The City of Evanston is about to make waves — radio waves, that is.

A city-operated radio station on 1690 AM is slated to kick off in July, said Tom Janetske, a city firefighter and the assistant director of emergency management.

Located at the city’s emergency operations center, which has a five-mile listening radius, the station will play a continuous loop of information about street closures, city events and emergency updates or instructions.

“We’re hoping that people will tune in, maybe once a day, to see if there are any changes in activity, any special announcements that the city has put out,” Janetske said.

The radio station has been created in response to community need for emergency information, said Donna Stuckert, Evanston’s Community Information Coordinator.

“It’s something that had been talked about for a long time,” she said, “because we did have this void in reaching our residents with immediacy.”

Stuckert cited the Nicor natural gas outage, which left about 450 homes and businesses in Evanston and Wilmette without heat for days in January, as an example of the need for a station.

“We needed to tell residents what exactly was going on, and we couldn’t get to them, ” she said. “We need a medium so that residents can know immediately what steps to take, and what steps the city’s taking. And in the process, we’ll be able to give them timely information.”

Radio information will include community announcements when not needed for emergencies. The station will be staffed by Stuckert and several other staff members responsible for public service announcements, Stuckert said.

Residents can contact the City Manager’s office at 847-866-2936 for more information.