Country Radio Station Opens Auburn Studio

Article by Dave Kurtz | KPC News | September 17, 2019

AUBURN — Radio host Jeff DeWeese said he’s happy to be back in Auburn.

DeWeese sat in his on-the-air chair Monday, posing for photos after a ribbon-cutting ceremony opened the new Real County 106.7 studio inside the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum.

DeWeese will broadcast from 6-10 a.m.. returning to the city where he previously worked for a station known as Froggy 106.7.

“I was excited for a number of reasons,” DeWeese said about the studio opening. “I worked at Froggy, so that was nice, because I’m going to be back on the same signal again.”

DeWeese said he believes Auburn listeners were disappointed when Froggy left town several years ago.

DeWeese has worked in northeast Indiana for nearly all of his 45-year radio career, starting in the era of reel-to-reel tape recorders and turntables.

He broadcast for Fort Wayne’s first country-music stations, the long-forgotten WFRW and WCMX, before moving to WLYV, which played country tunes at the time.

“I like many different genres of music,” he said. “There’s an old-school country that we play here … but I like the new stuff, too.”

In his show, he said, “I talk a lot about the artists we play. There’s great heritage.”

Meeting Fort Wayne’s legendary broadcasters Jack Underwood and Bob Sievers inspired his career choice, DeWeese said. They were members of the same Lions Club as his father.

“I got infatuated with the business early on,” he said. “By the time I was 13, some friends and I put a radio station on in their basement, and we were broadcasting throughout the neighborhood.”

DeWeese jumped at the chance to work at a Pittsburgh radio station at age 19 and has been behind a microphone ever since.

He joined Swick Broadcasting Co. of Angola in 2014, and the company launched Real Country 106.7 on Memorial Day 2018. Until now, it operated from a studio in Angola.

“I was excited by the idea that we were bringing a radio station back to Auburn — actually, physically going to be here. I though that was a very good thing for this area,” DeWeese said.

He added, “Being involved in the community is very important for me as a personality, but also for the radio station.”

Article source: https://www.kpcnews.com/thestar/article_6a1e8071-c681-5717-b62f-b76bc4e6c1cd.html