Country 107.7 FM Hits The Airwaves

Steinbach's newest radio station hit the airwaves Thursday morning at 9am.

Golden West launched Country 107.7 FM, adding to its existing Steinbach stations, AM 1250 and MIX 96.7 FM. President Lyndon Friesen says a third radio station will thrive in Steinbach. He says people have a lot of different tastes in music and there's a lot of different formats, especially now in the digital age where you can pick up music anywhere you want.

"What you can't pick up is what fits between the songs," he says. "And that's some really good local people, highly talented, I think that will entertain us and inform us and besides that there's going to be the local information that is Golden West's signature. And so we're going to be able to do that within a country format. Every time we get a chance to add another way to reach the community, we think it's pretty good."

Steinbach Mayor Chris Goertzen pushed the button to officially launch the 41st radio station by Golden West.

"As Steinbach, we're very lucky to have radio stations like this new country radio station, like our other radio stations," says Goertzen. "We're very luck to have them, they tell our story, they tell the whole region's story and that's really what makes our city prosper and it's one of the important parts of making us grow."

Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen, who was also on hand for Thursday morning's launch says a third station will benefit the community in many different ways.

"Obviously it provides entertainment through the radio, you get information out," he says. "But there's a really positive feel, the kind of positive stories that happen through the radio stations is a lot of good community events and good community things that happen through the radio stations, through Golden West and in this area. So it really does help the community an awful lot and we're really blessed and lucky to have that."

"This really is a special day for us," says station manager Crystal Hildebrandt. "It's true what they say, it takes a village to launch a radio station."