Dennis Drew, WRFA founder and general manager.

Dennis Drew, founder of WRFA 107.9 FM in Jamestown, announced he is retiring from the radio station this month.

“Managing WRFA has been a dream come true,” Drew said in a news release. “I love radio and I love performing.”

A love for radio and performing were instilled in Drew at a young age. He started a middle school intercom show in 1971 before moving to a half hour show on WJTN in his teens. While a student at Jamestown Community College, Drew and childhood friend Steve Gustafson created the school’s low power station WJWK, advised by Tomassini. A weekend gig at WNAE in Warren, Pa., followed.

Gustafson and Drew went on to form musical group 10,000 Maniacs and continue to record and tour in the United States.

WRFA — a low-power community radio station — first went to the airwaves in 2004. Drew and engineer Ed Tomassini brought the radio station to life at Arts Council for Chautauqua County with a Federal Communications Commission application, matching grant from the Sheldon Foundation, and a dedicated group of private donors. The Arts Council’s Phillip Morris and Keith Schmidt were integral in encouraging the endeavor and finding the call letters respectively.

Drew continued building WRFA, bringing on former WWSE and WJTN employee Steve Shulman as program director, then area journalist and historian Jason Sample as public affairs director. Shulman retired in 2019 and Sample will succeed Drew as general manager.

“It’s been an absolute pleasure to work alongside Dennis during the past decade. He’s been a great mentor and friend to me over the years, providing invaluable advice and direction during my role as public affairs director,” Sample said. ” I look forward to continuing to keep community radio alive and well in Jamestown through WRFA, especially since I know that Dennis will offer any help or guidance I may need, even during his well-deserved retirement as GM. On behalf of past and present WRFA staff, volunteers, and Community Advisory Board members, I say ‘Thank you, Dennis and congratulations!'”

Under his guidance, WRFA has hosted numerous volunteer-created radio programs such as The Swedish Hour and Rolling Hills Radio. Original programs such as Small Things Considered, Community Matters and Arts on Fire continue to this day. He nurtured a relationship with Jamestown Public Schools – providing classroom instruction in radio journalism, Youth Apprenticeship program and Hispanic Youth Radio at WRFA, and after-school activities at the East Side YMCA and Boys and Girls Club. Drew was also integral in the creation of the station’s new studios as part of Reg Lenna Center for The Arts’ 2018 renovations as well as the Center’s Media Arts Studio.

Drew thanks the staff and board members of Arts Council for Chautauqua County and Reg Lenna Center for The Arts, the WRFA Community Advisory Board, Lee Stein and the countless private donors, Joe Johnson and the Lenna Foundation, John Merino, the Gebbie Foundation, the Sheldon, Hultquist and Chautauqua Regional Community Foundation and his family for their support over the past decade and a half.

He will continue with WRFA as a volunteer for on-air programming and as an administrative resource.

WRFA is a program of Reg Lenna Center for The Arts and is made possible by support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.