I have asked several friends to imagine the most Nathan vacation ever…

I have asked several friends to imagine the most Nathan vacation ever… Most of them guessed going on a road trip to visit a bunch of community radio stations around Appalachia.

As it turns out, I am predictable.

I grew up in Huntington, West Virginia. Went to college in Morgantown. Have family near Charleston. Have grandparents and cousins from Logan.

I biked and kayaked Pocahontas County with my dad. I have enormous respect for Appalshop. I spent a little time in Keyser. Once drove to a friend’s house in Clay. Long ago dated a woman in Asheville.

The first half of my life was rooted in Appalachia. The place is woven into me.

On June 27, I’m setting out for two and a half weeks to visit all these places and more! Each one is home to a community or college radio station.

These are entities committed to media democracy, the ideal that our friends, neighbors, and community are knowledgeable, that their stories are inspiring to others, and that they should have a platform for creative expression and sharing music & culture. Community radio trades perfection for an authenticity that comes from volunteering for, participating in, and contributing to something meaningful, local, and independent.

I’m the General Manager of WTJU 91.1 FM at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. I built WXTJ 100.1 FM in 2013 and launched a podcast collective in 2017. I’ve served on the board of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters for more than seven years.

In the last two decades, I have not spent much time in the state or region of my upbringing. I left for grad school in Wisconsin and followed opportunities that took me elsewhere. These days, I joke acidly that with coal production in decline, West Virginia’s chief export is now young adults with college degrees.

I am one of those people. When I sit with it, it hurts. It hurts sometimes to know that I’m part of that particular problem.

Lately, some things I hear from my home state make me deeply sad. Overdoses among people I knew. A kind of anti-trans cruelty from a political candidate I went to high school with.

I also see helpers and builders. Former classmates who’ve gotten their medical degrees and decided to practice back home, and friends who volunteer with clinics in places where good health care is hard to come by. A friend who worked to reclaim old strip mines into places where good jobs can be created. Media colleagues who’ve built radio stations to amplify mountain music and journalist friends who gather and share real people’s stories and dreams and aspirations. Appalachia is full of people who see hope and possibility and who nurture that in others. People who organize and work for something better.

How are community radio stations navigating this? It takes a particular kind of insider-outsider to look upon your own community, really see its needs, and think, “how about I use this radio station to make my place better and try and help people out.”

That’s true for a community radio station in any place. With the particular needs of Appalachian communities in 2024, I’m curious to learn more.

So I’m setting out to listen and observe and experience and understand. And maybe, if there’s something folks would like help with, to give something back.

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