Somewhere along the way, parts of the radio business started treating “community engagement” like a department, a strategy deck or something to squeeze between a remote and a sales meeting. Mike “Uncle Mike” Hansen apparently never got that memo. For years, Hansen has been everywhere across the Hudson Valley that local radio is supposed to be — veterans events, charities, community organizations, local businesses and fundraisers — and now Neversink Media Group and AK22 Digital Media are putting those relationships at the center of an expanded role.
This isn’t really about adding another title to a broadcaster’s résumé.
It’s about something radio desperately needs and technology still cannot manufacture:
A HUMAN BEING THE MARKET ALREADY KNOWS.
No algorithm built Hansen’s network.
No automation system created it.
No AI prompt generated 15 years of people recognizing “Uncle Mike.”
He did that the old-fashioned way.
HE SHOWED UP.
THERE’S A LOT MORE TO UNCLE MIKE THAN A RADIO SHIFT
Hansen spent roughly 15 years connected to WRWD, including weekend and fill-in work, before his run there ended amid iHeartMedia’s summer 2026 reductions in the Hudson Valley.
That ended a job.
It didn’t end the relationships.
And that distinction may be the most important part of this entire story.
When someone spends years becoming part of the fabric of a market, the value isn’t confined to the hours printed next to their name on a program schedule. It’s in the people who answer their calls. It’s in the nonprofit directors who know them. It’s in the businesses that have worked with them. It’s in the listeners who have met them at events.
A corporate decision can make the employee badge stop working.
IT CAN’T ERASE THE HANDSHAKES.
HUDSON VALLEY VETERANS ALREADY KNOW EXACTLY WHO HE IS
Hansen’s connection to veterans is particularly deep.
Hudson Valley Honor Flight hasn’t treated him as some occasional celebrity guest who shows up for a photograph.
The organization has described Hansen as its unofficial voice.
At its annual Lunch of Honor at Resorts World Catskills in December 2025, Hudson Valley Honor Flight recognized him for his extensive support of its mission and his broader commitment to veterans throughout the region.
That’s an entirely different level of community connection.
Honor Flight helps veterans travel to Washington to see the memorials created in recognition of their service. Hansen became closely enough associated with that mission that the organization publicly honored him for helping advance it.
He wasn’t simply the radio guy who read the announcement.
HE BECAME ONE OF THE PEOPLE HELPING CARRY THE MESSAGE.
That’s what community radio looks like when the word “community” actually means something.
AND ANOTHER MAJOR HUDSON VALLEY ORGANIZATION IS ABOUT TO HONOR HIM
Hudson Valley Hospice Foundation provides another piece of evidence.
At its October 23, 2026 Fall Gala, the organization plans to present Hansen with the Nancy Brownell Community Service Award.
The organization cites his support for Hudson Valley Hospice, Hudson Valley Honor Flight, veterans services and numerous other community causes.
That’s remarkable timing.
A broadcaster loses a corporate radio position during the summer.
A few months later, one of the region’s established nonprofit organizations is preparing to honor that same broadcaster specifically because of the impact he has made outside the studio.
There’s a lesson in there.
THE COMPANY OWNED THE JOB.
MIKE OWNED THE RELATIONSHIPS.
THE RECEIPTS GO BACK YEARS
Start searching local Hudson Valley history and Hansen’s name keeps turning up.
He’s been involved with veterans organizations.
He’s been involved with Trees for Troops.
He’s appeared at local community events.
He’s participated in efforts connecting businesses and veterans.
He’s been part of regional workforce and manufacturing events.
At one point, Hansen served on the advisory board of the Hudson Valley Veterans Alliance. In another community effort, he helped connect veterans with assistance when donated vehicles were being prepared for people who needed reliable transportation.
His association with Trees for Troops also stretches back years, using WRWD to help promote the campaign while participating alongside local volunteers.
In 2024, Hansen joined WKIP’s Hudson Valley Focus Live at a regional manufacturing event bringing together schools, employers and workforce-development organizations.
None of that sounds like someone suddenly being told:
“Mike, we’d like you to start doing community outreach.”
Mike has been doing community outreach.
For years.
The new role simply recognizes the value of it.
WHICH EXPLAINS WHY THIS FITS NEVERSINK SO WELL
Bud Williamson has not exactly been shy about his philosophy of local radio.
Neversink Media Group’s own mission centers familiar personalities, local information and involvement with businesses and organizations throughout Orange County, the Hudson Valley and neighboring Pennsylvania.
The company’s public description of its staff emphasizes people who grew up in the region and broadcasters capable of delivering relatable local content.
Williamson’s history reinforces the philosophy.
Neversink helped restore heritage WALL to locally originated Middletown programming after years in which the station had been transmitting programming from elsewhere. The company’s portfolio has also included community-oriented operations such as WDLC Country and The Pike.
Williamson has repeatedly argued that small-market broadcasting has a future when the station is valuable to the place it serves.
That’s not complicated radio theory.
BE USEFUL.
Know the town.
Know the businesses.
Know the organizations.
Know the people.
When something happens, don’t spend 20 minutes trying to figure out who you should call.
Already have their number.
AND “THE HUDSON VALLEY” ISN’T ONE GIANT TOWN
This matters enormously.
People outside the region can talk about the Hudson Valley as though everyone lives in the same community.
They don’t.
Port Jervis has its own identity.
Middletown has its own identity.
Poughkeepsie has its own identity.
Newburgh has its own identity.
Orange County and Dutchess County aren’t interchangeable.
Yes, people commute across the region. Organizations overlap. Media footprints cross county lines. Businesses serve multiple communities.
But each place still has its own institutions, schools, nonprofit leaders, businesses, government, events and concerns.
Someone who has physically spent years moving through those communities develops something that can’t be created through a database search.
CONTEXT.
Google can find the executive director.
Uncle Mike might already have the executive director’s cellphone number.
There’s a difference.
AK22 TAKES THE IDEA BEYOND THE TRANSMITTER
The involvement of AK22 Digital Media makes this more interesting than a traditional radio-community-relations position.
Local media isn’t confined to what comes out of the FM antenna anymore.
One community connection might produce an on-air interview.
Then video.
Then social content.
Then an event.
Then a sponsorship.
Then a digital campaign.
Then a fundraiser.
Then a business partnership.
The relationship is the common thread.
That’s where local broadcasters can stop treating digital as the enemy trying to steal radio’s lunch and start using both platforms together.
Radio provides reach and familiarity.
Digital provides targeting, extension, video, social distribution and additional ways for people to interact.
Community relationships feed both.
Hansen doesn’t need to become a different person for each platform.
THE RELATIONSHIP IS THE CONTENT ENGINE.
RADIO NEEDS TO STOP TREATING COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT LIKE EXTRA CREDIT
Here’s the larger industry lesson.
Especially in smaller and medium-sized markets, community involvement isn’t some nice bonus you do when everybody finishes their “real work.”
IT IS REAL WORK.
Spotify can play every song on your station.
It cannot stand next to the veterans at a fundraiser.
YouTube Music can build an incredible playlist.
It cannot interview the local coach after Friday night’s game.
An algorithm can recommend content.
It cannot notice that a family in town needs help and start calling businesses.
A national personality can sound polished.
That personality probably isn’t walking through a Hudson Valley grocery store Saturday morning while somebody yells:
“UNCLE MIKE!”
That recognition matters.
For programming.
For sales.
For promotions.
For branding.
For trust.
And yes, for revenue.
Community connection isn’t merely sentimental.
IT’S COMPETITIVE DIFFERENTIATION.
THERE’S NO SOFTWARE PLUG-IN FOR TRUST
Radio has spent years chasing efficiencies.
Automation.
Centralization.
Syndication.
Voice tracking.
Artificial intelligence.
Every one of those technologies can have a legitimate place in a modern broadcast operation.
But they cannot reproduce the asset at the center of this story.
TIME SPENT WITH PEOPLE.
You can’t ask AI to create 15 years of credibility by Friday.
You can’t automate someone into being trusted by veterans organizations.
You can’t schedule a relationship in WideOrbit.
You can’t tell a computer:
“Please generate the experience of having attended hundreds of Hudson Valley events over the last decade.”
Hansen knows people because Hansen met people.
People recognize Hansen because Hansen kept showing up.
That’s not old-fashioned radio romanticism.
That’s an asset.
NEVERSINK’S CURRENT OPERATION ALREADY LEANS INTO THAT PHILOSOPHY
Look at how Neversink describes itself today.
Its stations emphasize familiar local personalities, local morning programming, community groups, businesses, regional news, weather and information.
The company doesn’t hide from the word “local.”
It builds around it.
That makes Hansen almost comically compatible with the strategy.
You don’t need to send Uncle Mike to a seminar called “Understanding the Hudson Valley Consumer.”
He’s already out there.
Probably holding a microphone.
Possibly helping somebody unload something.
😂
THE EXACT SHAPE OF THE JOB WILL BE WORTH WATCHING
There are still details to learn about how Hansen’s expanded role will function across Neversink Media Group and AK22 Digital Media.
The overall direction is evident: community relationships and broader visibility across radio and digital.
Exactly how those responsibilities divide among individual stations, organizations, events, digital properties and communities should become clearer as the position develops.
But maybe trying to force this into a traditional radio job description misses the point.
This doesn’t sound like:
“Here’s your shift. Here are your remotes. See you Monday.”
It sounds closer to:
“MIKE, GO BE UNCLE MIKE.”
Find the organizations doing good work.
Find the veterans.
Find the businesses.
Find the charities.
Find the stories.
Find the people who have something important happening but don’t have a PR department to tell anybody about it.
Then bring the media platforms with you.
That’s potentially far more valuable.
EVERY LOCAL RADIO COMPANY SHOULD BE ASKING ONE QUESTION
Not:
“Where can we find another Mike Hansen?”
He’s apparently occupied.
😂
Ask instead:
WHO IS OUR PERSON?
Who knows everybody in town?
Who gets invited even when the station isn’t buying the table?
Who can call the sheriff?
Who knows the school superintendent?
Who has the nonprofit director’s number?
Who knows the restaurant owner?
Who knows the veterans organizations?
Who knows the person running the food pantry?
Who hears that something happened in town and immediately knows who can explain it?
And if you already employ that person, here’s the follow-up:
WHY AREN’T YOU BUILDING A BIGGER ROLE AROUND THEM?
Because that’s proprietary.
Your music isn’t.
Your personalities and relationships can be.
UNCLE MIKE HAS A NEW CHAPTER
There are strange ways to discover your value in radio.
Sometimes it’s a promotion.
Sometimes it’s a ratings book.
Sometimes it’s an advertiser telling you that a campaign worked.
Sometimes it’s a listener explaining that something you said changed their day.
And sometimes your value becomes especially obvious after one company decides it doesn’t need you anymore.
Hansen’s years in Hudson Valley radio produced something larger than an airshift.
Veterans know him.
Nonprofits know him.
Businesses know him.
Listeners know him.
Community organizations know him.
Neversink Media Group and AK22 Digital Media now have an opportunity to turn that accumulated trust into something larger across radio, digital and the communities both serve.
Good.
Because local radio does not need another initiative with a name like:
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT 360: BUILDING CONNECTIONS THROUGH MULTIPLATFORM SYNERGY.
Please.
It needs people.
People who care.
People who know the market.
People the market already knows.
The Hudson Valley has one of those people.
They call him:
UNCLE MIKE.
So give him the microphone.
Give him the digital platforms.
Send him into the community.
And when he comes back with stories about the people actually doing the work across the Hudson Valley?
TURN HIM UP.
That isn’t ancillary to local radio.
THAT IS LOCAL RADIO.
— On The Dial
#UncleMike #MikeHansen #NeversinkMedia #AK22DigitalMedia #HudsonValley #HudsonValleyRadio #LocalRadio #CommunityRadio #CommunityMatters #HudsonValleyHonorFlight #Veterans #VeteransSupport #HudsonValleyHospice #WALLRadio #WDLC #ThePike #RadioPeople #RadioPersonality #RadioProgramming #RadioIndustry #RadioNews #Broadcasting #TerrestrialRadio #SupportLocal #OnTheDial