With an upcoming radio campaign and new banners on Main Street, town officials are hoping that visitors will stop by and see that Wareham is a year-round destination.

"We're not just your summer home anymore," says Salvador Pina, director of the town's Community and Economic Development Authority, referring to the Native American "nepinnae kekit" written on the town seal, which means "summer home."

If you listen to Fairhaven-based Fun 107 FM, you'll soon hear a campaign telling listeners just that, and inviting people to "live, work, and play" in town, beginning with this Friday's Main Street Madness event, hosted by the Wareham Village Association and Main Street businesses.

"It starts to build momentum among the business community," Pina said of the campaign. "My job is to create a viable community. … I wanted to use this opportunity to invite people to invest in the community" year-round, rather than just in the summertime.

“I would like the businesses to know that we recognize that while the [Streetscape] construction is intended to help them in the long run by beautifying the area, we recognize that during construction it's had a adverse effect, and we want to help," Pina continued.

The first advertisement references the beautification project, which it says helped make Main Street more pedestrian-friendly.

"Much has changed in the past year or two," the advertisement says. In the coming years, the ad continues, "even more will change as Wareham embraces the appeal of Main Street America and its charm."

The five-week radio campaign will promote other upcoming events in future ads. Additionally, Fun 107 plans to broadcast live from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. during Main Street Madness this Friday, from the Onset Blues Festival on August 3, and possibly during other summer events.

"We need to connect the dots" between Wareham's three "main streets," Pina says: Main Street in downtown Wareham, Onset Avenue and Onset Village, and Cranberry Highway in East Wareham.

Pina said he hopes that reaching out to people who live in neighboring cities and towns will help "bring attention to the Wareham community and bring customers to the community."

The radio campaign is just one way to do that, Pina says, noting that he'll assess its effectiveness after the five weeks and determine whether to allocate more funding to such advertising. He has up to $8,500 in grant funding to spend for the first run.

The streetlights on Main Street will also soon be promoting the "live, work, play" philosophy. Pina has ordered banners for each of the new streetlight poles that were constructed during the recent "Streetscape" project.

The banners, which are blue with a swan graphic, welcome residents and visitors to Wareham and read, "Live, Work, Play." Pina said he hopes to have banners made for each season.