When it comes to radio stations in the Mahoning Valley, lets face it, there are a lot of options. Only one offers local musicians exposure that spans 11 counties in both Ohio and Pennsylvania. 

Spend a few hours at 90.7 FM The Summit though and it's easy to see that it is much more than just a radio station.

"We're an all music public radio station. So there's no news, there's no sports, there's no politics. There are plenty of other stations that do that. They do it really well. We're about music, the arts, and community," said general manager Tommy Bruno.

The radio station is based in Akron, but can broadcast throughout the Mahoning Valley thanks to a partnership with Struthers City Schools. 

"The quality of music from Northeast Ohio is really astonishing. So many bands in so many different genre's are coming out of here," said program director Brad Savage.

You can hear plenty of national bands, but also mixed into the daily playlist are local musicians like The Vindy's and JD Eicher. 

"Youngstown has really developed, in the last few years, a great local music sound," said Savage. "Leading that charge I think is The Vindy's right along with JD Eicher and Demos Papadimas and then you've got some younger bands like Spirit of the Bear and East Ninth that we've been playing a lot. There is even a cool band that we really like out of Butler, Pa. called Appalachian Doom Gospel that we've started playing recently so it's kind of nice to have the airwaves to offer them some exposure."

The Summit also has three streaming music channels including: the330.net, KidJam Radio and Rock and Recovery. 

"The 330.net is a stream that is all local music 24/7 from the area and then given our involvement with the Akron schools and the Struthers schools, we have KidJam Radio which is kids specifically zeroed in on eight to 12-year-olds and playing clean, fun pop songs that kind of reach that demographic but without all the advertising and marketing messages," said Savage.

Rock and Recovery offers a soundtrack of hope and also plays nightly on the Summit from 10 pm to 1 am.  "Rock and Recovery mixes upbeat music with messages of hope. Hope of recovering, not just from drugs or alcohol or relapse. It's more about grief, trauma, things that all of us are going to go through in our life," said Bruno. "It's taking technology, it's taking these airwaves and reaching out to people in need and providing them with stories of recovery, people that are getting through their day, each and every day."

It's just one of the many ways The Summit tries to engage with the community. Take for example their Music Alive Program. They take unwanted musical instruments, clean them up and make repairs if needed and then donate them back to kids in Struthers City Schools. 

"We're up to a couple dozen, we want to hit 50 by the end of the year," said Bruno.

The Summit also offers its airwaves to other non-profits for interviews and publicity. 

"Our mission is to reach into the non-profit communities," said Bruno. "We feel like as a member of that community supplying the arts, supporting non-profits, playing local music is a niche that no one else is doing and we're trying to do it to the best of our abilities."

It's what makes 90.7 FM The Summit uniquely different as the sound of Northeast Ohio. 

For more information on The Summit or to find out how to support the station by becoming a member, click here.