101.5 FM marks 30 years of broadcasting

GILFORD — Dirk Nadon vividly remembers the conversation, sitting at the kitchen table with his stepfather and his business partner, making an impassioned case for the format of the radio station that they were about to launch in Meredith.

It was 30 years ago, and the business model was well established for a certain kind of radio station in the Lakes Region: Adult Contemporary, what some might call “easy listening.” Nadon prevailed, and the first song played on WMRQ 101.5 FM wasn’t something by The Carpenters, but was instead Boston’s “Long Time.”

Nadon marked the station’s 30th birthday on Nov. 16. It has been a storied three decades for 101.5 FM.

“At the time, it was the only rock station north of Manchester,” Nadon said. "There were four or five stations all doing the same thing.” A rock format was a “big risk,” he said. “You didn’t know how the ad community was going to respond.”

But he had a strong sense that he knew how listeners – especially the younger ones – would. To many of them, WMRQ was like an answer to a prayer. The only other way to hear rock radio was to tune in to WGIR out of Manchester – if they could even get the signal. Soon, WMRQ rose to the top of the local ratings, and the advertisers followed.

Their success went as quickly as it came, though. Nadon’s stepfather, Bill Forbes, was diagnosed with emphysema in his mid-40s and given a dire prognosis. He died just a few years later, and Nadon’s grief was doubled when the banking crisis of the mid-90s brought down the local economy, forcing him to lose the station.

That wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. Nadon thought the world of radio, and his stepfather, and the station was going to be their project.

“He had every intention of this being something we do together and do long-term,” Nadon said. “When we lost the business, I’ve been trying to get it back all these years.”

In the meantime, Nadon continued his radio career in Boston. He became program director of WCGY, owned by legendary sportscaster Curt Gowdy, which evolved into WEEI. And along the way, he never stopped thinking about the signal in the Lakes Region.

“I just kept throwing stuff at the wall and trying to make it stick,” Nadon said. Finally, last summer, one of the deals that he cobbled together stuck, and last year, about 20 years after losing the station, Nadon was able to buy WZEI 101.5, which is now broadcasting the WEEI programming. He also bought 104.9 FM, The Hawk, which is carrying the rock flag.

For Nadon, buying back the stations is more personal than business. But he’s spent the months since he bought it shoring up the business, evaluating leases and long-term relationships to better position the stations.

It was easier to make a buck in radio in the 1980s than it is today, Nadon said. But he’s also wiser and more experienced. Today, listeners have far more options than they did 30 years ago. So he seeks to provide something they can’t from podcasts or music streaming services: a connection to their community.

The Boston sports programming on WZEI is punctuated by updates from local high school athletics. He also finds time to promote local happenings on The Hawk.

“In these small towns, being local matters. Local sports matter, the children’s auction matters, even turning on the microphone and talking about a church bake sale matters,” he said.

That’s something that Nadon learned from his step-father and from his mother, Peggy Forbes, who taught first grade in Laconia for more than 30 years. They were both connected to their community, and he sees radio as another way to do just that.

“It seemed like yesterday that we turned that station on, and we were very proud of it,” Nadon said. “Those two people had a great effect in this community. This is just my way to commemorate them.”