Wadsworth Community Radio, a low-power FM station at 97.1, is celebrating its 10th year of broadcasting local news, sports and music to the city’s residents. Current morning show hosts Tina Heiberg and Tom Stugmyer have been continuing this radio show to provide more local news to the community.
“You’re going to hear things that you don’t hear somewhere else,” Stugmyer said.
One of this radio’s main goals is to stay local. Throughout these ten years, even as they decided what to do, they knew they wanted to stay local. College professors Joe and Susan Arpad originally started this station.
“They had taught at several different universities and colleges across the country,” Stugmyer said. “They just noticed that most of the small colleges have little radio stations, and they thought that it would be neat for Wadsworth to have one. So when they retired, they had made an application for the owner of a low-power FM station; it was their dream.”
The non-profit station began streaming online in 2014 before transitioning to FM in 2015. Since then, they have been giving community information, offering programming that highlights local businesses, events and high school sports.
Stugmyer and Heiberg eventually took charge of the station around 2015, having a morning show, doing interviews and even recently started doing giveaways.
“I love doing all of the giveaways that we’re able to do,” Heiberg said.
Just recently, the radio station found a GoFundMe for a local family who has a daughter with level two autism.
“One of my favorite moments came recently when I was alerted to a GoFundMe,” Heiberg said. “They live on a busy street, and they needed a fence for their daughter to safely play. So I shared it on our social media page, and when I did, the coolest thing happened. A Lady who lives in Wadsworth works for a fence company in Akron and reached out to her supplier and another local company in town. They were given a brand new vinyl fence for their daughter, and it is completely on the house.”
Some other big things this station has covered have been hot air balloons over Wadsworth, local artists and local business figures.
“All of those contacts that came out of sitting in this chair,” Stugmyer said. “I mean, I’m like a kid in a candy store, it really is, it’s just so much fun. We’re creating the energy and prompting everything else.”
However, even after all these yearly events, they are also trying new things. This year’s November First Friday, they are adding a new addition.
“We are going to be doing a turkey drop,” Heiberg said. “ I don’t think we’ve mentioned that on air yet. We like to keep things fresh and interesting and we’re really excited about being able to just keep saying yes.”
They also participate in things Wadsworth hosts, like the fire stations’ touch a truck and Wadsworth’s annual thriller. They use speakers attached to their building to play music and other items the community may request.
“Most recently, we said yes to the Celestia theater,” Stugmyer said. “We’re going to be a part of the ticket giveaways and a lot of artists performing and playing are going to be on air with us too.”
The station aims to continue assisting people and acquiring new equipment as technology advances.
“We don’t limit ourselves to sitting here,” Stugmyer said. “You know, just playing music. Anybody, or anything that reaches out to us, we don’t say no to because it has led to all of those things.”
