Using radio to make a difference

LACONIA – When Dirk Nadon was in ninth grade geometry class at Gilford Middle High School, he was called out of class and told to go to the office. Once there, he was informed that a local radio station was having some technical problems and their engineer was out of town. Thus, they called in Nadon to lend a hand. He remembers, “The Gilford Police picked me up from school and brought me to the radio station. I did the best I could to help, and it was the greatest ‘on the job training’ anyone could ask for.”

Nadon was not chosen randomly but rather due to his background and experience in radio and engineering, even at that young age.

He got interested in radio in the late 1970s during an Elks Club annual charity carnival in Laconia. “I loved it,” Nadon said. “My grandfather, Bill Nadon, ran the ‘Beat the Dealer’ booth at the carnival and I hung around with him there. I loved the food, the rides and the fun. One night, the local radio station was broadcasting live from the carnival near the Jaycees Dunking Booth. I listened to the radio announcer and later struck up a conversation with the guy.”

The next thing Nadon knew, he was touring the radio station and got a part-time job there. “Like the carnival, I loved radio. The rest is history,” he said.

After moving to Boston to work in radio, Nadon and his stepfather, Bill Forbes, had an idea to own a station in the Lakes Region. They envisioned doing it together and the chance came when the Federal Communication Commission opened up new licenses for radio stations in the late 1980s. They got a license for Meredith and were awarded the permit in 1988. The station, 101.5 FM became the first rock ’n roll station north of Manchester, and they called it WMRQ-FM.

Unfortunately, due to a downturn in the economy, Bill Nadon eventually sold the station and Dirk went back to working in radio in southern New Hampshire and Boston.

However, owning a radio station was in Nadon’s blood and he finally picked up two stations: 104.9 The Hawk and what is now Lakes 101.5 FM. Nadon’s employee team at Lakes Media (the name of the company) is humbled and proud to have accomplished a lot: The Hawk won gold for best radio station in The Daily Sun’s annual Best of the Lakes Region for five consecutive years. This year sister station Lakes 101.5 FM was the gold winner with The Hawk getting the silver medal. The stations are a powerful combination.

Lakes Media is located within the Belknap Marketplace (formerly the Belknap Mall) in Belmont. It might seem an unusual place for a radio station, but it works well. Each DJ doing their shift can be seen broadcasting through the window facing into the mall.

Nadon said, “Before the move, we were operating from two locations: one in Concord and another in the old barn building at Village West in Gilford. The move to the Belknap Marketplace was purely luck. Word got out that I was looking for a new location to put the business into one place. When we arrived at the Marketplace it was largely empty. Today, it is mostly full and due to ongoing improvements made by the new owner, Vernet Properties, signs point to the Marketplace being at capacity and we love being in the middle of all the action.”

Community involvement is what Nadon is about and that is reflected in Lakes 101.5 FM.

“The audience was looking for soft rock and very local information, which had not happened in the area for decades. We took a chance and did it and it worked,” he said.

The business philosophy of Nadon’s stations is simple. “Show up, help out, build a team of like-minded people, entertain and inform. If you do that, you will have a great business that audiences want and need. My dad used to say to me, ‘Dirk, make a difference.’ In just seven short years, we think we have done that with 104.9 the Hawk and Lakes FM 101.5.”

Lakes Media also owns Mountain Country 97.3 “north of the Notch” in Lancaster, Littleton and Gorham.

Nadon said, “We are also in the process of acquiring WASR-AM and FM in Wolfeboro. The story about Lakes Media purchasing WASR AM and FM has been mentioned in Media Trade magazines because the FCC releases the headlines of these acquisitions as part of their public notice program. But, until we complete the transaction with WASR AM and FM, which is projected to occur sometime in August, we’re not prepared to talk publicly about our plans.”

From that fateful day when he was taken out of class in ninth grade to help at a radio station to today, with thriving radio stations and a dedication to community service, Nadon said, “I could work for a lifetime using the immense power of my radio stations to ‘do good’, build a successful business and simply care about what happens here, but it would only scratch the surface of what my parents and grandparents accomplished before me. My mom, Peggy Forbes, was a first grade teacher at Batchelder Street School and later Woodland Heights. There are many stories from young people who my mom helped, and my father, grandfather and stepfather contributed a lot as well.

“My plans are to be here; I was born in Laconia, and I live and work here. This is home to me.”