Traverse City radio hosts Ron Jolly and Colleen Wares retire after 40 years

Traverse City woke up to the end of an era Friday as Ron Jolly and Colleen Wares signed off WTCM after more than 40 years at the station. Their final broadcast ran from 7 to 10 a.m., closing out one of Northern Michigan’s longest-running radio partnerships and ending a familiar morning presence for listeners across Grand Traverse County.

The retirement had been announced in January, but the scale of it landed in the final hours of their show. Jolly and Wares had spent 12 years on the air together, but their ties to WTCM stretched much farther back. Wares joined the station in 1979, left in 1983, returned in 1986 and later rejoined Jolly on the show around 2014. Jolly began hosting morning drive on WTCM in November 1994, and the Michigan Association of Broadcasters has described him as the longest-running host of a radio show in Northern Michigan.

WTCM says it is Traverse City’s first radio station, broadcasting since January 8, 1941. The station added its news-talk format on January 8, 1991, and Midwestern Broadcasting says its station group covers all of Northern Michigan. For years, Jolly and Wares helped carry that local identity through weekday mornings, when commuters, school-bound families and early risers depended on the station’s steady mix of local news, information and conversation.

The farewell did not end with the last break on air. An aftershow event for listeners was planned from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Middle Coast Brewery in Traverse City, giving longtime fans a place to say goodbye in person. The public response underscored how deeply the pair had become part of the region’s daily rhythm, not just as broadcasters but as a recognizable voice of morning life in Traverse City and beyond.

With their departure, WTCM keeps its place in Northern Michigan radio history, but one of its most familiar chapters is now over.