Josh Talks About F.M. Upgrade and Towpath Radio Future

Good morning, afternoon, or evening, depending on when you’re seeing this!

We’ve had a ton of great questions and comments about the big push to get Towpath Radio to the FM dial, so I wanted to take a few minutes to address the questions and the big plan. If you’d rather listen to or watch this, see the video below.

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

First off, let me introduce myself to those who don’t know me.  My name is Josh. I’m the President of NWO Community Media and Program Director of Towpath Radio. I live here in Grand Rapids and spent 15 years working full time in corporate radio. I worked at Star 105 and Tower 98 in Toledo, hosted a morning show and programmed a station in Northern Michigan, and most recently hosted afternoons at a station, ironically, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I left full time radio in 2016 to move back home to Northwest Ohio and start a new unrelated career. Shortly after moving back to the area, I found my current home up for sale in the town where I spent much of my childhood, Grand Rapids, Ohio. I’ve been here ever since.

The Start of Towpath Radio

I’m also the creator of Towpath Radio. During the pandemic things at my fulltime job were more stressful than normal, so I needed a mental out. I figured creating a fun internet oldies station would be a great way to decompress after work. Originally, Towpath Radio was supposed to be just music playing from the cloud. It then became music and news. Shortly after, it became music, local news, and voice overs. After that, I discovered some amazing new technology that allowed me to create a powerful and professional sounding station. Now, we operate like the big guys with a professional polished sound! (That’s the one thing they do well!)

As Towpath Radio grew, the community’s support came in loud and allowed this “project” to turn into a small LLC. Last year we decided to take Towpath and restructure it as a full-service community station, focusing on music and local news both on the broadcast and the website. Since doing this I dissolved Towpath Media, LLC and donated the programming to a new non-profit located in Grand Rapids, NWO Community Media.

The goal at NWO Community Media is to connect the rural areas of Northwest Ohio with hyper local news, local content, and be a true voice for the rural communities. We now are operated by a board of directors to assist with making decisions, though most of what happens in the background, from finances to picking music, is still put together by me.

Towpath Radio Moves to FM

This brings us to the big topic, our move to 98.7. Last year the F.C.C. gave non-profits the ability to apply for a low power FM license. We did just that and were awarded our license in February of 2024. This license will allow us to broadcast 100 watts at 100 feet on 98.7 FM, not an incredibly large listening area but it will cover Swanton down to Deshler and BG to Napoleon. Our web stream will continue for those out of the listening area.

The biggest hurdle we face now is raising enough funds to purchase the equipment to broadcast. We have a tower site picked out, southwest of Grand Rapids, but it is useless without an antenna, transmitter, EAS System, and installation, all of which will run us close to $15,000. Thankfully we don’t have to worry about studio equipment, as that was lent to NWO Community Media by Towpath Media.

It’s unheard of for a small town like Grand Rapids to host its own radio station, most have moved into larger cities, but this will be a huge benefit to our area!

Once on the air we will still run our oldies format but will be able to keep the area informed of emergencies, river flooding, tornadoes, etc. We’ll be an outlet for other area non-profits to promote their events and discuss enriching life in our area, plus your neighbors will be able to create community radio shows and discuss topics that we haven’t heard on the radio in years. Not only that, but this will be a great way to promote our own community. The possibilities are endless!

We have three years to raise the funds and get 98.7 FM up and running. At the three year point the F.C.C. will revoke the license. It will be at no cost, however we don’t want this once in a lifetime chance to pass our area up.

If you’d like to help, you can donate at TowpathRadio.com/donate. We accept personal and business donations for broadcast announcements.

That’s the story! A new radio station, playing oldies music, and hosting the community’s voice.

I thank you for the constant support you have offered this project, and we hope it continues to grow and thrive.

With that, I wanted to address some questions that have been brought up over the past few months.

Questions

Q: What happens to the donated money if Towpath Radio doesn’t raise enough to get the equipment?

A: Great question! First, if we are unable to achieve the goal of going to FM, the plan is to keep Towpath Radio operating as an internet station and keep our website operating as a news source. All funds raised will be dispersed into our operations fund to ensure Towpath Radio can continue its service as a streaming station. If something happens and it must end, NWO Community Media has it written in our bylaws that all assets will be donated to other non-profits, items donated from Towpath Media, LLC will be returned.

Q: What is the big long-term plan?

A: Ahh yes! I barely touched on this above. Obviously, our next step is getting on 98.7. Once that happens, we’d like to boost our local content. I mentioned this a bit above but maybe have a program that discussed what happened at the latest village meeting (Grand Rapids, McClure, Weston, etc) or giving the mayors of various towns 10 minutes a week to talk about what’s on their mind, maybe even working with students from Otsego to create some fun programming. We’re currently working on a program that will feature “Grand Rapids Legends.” We finished recording the first episode which will be loaded with interviews and a ton of research, I don’t want to get into too many details but the person who did this (not me) did a phenomenal job. Look for this series coming soon. On the operations side, we’d like to get a downtown window front studio space for a publicly accessible studio. Currently the station runs out of my barn which could blow down any day, so we’d like to get a spot where people can come in to record their shows or check out the station. Finally, we’d like to get to a point where we can bring on employees to assist with operations.

Q: Why not put River Rat Country or Sweet 419 on FM?

A: For those who don’t know, River Rat Country is our classic country station and Sweet 419 is our ‘90s and 2k station. The board decided to go with Towpath Radio because it checks all the boxes of the F.C.C.’s Low Power FM requirement, mainly being community radio. Plus, our area already has so many country stations and there’s a ‘90s and 2k station based in Toledo, though I believe we do it better! There are no other stations in the area playing the ‘50s through the ‘80s, so it just makes sense. Plus, everyone LOVES oldies!

Q: How can I help?

A: Donations and getting word out are the best way to assist. There’s also quite a bit on the back end that I could use help with. I mentioned above that though we have a board of directors, I’m the triggerman, so I handle everything from balancing the books to picking the music, plus my full-time job. I’m not a great back-office person, so if someone had those skills to assist remotely that would be great! We also could use help with news content on our website, so if someone has a background in writing news stories, we’d love to hear from them. It could be as simple as reporting what happens at town hall meetings. Keep in mind we’re all volunteers, so there is no pay currently.

Q: Are you hiring?

A: Not currently. As we grow, we hope to be able to at least hire someone to help with the “no fun stuff” like accounting, serving accounts, etc.  

Q: Can I do a show?

A: Currently, this would depend on experience and the content suggested. As I mentioned above, I’m running basically all the operations alone, so we don’t have much time to give someone the proper training to be successful. This will change once we get over this hurdle of going to F.M. Where I really need help is local news content and social media.

Q: Can you play deeper cuts?

A: Deeper cuts on some of the oldies might get played during a specialty show, so it’s not out of the question but the large goal for Towpath Radio is play Hit Oldies. We want anyone who’s tuning in to hear something they know and love. Plus, there are so many excellent songs that charted from the ‘50s through the ‘60s that we don’t really need to play the B side to increase variety.

Q: Why don’t you do more events?

A: Time! I’m pretty much the only one putting things together on the operation end so programming and news content has been prioritized first. Most stations try to get out once a week, and maybe once we get more people to help, we’ll be able to get out more. Between working full time and running the station, sometimes I just want to cuddle my dog! We get a lot of great ideas from a lot of great people and I’m honored when they think we’re a larger operation than we are. Trust me, if I could always have someone in the studio and someone on the street, we’d do it!

Wrap-up

Thanks for reading all the way to the end. There was a lot to cover here! The Q and A went a bit further in the video, so be sure to check it out. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at josh@nwocommunitymedia.org.

Thanks again for all of your support!

Josh