explained this. They stopped trying in the 1950s and simply kept transmitting.
"We don't ask who's listening. We trust that whoever the signal reaches is exactly who it was meant to reach."
— Jan Aldric, Station Director, WLMN 84.7
The Founding Family
The Aldric family has been associated with WLMN since its earliest days, though the connection predates the station itself. The family settled on this coastline following the great storm of 1847, which drove three vessels onto the rocks in a single night. It was the Aldric matriarch — her first name has been lost to record — who kept the lantern burning through all three nights of the storm, long after the lighthouse keeper had retreated inland.
She lit the lantern not because she wanted to be seen, but because she understood something the official keepers had forgotten: the darkness does not consume light. It returns it. Everything you send outward comes back to you, changed only slightly by the distance it has traveled. She kept the flame because she knew the sea would send it back to the ships that needed it.
Her descendants have operated businesses on this coast ever since — the chandlery, the marine supply, the motel. And one of them, eventually, took over the radio station. The frequency changed. The principle didn't.
We have been asked, over the years, what the station's founding philosophy is. The answer is the same as it has always been, and it is a question we have never fully answered: what is the word for what the world does with what you give it?
Our Team
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Jan Aldric
Station Director & Morning Host
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Cass Merrow
Afternoon Drive Host
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Dr. A. Voss
Archive Hour — Tuesdays & Sundays
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R. Aldric
Evening Signal Host
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Margot Cole
Lantern Hour — Saturdays
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Cal Morrow
Harbour Frequency — Sat. nights
Signal Reach
WLMN 84.7 broadcasts at 4.7 kilowatts from an antenna located on the north headland, elevation 312 feet above sea level. The transmitter has been in continuous operation since 1961, replacing the original equipment which ran from the station's founding until the fire. Our signal is receivable across the full coastal region and, on clear nights, well beyond.
We do not maintain a social media presence. We have found that those who are meant to find the frequency do so without being told where to look.