Thursday, February 13, 2025

Good Morning Lucas County

Jazz pianist Herbie Hancock once said “creativity shouldn’t be following radio; it should be the other way around.” This sentiment appears deeply embedded in the goal of a number of Toledo residents who recently have been hard at work organizing the creation of a low-power FM community radio station. The Toledo Low Power FM Radio Project has been incorporated as a non-profit group with the moniker TIME, or Toledo Integrated Media Education. TIME is now appealing to the Toledo public to submit radio program content ideas.

During the last year, the members of the Toledo Low Power FM Radio Project have worked to ready their non-profit for the FCC license application process which begins on October 15. The group is actively accepting applications for programs to be included with the FCC application.
Sean Nestor, local activist and Toledo City Council candidate, began drumming up interest for the Toledo LPFM Radio Project earlier this year.  He did not initially intend to become so involved in the initiative.

“I’m currently running for city council, I work two jobs, I help run Third Space Community Center, I sit on the board of the Phoenix Earth Food Co-op, I’m on the board of Toledo Choose Local and a number of other grassroots initiatives,” Nestor explained. “I was hoping at the first meeting we held that there would be enough community interest that I could just step back. What actually happened was there was a lot of community interest, but that was all the more reason for me to step forward into the role of a facilitator and help carry this out.”

Locally produced content

“It’s an FCC provision that at least eight hours of our daily content must be locally produced,” TIME board member and mediator Sean Nestor clarified. “The only criterion that we set early on is that we want this radio outlet to give a voice to underrepresented perspectives. Those perspectives could be musical or social, almost anything so long as they aren’t already being done to death by some mainstream media outlet.”
LPFM broadcasting does not use as much energy as traditional high-power FM stations, meaning the reception range of the community station will be somewhat limited. However the station’s signal, broadcast at 106.1, should cover most of the Toledo area.

“Since we’re only operating on 100 watts of power, we’re looking at around a five mile terrestrial reception radius,” project member and technology supervisor Josh Eppert explained.

Live online streaming

TIME plans on mediating the issue of reception range by offering live online streaming of its programming. Internet streaming also will enable the station to potentially garner a global audience.

“With internet broadcasting, I see this as an opportunity to reach out to a  larger state-wide or national audience,” Nestor explained. “Part of the vision of this is to make a name for Toledo, not just so the people of Toledo can get closer to one another via this medium, but also so we can start building that national reputation that we have needed and somewhat lacked.”

TIME hopes the station will be able to help support local businesses, artists and entertainers, one of the reasons that local radio host Kayla Williams jumped at the chance to get involved with the Toledo LPFM Radio Project.

“While the FCC doesn’t allow us to advertise on LPFM, we can still underwrite our programs,” Williams confirmed, “and that’s good in the sense that we can represent local places that need support.”

Those wishing to become a part of the Toledo
LPFM Radio project,  or who have an idea for
a radio program, are encouraged to contact the group. Application forms for program ideas are available on the group’s Facebook site,
Facebook.com/ToledoLpfmRadioProject, or you can contact Sean Nestor via email at
[email protected].

Jazz pianist Herbie Hancock once said “creativity shouldn’t be following radio; it should be the other way around.” This sentiment appears deeply embedded in the goal of a number of Toledo residents who recently have been hard at work organizing the creation of a low-power FM community radio station. The Toledo Low Power FM Radio Project has been incorporated as a non-profit group with the moniker TIME, or Toledo Integrated Media Education. TIME is now appealing to the Toledo public to submit radio program content ideas.

During the last year, the members of the Toledo Low Power FM Radio Project have worked to ready their non-profit for the FCC license application process which begins on October 15. The group is actively accepting applications for programs to be included with the FCC application.
Sean Nestor, local activist and Toledo City Council candidate, began drumming up interest for the Toledo LPFM Radio Project earlier this year.  He did not initially intend to become so involved in the initiative.

“I’m currently running for city council, I work two jobs, I help run Third Space Community Center, I sit on the board of the Phoenix Earth Food Co-op, I’m on the board of Toledo Choose Local and a number of other grassroots initiatives,” Nestor explained. “I was hoping at the first meeting we held that there would be enough community interest that I could just step back. What actually happened was there was a lot of community interest, but that was all the more reason for me to step forward into the role of a facilitator and help carry this out.”

Locally produced content

“It’s an FCC provision that at least eight hours of our daily content must be locally produced,” TIME board member and mediator Sean Nestor clarified. “The only criterion that we set early on is that we want this radio outlet to give a voice to underrepresented perspectives. Those perspectives could be musical or social, almost anything so long as they aren’t already being done to death by some mainstream media outlet.”
LPFM broadcasting does not use as much energy as traditional high-power FM stations, meaning the reception range of the community station will be somewhat limited. However the station’s signal, broadcast at 106.1, should cover most of the Toledo area.

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“Since we’re only operating on 100 watts of power, we’re looking at around a five mile terrestrial reception radius,” project member and technology supervisor Josh Eppert explained.

Live online streaming

TIME plans on mediating the issue of reception range by offering live online streaming of its programming. Internet streaming also will enable the station to potentially garner a global audience.

“With internet broadcasting, I see this as an opportunity to reach out to a  larger state-wide or national audience,” Nestor explained. “Part of the vision of this is to make a name for Toledo, not just so the people of Toledo can get closer to one another via this medium, but also so we can start building that national reputation that we have needed and somewhat lacked.”

TIME hopes the station will be able to help support local businesses, artists and entertainers, one of the reasons that local radio host Kayla Williams jumped at the chance to get involved with the Toledo LPFM Radio Project.

“While the FCC doesn’t allow us to advertise on LPFM, we can still underwrite our programs,” Williams confirmed, “and that’s good in the sense that we can represent local places that need support.”

Those wishing to become a part of the Toledo
LPFM Radio project,  or who have an idea for
a radio program, are encouraged to contact the group. Application forms for program ideas are available on the group’s Facebook site,
Facebook.com/ToledoLpfmRadioProject, or you can contact Sean Nestor via email at
[email protected].

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