American Busker iHeartRadio launches Mahoning Valley talent search
The owner of a live 24-hour radio station highlighting independent artists is looking to expand her talent searches in what she said are sometimes overlooked or underappreciated areas.
Nancy Belle Hahn, owner and founder of American Busker iHeartRadio station, is credited as the first woman in the U.S. to build a broadcast TV station and run it for 25 years.
The American Busker radio station started seven years ago and celebrates indie artists around the world as well as undiscovered gems known as buskers, which are musicians who specialize in public performances.
Hahn is looking to showcase indie artists and street performers from the Mahoning Valley. She’s enlisted the assistance of singer, songwriter and recording artist Jenah Shank, a native of Western Pennsylvania now living in Austintown, to locate and recommend area artists to feature.
“Organically discovering and featuring new talent that is otherwise overlooked, successfully fills a great void in the entertainment industry,” she said. “We are reaching over 150 million households thus far and the best is yet to come.”
Artists are invited to email their music or video links to mahoningvalleybusking@yahoo.com to be considered.
“This area, northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania, is very near and dear to my heart,” Hahn said. “My father, Ralph Noviello, was born and raised in New Castle, and I spent many summers as a child with my grandmother Antoinette Litrenta Noviello in New Castle. The true grit and integrity of the people in this part of the American Rust belt is second to none, and I’m so proud to have that in my DNA.”
American Busker: Street to Star is a streaming variety-entertainment television series created by Hahn that premiered in late 2025.
The show, hosted by Quincy Bonds, is a variety-entertainment TV show spotlighting global street performers. Hahn was inspired to create the show after witnessing street performers at the Chautauqua Institution in 2019.
It showcases talents from around the world and streams to 150 million households on platforms including Freecast TV, Xumo TV, Roku TV, Caribbean One and ESCAPES TV.
Grammy-award winner Sid Mills, recipient of nine Grammy nominations, is the music director. The show’s opening song is by The Buskers winner of the Eurovision Song of the Year.
It also features an interactive game called Busker Bingo.
Hahn also owns iHeart radio stations iRead2Know, MyToonsRadio, Science Star Kids, The Adventures of Eshe the Ethiopian Elephant, Planet Pink Club and Puppies of Puccini Pawcast.
All the music and stories are created and written by her in these broadcasts.
She also serves on the board of directors of the historic Warner Cascade Theatre Museum, home of the first theater operated by the Warner Brothers, in New Castle, Pennsylvania.
