“Our broadcast day has a blend of conservative Christian music and programming,” said station manager Andy Larsen. “We have a wide variety of programs including many teaching / preaching programs, children’s programming, and programs that focus on news and current events.”

Gospel Opportunities Radio provides coverage to almost the entire U.P. thanks to its many stations.

“WHWL is our main station in Marquette, which covers the central U.P.,” said Larsen. “We also operate four smaller stations and eight translators, all simulcast with WHWL, that cover most of the Upper Peninsula from Ironwood to Houghton to Escanaba to Sault Ste. Marie, and even into northern Lower Michigan with a translator in Mackinaw City.”

Over the course of its many decades on the air, Gospel Opportunities Radio has acquired many loyal listeners.

Beth Larsen, board member and part-time announcer for Gospel Opportunities Radio, is seen working in the station's control room. (Photo courtesy of Andy Larsen)

“We hear from people across the Upper Peninsula, northern Wisconsin, the Soo,

Canada area and into northern Lower Michigan who say WHWL is the only station they listen to and it’s on all the time,” said Larsen. “We are also listener-supported, and have hundreds of people who regularly support the ministry.”

“The biggest change over the past 50 years has been technology. When we first signed on, everything was put on the air live. If a song or a program went on the air, someone had to be in the studio to do that. This required staffing 18 hours a day, and we signed off from midnight to 5:45 a.m. Programs arrived on reel-to-reel tapes that had to be mailed back after airing. Now programming is fed in advance via the Internet and ingested into the automation mostly automatically. Music is stored on hard drive rather than physical media and scheduled with computer software, so large segments of the broadcast day can be set up in advance, allowing for less staffing hours.

What hasn’t changed is our commitment to air music and programming that points listeners to Jesus Christ and encourages listeners in their faith.”

Gospel Opportunities Radio is currently located in Chocolay Township, where its office has resided since 1985. However, their first nine and a half years in operation were spent in the space above the Mining Journal on Washington Street. That is only one example of one of the many ways that the station has grown and changed over the decades.

“We did a lot of expansion in the 1990s under former manager Curt Marker,” said Larsen. “Two additional stations and ten translators were built that helped to give us much better coverage in outlying areas. Two of these translators were replaced by full stations in the past five years.”

Gospel Opportunities Radio will be celebrating its 50th anniversary with a banquet on April 21 at the Northern Center on the Northern Michigan University campus. More information about this event or about the station can be found by calling 906-249-1423 or by visiting the Gospel Opportunities Radio website at whwl.net.

Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.