Jim Mothersbaugh Jr., the voice of “Jimbo in Stereo” and founder and director of Road Radio USA, and the Road Radio USA team are working hard over the summer to get their program out to hundreds of Camp Cadets while continuing to get their message across to half a million adolescents, parents, teachers and educators.
“We understand kids do not want to be talked down to and patronized and the show has many speakers who have gone through experiences whose lives have been impacted by drugs and alcohol,” business manager Marianne Beane said. “We are across all social media platforms and have a TikTok profile with about 50,000 views which is still growing. We want to reach young people before they pick up a drink or a drug.”
Road Radio USA strongly states, “underage drinking and drug use is a National Health Problem and how you can be part of the solution.” Beane started working with Mothersbaugh in 2020 when COVID-19 hit to develop a virtual version of their show to get their message to hundreds of school districts. This, of course, has continued to be strong and growing constantly.
Mothersbaugh has been doing Road Radio USA for decades, after a traumatic brain injury from a car crash in which his dear friend was killed while driving under the influence. Mothersbaugh was in a coma for four months at Geisinger Medical Center.
Mothersbaugh is in Recovery and said he has health issues which he must take care of every day, yet he took “the bad and turned it into good.”
“How wonderful it is that Mothersbaugh has a theatrical background and comes alive on the stage,” Beane said.
Mothersbaugh interacts with a pre-recorded multi-media programming to reach kids, students, teachers and parents. Road Radio USA has informative information, popular music videos and is interspersed with public service announcements such as dangers of vaping, texting and driving, wearing your seatbelt, dangers of taking pills you don’t know the origin of and how social media impacts your mental health.
Mothersbaugh said they can “go anywhere in the country and in 1993 it began to get good and is getting even better.”
Mothersbaugh does the show with a long-time group, which includes Andy Keister- DJ “Big Andy” Audio/Video, Jim Smith “The Music Smith”-Back up DJ/Audio and Video and Ron Johnson-Transportation and Event Photography.
Mothersbaugh and Beane have launched podcasts and Road Radio USA has been developing into an interaction based on facts and testimonials.
Everyone is impacted “somehow and some way by drugs and alcohol,” they said.
The first season of podcasts alone has 32 episodes with testimonials and evolution of the program sharing stories of people who have been impacted by drugs and alcohol.
“Road Radio gives a voice and a face to the people who are impacted and wants to remove the stereotype,” Beane highlighted. “It’s not shameful and even though you may think there are not people who want to help, there are supports which can save your life.”
“It’s tailored to middle school children but really reaches children to adults of all ages,” Mothersbaugh said.
The live production has a live DJ, fog machine, laser’s, question and answer.
Beane is working on updated segments all the time and said how “Jim comes alive on the stage and thrives on children’s responses.”
Mothersbaugh wants to bring more God into the show as he believes God brought him through all his challenges. Road Radio USA travels to private, Catholic and public schools.
“This is an evidence-based intervention as the three most powerful interventions are community based, school based, and family based, Beane said. “We are working on getting a card to each child to have a QR code where they can go to easily as a pocket resource. … We do not want to go in once and leave. We want it to be ongoing. The reality of this- is potentially kids can see this every day. Again, we want to team up with educators to compliment the program- guidance counselors, substance abuse counselors and so many more involved to get their input.”
Road Radio Podcasts run from 5 to 30 minutes.
Beane and the team at Ignite Business Services, in Williamsport provide “full support for Mothersbaugh in Road Radio USA .”
“Go to the website and you can see all our social media platforms-www.roadradiousa.net. We put a lot of information out,” she said.
At this time, Ignite Inc. is also working on an area in their office where they can interview guests and have a little more structured program.
“Everyone has a story and it’s powerful to share those,” Beane said.” It’s not a dirty secret and if you think you must keep it hidden and it’s shameful-then people can use it as power over you. It does not have power over you if you own it.” She explained how one out of five people is touched either in active addiction, in recovery or knows of someone in addiction.
“We need to remove the stigma and want kids to ask for help.”