ALL DECKED OUT. Blugold Radio station manager Scott Morfitt (right) works the dials while social media manager Jordan Duroe thoroughly enjoys himself. The new station can be heard at 99.9FM.

In the middle of a cornfield near the intersection of county highways 64 and 40 just north of Bloomer sits a small hut. Inside, there are air conditioners, transmitter boxes, and a whole bunch of radio wizardry this writer couldn’t even begin to explain. Shooting up into the sky is an antenna, and shooting out of that antenna are waves of freshly launched, local and national indie rock.

The station in question is Blugold Radio 99.9FM, a new Chippewa Valley radio presence dedicated to spinning local music of all kinds to the rapidly growing niche of local people yearning for it.

“We’re really trying to tell the tale of local music and contextualize it with the national music that surrounds it.” – Blugold Radio station manager Scott Morfitt

Heading up the new station is Scott Morfitt, whose distinct, gravelly voice was made for college radio. Morfitt, 35, has been doing different forms of radio and broadcast for a long, long time and served as the station manager for WUEC, a UW-Eau Claire-driven arm of Wisconsin Public Radio. Now Morfitt and his tight-knit crew of producers is pumping local tunes into Chippewa Valley airwaves, and it’s only just begun.

“They say crawl and walk; don’t run. So really we’ll start pretty small,” Morfitt said. “But it’s a unique opportunity for students and the community in general.”

The station is possible because of a generous donation from Midwest Family Broadcasting. They had the option of selling the station, but instead gifted it to the UW-Eau Claire Foundation, which quickly turned around the station into a working and operating indie machine. The signal, the frequency, and everything that makes this station a station was donated.

Blugold Radio is commercial-free as well, with minor underwriting as a revenue generator. The staff is currently made up of just four people – producers and UWEC students Kaynen Harris and Kiri Salinas, social media guru Jordan Duroe, and Morfitt himself – all operating out of an office in Hibbard Hall on the UWEC campus.

And though the station is still in its “crawl” phase, there are significant plans at work here. Morfitt said the intention is to eventually move from the mostly automated station format to a more host-driven atmosphere. We’re talking more spoken word content, interviews, recordings, written segments, and collaborations with other community entities. And being that the station is student-driven and student-focused – although the organization doesn’t receive funds from tuition or student segregated fees – Blugold Radio wants to employ Blugolds to foster and shape this radio station into something that is completely self-sustaining in the near future.

“We’re going to slowly build up so we’re doing more student productions, recording speeches on campus, recording stuff with the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild right away … those could turn into five- to six-minute pieces that will go into the playlist,” Morfitt said.

Through social media and word of mouth, the station is already making waves with a playlist that puts the likes of locals Idle Empress and Sayth back-to-back with national artists like MGMT and The Flaming Lips.

“We’re really trying to tell the tale of local music and contextualize it with the national music that surrounds it,” Morfitt said. “Our scene is so strong because there’s so many diverse influences. The way we’ll be playlisting will showcase local music on its own, but it’ll also sit very strongly next to national music acts. It’ll help people really appreciate what our scene is in relation to the national indie scene.”

For now, locals can bask in the glow of a legitimate indie station beaming over the radio waves of the Valley. But already the station is starting to grow:  24/7 Internet streaming will begin Aug. 1 at blugoldradio.org, and the station will soon be getting its own office at UWEC. They might be crawling now, but with a little steam, this could turn into something truly magical once it starts running.

Find the station on Facebook.