NEENAH (WLUK) — The radio station WNAM, with roots in Neenah and Menasha, will sign off for the last time Dec. 31.
It marks the end of the Fox Valley mainstay, which got its start 78 years ago.
Cumulus, the owner of the station, made the announcement Wednesday, saying in part, “This difficult decision comes in response to evolving listener habits and economic realities that have reshaped the media landscape.”
The Neenah Historical Society has archived much of WNAM’s history, including its beginning.
“Sam Pickard is mostly associated with the National Manufacturer’s Bank that was in downtown Neenah. However, after a bank meeting, he had the idea of bringing a radio station to Neenah,” Museum Coordinator and Archivist Miranda Ridener told FOX 11.
The station first signed on the air in May 1947 at its building along South Commercial Street. The NAM in its name stands for Neenah and Menasha.
As time went on, the station grew larger, even having a brief stint in television in 1954.
A newspaper clipping announcing the start of WNAM-TV in 1954. December 18, 2025. (WLUK/Austin Roth)
“Less than a year. I think the first production was in January, and it was before December that Sam Pickard and, at the time, Don Worth, the manager, decided it wasn’t lucrative for them,” Ridener said of the TV broadcasts.
WNAM had deep ties to the community, even assembling a cookbook of listeners’ favorite recipes.
Some recipes within the WNAM cookbook. December 18, 2025. (WLUK/Austin Roth)
In the 90s, WNAM moved south along I-41 to its current home in Oshkosh.
The station also began broadcasting Wisconsin Timber Rattler games in 2009.
“It’s a shame, but I understand why they made that decision, and the relationship’s not going anywhere,” said Chris Mehring, the voice of the Timber Rattlers on WNAM. “Because we’re going to stay with Cumulus and move over to WOSH.”
With the station’s deep history coming to a close at the end of this year, Ridener shared a quote from founder Sam Pickard on the first broadcast.
When WNAM was conceived and organized, the principal idea was to offer Neenah and Menasha, as well as our many friends and neighbors in the surrounding communities, a first-class service from a station owned and operated by local people, having the interest and welfare of the whole Fox River Valley in mind.
You can listen to WNAM 1280 AM until Dec. 31 at midnight.