This one should bother people.
Not because radio personalities are entitled to lifetime jobs. Nobody in this business has ever been promised that.
But because when you look at what has happened at Townsquare Media and then look at Big Joe Pesh, this isn’t simply another name disappearing from another morning-show logo.
This is a guy with nearly two decades of history in Grand Rapids.
A guy who came back home.
A guy who has been involved in the community.
A guy who was still publicly talking about emceeing a West Michigan charity event just days ago.
And now, after five years waking up listeners on Hot AC Mix 95.7 WLHT-FM, Pesh is out as additional Townsquare Media reductions continue coming into focus.
Here we go again.
Big Joe Wasnt Imported Into Grand Rapids Five Minutes Ago
That’s what makes this different.
Pesh joined Mix 95.7 in October 2021, but his relationship with West Michigan radio goes back considerably further.
He’s a Grand Rapids-area native.
And back in 2007, he began working at Cumulus Country Thunder 94.5 WTNR, eventually becoming part of its Morning Wake Up Call as producer and co-host.
He remained there through 2014.
So before Indianapolis…
before Evansville…
before San Antonio…
before coming back to Mix…
Grand Rapids was already part of Big Joe’s radio story.
Actually, scratch that.
Grand Rapids wasn’t merely part of the story.
It was home.
Then Radio Took Him Around The Country
That’s what this crazy business does.
You get good.
Someone hears you.
The phone rings.
Boxes get packed.
And suddenly you’re learning another city’s highways while trying to convince listeners you’ve known them forever.
Pesh eventually hosted mornings at CHR WSTO in Evansville.
Then came WNOW-FM Indianapolis.
Then Country Y100 KCYY San Antonio.
Different markets.
Different stations.
Different formats.
Same basic assignment:
WAKE PEOPLE UP AND MAKE THEM CARE THAT THE RADIO IS ON.
That’s harder than it sounds.
A lot harder.
Then He Got To Come Home
In 2021, Pesh returned to West Michigan and took over mornings at Mix 95.7.
And there’s something special about getting to bring all those experiences back to the place where your career took root.
You’re not learning the market from a research presentation.
You know it.
You remember it.
You’ve lived it.
You understand why people care about the things they care about because you’re one of them.
That’s the kind of local connection radio companies constantly tell us they value.
And for five years, Big Joe brought that connection to mornings on Mix.
Laura Hardy Became Part Of The Story Too
Beginning in early 2022, Laura Hardy joined Pesh, creating the Big Joe and Laura era of Mix mornings.
Then Hardy departed earlier this year.
That left Pesh carrying the morning show forward.
And now he’s gone too.
In a matter of months, both personalities who had formed the station’s morning combination are no longer there.
That’s not a minor adjustment.
THAT’S A RESET.
And when a morning show changes that dramatically, listeners notice.
Maybe not every listener immediately.
But morning radio is built around habit.
The same voices.
The same commute.
The same coffee.
The same route.
The same people accompanying you through ordinary life.
Change the voices and you change part of the product.
And This Comes As Townsquare Cuts Keep Surfacing
That’s the larger industry story.
This isn’t happening in isolation.
More Townsquare Media personnel changes and exits have been emerging, and every additional name makes the human cost of restructuring increasingly difficult to reduce to corporate terminology.
Because “expense reduction” sounds clean.
“Operational efficiency” sounds clean.
“Restructuring” sounds clean.
A person losing the microphone they’ve spoken into every morning?
THAT’S NOT CLEAN.
There’s a family attached to that.
A career.
Coworkers.
Listeners.
Community relationships.
Years of institutional knowledge.
Radio needs to remember that whenever another line disappears from somebody’s budget.
And Heres What Really Gets Me About Big Joe
Just days ago, Pesh was writing publicly about PEDALS for ALS, a September fundraiser supporting West Michigan families affected by ALS.
He talked about having lived in Grand Rapids since 2007 and about years spent emceeing community events supporting causes ranging from cancer and mental health to Special Olympics. He was preparing to emcee PEDALS for ALS again this year.
Read that carefully.
That’s exactly what radio companies say they want.
COMMUNITY CONNECTION.
Not somebody sitting 700 miles away pretending to know Grand Rapids.
A broadcaster physically participating in Grand Rapids.
Showing up.
Hosting things.
Meeting people.
Using the visibility radio gave him to help organizations doing actual work in West Michigan.
That’s local radio.
We Have Got To Stop Pretending Local Is Just Geography
Being local isn’t having a transmitter inside the market.
A tower doesn’t attend a charity event.
Automation doesn’t shake somebody’s hand.
A playlist doesn’t emcee the fundraiser.
A sweep doesn’t remember what happened in town fifteen years ago.
PEOPLE DO THAT.
That’s why every time radio eliminates another established local personality, there should be a question attached:
What exactly are we replacing?
Not:
Who fills the shift?
That’s easy.
Radio has technology capable of filling every second between midnight and midnight.
The better question is:
WHO FILLS THE RELATIONSHIP?
That’s considerably harder.
Big Joe Has Already Proven He Can Do This Somewhere Else
Let’s make that clear too.
This isn’t somebody whose entire career depends upon one radio station.
Evansville hired him.
Indianapolis hired him.
San Antonio hired him.
Grand Rapids brought him home.
CHR.
Country.
Hot AC.
Multiple markets.
Multiple morning shows.
Nearly two decades in this business.
That’s a broadcaster.
And whatever happens next, that experience doesn’t disappear because somebody removed his name from a schedule.
An On The Dial Perspective
Radio is at a fascinating crossroads.
The industry keeps talking about personalities as its competitive advantage.
We’re told that Spotify cannot replace companionship.
We’re told artificial intelligence cannot replicate authentic human connection.
We’re told localism matters.
We’re told community involvement matters.
We’re told personalities differentiate terrestrial radio from an endless universe of music services.
I AGREE WITH ALL OF THAT.
But eventually the industry’s actions have to match the PowerPoint.
If people are the differentiator…
KEEP INVESTING IN PEOPLE.
If local matters…
KEEP LOCAL PEOPLE.
If community engagement matters…
recognize the value of the person who actually shows up in the community.
You cannot spend Monday telling advertisers that your personalities have unmatched relationships with listeners and spend Friday treating those same personalities like interchangeable expense lines.
At some point those two philosophies collide.
This Is Bigger Than One Morning Show
Big Joe Pesh will figure out what comes next.
Experienced radio people usually do.
Maybe another station calls.
Maybe another market calls.
Maybe Grand Rapids radio finds another microphone for him.
Hopefully radio keeps him.
Because the industry cannot keep talking about a talent shortage while simultaneously showing experienced talent the exit.
That’s madness.
DEVELOP PEOPLE.
KEEP PEOPLE.
VALUE PEOPLE.
And when circumstances require a difficult business decision, at least acknowledge what is actually walking out the door.
In this case, it’s nearly two decades of West Michigan history combined with morning-show experience from several major stops around the country.
That’s not nothing.
Grand Rapids Knows Big Joe
That’s ultimately what makes this one sting.
Long before Mix 95.7, Big Joe Pesh was already part of West Michigan radio.
He left.
He grew.
He worked other markets.
Then he came home.
And for five years, listeners got him back every morning.
Now that run is over.
So to Big Joe:
Keep going.
Keep showing up for West Michigan.
Keep doing the community work.
And most importantly…
KEEP THE HEADPHONES CLOSE.
Because a broadcaster with this much morning experience, this much local history and this much connection to Grand Rapids shouldn’t be sitting without a microphone for very long.
Mix 95.7 may have removed Big Joe Pesh from mornings.
But you don’t erase nearly twenty years of connection to a community by changing a schedule.
GRAND RAPIDS STILL KNOWS HIS NAME.
And somewhere in radio, somebody ought to recognize exactly how valuable that is.
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