The popular deejay Jess Phaneuf will return to Island radio station WMVY late this month, with both on-air and off-air duties and a new title of music director. Ms. Phaneuf will begin work on Jan. 29, but was back on the Island this past weekend to celebrate the long career of Barbara Dacey at a party held at the Portugese American Club in Oak Bluffs.

Ms. Dacey is leaving the station after 32 years on the air.

“She is the heart of the station and always will be,” Ms. Phaneuf said, speaking to the Gazette by phone Tuesday between her on-air duties at WUMB in Boston, where she has worked as a deejay for the past two years. Prior to that she worked at WMVY from 2008 to 2015, both as a deejay and the station’s promotions director.

In addition to working at WUMB, Ms. Phaneuf worked part time at Club Passim in Cambridge, helping with promotion and producing a regular concert series.

Ms. Dacey is leaving station after 32 years on the air.

Peter Simon

Ms. Dacey is leaving station after 32 years on the air.

Peter Simon

“Last summer I helped put on 40 free outdoor concerts in four different outdoor locations,” she said. “It was jumping in the deep end of the pool and I gained so many tools. And when things went wrong, that was when I learned the most.”

A large part of her job at WMVY will be using this new tool set, helping to expand the station’s summer porch series at the Harbor View Hotel, among other events to be planned. Currently, she is producing a four-day Celtic music festival at Club Passim and The Sinclair for Jan. 18 to 21.

“It’s the last thing I will do before I go,” she said.

She said coming back to WMVY and to the Vineyard did take some soul searching, but as soon as she made up her mind, the excitement began to grow and continues to do so.

“To return to MVY, which I love so much and put in seven years with, to return in a leadership role, I couldn’t pass that up,” Ms. Phaneuf said.

Plus there are the beaches.

“It’s busy in Boston too in the summer, but on the Vineyard, when I have 20 minutes of free time I can go to the beach. I didn’t have that in Boston. I was running around without my vitamin D.”

Meanwhile, Saturday evening may have been frigid outside, but inside the P.A. Club the scene was warm and appreciative as friends and fans paid tribute to Ms. Dacey, who retired after 32 years at the station.

“No one can replace her,” Ms. Phaneuf said.