In his five years as an editorial assistant covering cops and courts Mike Weland, owner and founder of 9B News, found his calling in life. He came to Bonners Ferry in 1991 to become a reporter at the Bonners Ferry Herald, hoping to work a couple of years, build a clip file and return to work at a daily somewhere. He didn’t much care for the Hagadone empire, which owned the Herald, but he found he loved the community. Born a military brat in Germany and moving a time or two each year until dad retired at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, as Mike was going into high school, Bonners Ferry was the first place that ever felt like home. He found he couldn’t leave, despite a few good offers.
After two years at the Herald, he jumped the street and went to work for the Kootenai Valleys Times, leaving shortly before the times shut its doors to work for Pete Wilson as manager and newsman for KBFI Radio. After a few years, Pete decided to retire and sold the station to Blue Sky Broadcasting, Sandpoint, and Mike helped through KBFI’s transition from a quirky little community station there to act as a communications lifeline whenever an emergency arose to an automated talk station with a scant couple hours of local programming each week.