New radio station hits coastal airwaves

January 18, 2024 2

“Have a fine day and a Weller night.”

That’s the slogan Jim Weller has been using on the radio for four decades. It was the inspiration for 102.3 Fine Day Radio, the newest FM station that reaches the Delaware beaches.

Weller owns Fine Day Radio, call letters WNJD, along with Colin Walls. Walls also owns TV Delmarva, Channel 14, based in Georgetown.

The pair bought the station last March. It hit the airwaves Sept. 21. Even though they do not play a lot of music, they say it has taken a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get on the air.

“We didn’t know how much work it would be,” Weller said.

“We basically bought a radio station with no equipment but a transmitter and antenna,” Walls said.

It even took some work to get the station’s call letters, WNJD.

“The Coast Guard actually owned the call letters. So we had to request [they] release them to us. They did, and allowed us to have them,” Walls said.

Fine Day Radio’s transmitter is in Wildwood, N.J. Like the ferry, the signal travels across Delaware Bay. Listeners can also tune in on the station’s app.

The station is not the only radio signal that reaches resort areas in both states, but Weller and Walls have a plan to make it a selling point.

“Our advertisers win,” Weller said. “They’re getting the benefit of local advertising, but they’re getting people who had a family member move here, potentially move here or vacation here.”

Right now, Fine Day Radio’s programming comprises mostly conservative talk shows, including Dan Bongino and Hugh Hewitt.

Weller does his local talk show Wednesdays at 10 a.m. from his utility trailer business in Bridgeville, which is on the far end of the signal’s reach. He does a Saturday morning show from the Milford Diner. The shows are simulcast on TV Delmarva.

On a typical show, he might talk with a local business owner, community leader or even his wife, Denise, about their Christmas presents.

Local TV Delmarva meteorologist Hunter Outten provides weather forecasts on the station.

The “Doo Wop Stop” 1950s music show, hosted by Bob Backman, founder and former owner of WRDE-TV, airs on Saturday nights.

The new owners plan to expand local programming, which might include hosts on both sides of the bay.

Weller and Walls are also hiring account executives in both states.

They sky is the limit when it comes to future growth for the fledgling outlet.

“We don’t have a board. We’re just two guys,” Weller said. “If we want to buy another radio station, it’s just a matter of doing it.”

While they get Fine Day Radio on its feet, they are content with focusing on providing customer service that larger companies cannot offer.

“The other stations are a business. We’re a business developing relationships,” Weller said. “This is not a job to us. We’re not going to lose our job based on how many ads we sell. We’re police and church friendly, community-minded.”

“We had somebody sign up and donate the ad time to Beebe Healthcare,” Walls said.

Both Weller and Walls have backgrounds working with what is on the road, not on the air.

Walls owns the auto service center that his family opened in Milford in 1958.

“Jim and I started streaming Dan Gaffney’s radio show on Fridays. Then, we started doing other events. It just grew from there,” Walls said. “Then, I bought a TV production truck.”

He uses his technical knowledge to do the hands-on engineering that keeps Fine Day Radio on the air.

Weller started working at May-Pop Tires in Lincoln when he was just 9 years old.

“At 16 years old, I bought the business. I started radio advertising at 17, 18 years old,” Weller said.

Now, they own a radio station that has shown up to a crowded party. But they say they’ve had a lot of support from people in the radio business.

“Jeff Twilley and Bill Sammons from The Bridge have been a huge help,” Walls said. “People have reached out to us and said, ‘Anything we can do to help you.’”

Even though they have put in a lot of driving and ferry rides to Wildwood, Weller and Walls said the days have been fine.

“We’re overwhelmed, but we’re having fun with it,” Weller said.