WAKT-FM<\/a>\u00a0has been broadcasting from the parking lot of the Seagate Food Bank for three years, but that may be coming to an end.<\/p>\nThe station’s board has decided that if they can’t keep up with funding needs by the end of this year, they’ll have to shut things down.<\/p>\n
The low-power station is only 100 watts, all powered by volunteers with a love of radio.\u00a0Volunteer Dennis Williams hosts “Saturday Morning with Denis” on the station and has had a passion for radio since he was 10 years old.<\/p>\n
“Radio was already in my heart at that age,” Williams said.<\/p>\n
Others, like the station’s development director Nathan Staples, have radio in their DNA.<\/p>\n
“My dad was the Staples, Dennis Staples, of Kelly and Staples in the Mornings, and so I grew up around radio stations,” he said.<\/p>\n
Staples said the station fills a niche in the Glass City’s community.<\/p>\n
“We really try and promote local diverse voices that you won’t hear anywhere else on the radio, and part of that is trying to promote local music,” Staples said.<\/p>\n
The station prioritizes giving local artists a chance to get their name and sound on the airwaves. It also hosts shows that talk about all things Toledo, the Great Lakes, wrestling and more.<\/p>\n
Staples said lots of people have switched to streaming music, but radio allows people to connect in a unique way.<\/p>\n
“You develop a relationship with the content, with the music, with everything,” Staples said. “It helps that every show you hear here, for the most part, is talking about local Toledo issues.”<\/p>\n
This all may come to an end if WAKT doesn’t get more funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We’re\u00a0trying to make sure that we can\u00a0cover our electricity budget, and cover our licensing and our insurance and things like that,” Staples said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Staples, the station’s board said it’s making a decision by the end of the year if it doesn’t get more underwriters. Money isn’t the only way to support, Staples said. It’s important to have people tune in.<\/p>\n
People can listen to WAKT on 106.1 FM if they’re driving in city limits, or can stream it online.<\/p>\n
“We’re one of you,” Williams said. “We are a Toledo bunch of people here and we don’t want this to come to an end. We’re having a great time and we hope that you start liking us even more.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WAKT-FM is a volunteer-run station that focuses on promoting local musicians and hosts shows specific to Toledo, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-87513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}