#hyperlocal — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #hyperlocal, aggregated by home.social.
-
#DavidHoffmann is investing in #localnewspapers, aiming to save them by focusing on #profitability and #hyperlocal. He owns 42 titles and a controlling stake in #LeeEnterprises, implementing strategies like consolidating payroll, sharing services, and pivoting to paywalls. https://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2026/04/05/this-billionaire-david-hoffmann-wants-to-save-americas-newspapers-he-thinks-hes-found-a-way/?eicker.news #tech #media #news
-
#DavidHoffmann is investing in #localnewspapers, aiming to save them by focusing on #profitability and #hyperlocal. He owns 42 titles and a controlling stake in #LeeEnterprises, implementing strategies like consolidating payroll, sharing services, and pivoting to paywalls. https://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2026/04/05/this-billionaire-david-hoffmann-wants-to-save-americas-newspapers-he-thinks-hes-found-a-way/?eicker.news #tech #media #news
-
#DavidHoffmann is investing in #localnewspapers, aiming to save them by focusing on #profitability and #hyperlocal. He owns 42 titles and a controlling stake in #LeeEnterprises, implementing strategies like consolidating payroll, sharing services, and pivoting to paywalls. https://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2026/04/05/this-billionaire-david-hoffmann-wants-to-save-americas-newspapers-he-thinks-hes-found-a-way/?eicker.news #tech #media #news
-
#DavidHoffmann is investing in #localnewspapers, aiming to save them by focusing on #profitability and #hyperlocal. He owns 42 titles and a controlling stake in #LeeEnterprises, implementing strategies like consolidating payroll, sharing services, and pivoting to paywalls. https://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2026/04/05/this-billionaire-david-hoffmann-wants-to-save-americas-newspapers-he-thinks-hes-found-a-way/?eicker.news #tech #media #news
-
#DavidHoffmann is investing in #localnewspapers, aiming to save them by focusing on #profitability and #hyperlocal. He owns 42 titles and a controlling stake in #LeeEnterprises, implementing strategies like consolidating payroll, sharing services, and pivoting to paywalls. https://www.forbes.com/sites/luisakroll/2026/04/05/this-billionaire-david-hoffmann-wants-to-save-americas-newspapers-he-thinks-hes-found-a-way/?eicker.news #tech #media #news
-
This was a very good interview with Epoch Times and Adam Curry. https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/how-propaganda-was-modernized-podfather-adam-curry-5987394?src_src=partner&src_cmp=whatfinger #HyperLocal #SlaveSlab
-
This was a very good interview with Epoch Times and Adam Curry. https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/how-propaganda-was-modernized-podfather-adam-curry-5987394?src_src=partner&src_cmp=whatfinger #HyperLocal #SlaveSlab
-
This was a very good interview with Epoch Times and Adam Curry. https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/how-propaganda-was-modernized-podfather-adam-curry-5987394?src_src=partner&src_cmp=whatfinger #HyperLocal #SlaveSlab
-
Tubefilter: U.S. TikTok is tracking precise user data to power a new “Local Feed”. “The push for the U.S. TikTok deal was driven by lawmakers’ desire to control the user data of American citizens. The data in question is now stored on U.S. servers, and the company known as TikTok USDS Joint Venture (USDSJV) is putting those details to work. A new Local Feed will harness precise user data […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/02/15/tubefilter-u-s-tiktok-is-tracking-precise-user-data-to-power-a-new-local-feed/ -
Tubefilter: U.S. TikTok is tracking precise user data to power a new “Local Feed”. “The push for the U.S. TikTok deal was driven by lawmakers’ desire to control the user data of American citizens. The data in question is now stored on U.S. servers, and the company known as TikTok USDS Joint Venture (USDSJV) is putting those details to work. A new Local Feed will harness precise user data […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/02/15/tubefilter-u-s-tiktok-is-tracking-precise-user-data-to-power-a-new-local-feed/ -
Tubefilter: U.S. TikTok is tracking precise user data to power a new “Local Feed”. “The push for the U.S. TikTok deal was driven by lawmakers’ desire to control the user data of American citizens. The data in question is now stored on U.S. servers, and the company known as TikTok USDS Joint Venture (USDSJV) is putting those details to work. A new Local Feed will harness precise user data […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/02/15/tubefilter-u-s-tiktok-is-tracking-precise-user-data-to-power-a-new-local-feed/ -
Tubefilter: U.S. TikTok is tracking precise user data to power a new “Local Feed”. “The push for the U.S. TikTok deal was driven by lawmakers’ desire to control the user data of American citizens. The data in question is now stored on U.S. servers, and the company known as TikTok USDS Joint Venture (USDSJV) is putting those details to work. A new Local Feed will harness precise user data […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/02/15/tubefilter-u-s-tiktok-is-tracking-precise-user-data-to-power-a-new-local-feed/ -
Tubefilter: U.S. TikTok is tracking precise user data to power a new “Local Feed”. “The push for the U.S. TikTok deal was driven by lawmakers’ desire to control the user data of American citizens. The data in question is now stored on U.S. servers, and the company known as TikTok USDS Joint Venture (USDSJV) is putting those details to work. A new Local Feed will harness precise user data […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/02/15/tubefilter-u-s-tiktok-is-tracking-precise-user-data-to-power-a-new-local-feed/ -
If you're thinking that the recent spate of online age-verification laws is alarming for social networking, consider helping your community with a hyperlocal Mastodon (or other fediverse software) instance where you can meet people in person.
https://www.empathyforward.org/2025/12/community-based-fediverse-instances/
-
If you're thinking that the recent spate of online age-verification laws is alarming for social networking, consider helping your community with a hyperlocal Mastodon (or other fediverse software) instance where you can meet people in person.
https://www.empathyforward.org/2025/12/community-based-fediverse-instances/
-
If you're thinking that the recent spate of online age-verification laws is alarming for social networking, consider helping your community with a hyperlocal Mastodon (or other fediverse software) instance where you can meet people in person.
https://www.empathyforward.org/2025/12/community-based-fediverse-instances/
-
If you're thinking that the recent spate of online age-verification laws is alarming for social networking, consider helping your community with a hyperlocal Mastodon (or other fediverse software) instance where you can meet people in person.
https://www.empathyforward.org/2025/12/community-based-fediverse-instances/
-
If you're thinking that the recent spate of online age-verification laws is alarming for social networking, consider helping your community with a hyperlocal Mastodon (or other fediverse software) instance where you can meet people in person.
https://www.empathyforward.org/2025/12/community-based-fediverse-instances/
-
Khi xây dựng ứng dụng cộng đồng siêu địa phương, tác giả bất ngờ nhận ra yếu tố "tin cậy" quan trọng hơn "tính năng". Người dùng cần biết rõ về quyền riêng tư, cách xử lý lạm dụng trước khi tham gia. UX an toàn (chức năng báo cáo/chặn, quy tắc rõ ràng) phải là tính năng cốt lõi. Càng địa phương hóa, càng cần chú trọng bảo mật và kiểm duyệt để giữ chân người dùng.
#SaaS #Hyperlocal #Trust #CommunityApp #Startup
#ỨngDụngCộngĐồng #KhởiNghiệp #NiềmTin #BảoMật #SiêuĐịaPhương -
The #GoogleMaps tool is now available in the #Gemini #API, allowing developers to ground their applications in #Maps data. This enables the creation of geospatial-aware #AIproducts by connecting #Gemini’s #reasoning capabilities with data from over 250 million #places. Developers can improve model responses with #groundingdata, create detailed #itineraries, provide #hyperlocal recommendations, and answer #locationbased questions. https://blog.google/technology/developers/grounding-google-maps-gemini-api/?AIagents.at #AIagent #AI #ML #NLP #LLM #GenAI
-
The #GoogleMaps tool is now available in the #Gemini #API, allowing developers to ground their applications in #Maps data. This enables the creation of geospatial-aware #AIproducts by connecting #Gemini’s #reasoning capabilities with data from over 250 million #places. Developers can improve model responses with #groundingdata, create detailed #itineraries, provide #hyperlocal recommendations, and answer #locationbased questions. https://blog.google/technology/developers/grounding-google-maps-gemini-api/?AIagents.at #AIagent #AI #ML #NLP #LLM #GenAI
-
The #GoogleMaps tool is now available in the #Gemini #API, allowing developers to ground their applications in #Maps data. This enables the creation of geospatial-aware #AIproducts by connecting #Gemini’s #reasoning capabilities with data from over 250 million #places. Developers can improve model responses with #groundingdata, create detailed #itineraries, provide #hyperlocal recommendations, and answer #locationbased questions. https://blog.google/technology/developers/grounding-google-maps-gemini-api/?AIagents.at #AIagent #AI #ML #NLP #LLM #GenAI
-
The #GoogleMaps tool is now available in the #Gemini #API, allowing developers to ground their applications in #Maps data. This enables the creation of geospatial-aware #AIproducts by connecting #Gemini’s #reasoning capabilities with data from over 250 million #places. Developers can improve model responses with #groundingdata, create detailed #itineraries, provide #hyperlocal recommendations, and answer #locationbased questions. https://blog.google/technology/developers/grounding-google-maps-gemini-api/?AIagents.at #AIagent #AI #ML #NLP #LLM #GenAI
-
The #GoogleMaps tool is now available in the #Gemini #API, allowing developers to ground their applications in #Maps data. This enables the creation of geospatial-aware #AIproducts by connecting #Gemini’s #reasoning capabilities with data from over 250 million #places. Developers can improve model responses with #groundingdata, create detailed #itineraries, provide #hyperlocal recommendations, and answer #locationbased questions. https://blog.google/technology/developers/grounding-google-maps-gemini-api/?AIagents.at #AIagent #AI #ML #NLP #LLM #GenAI
-
Hyperlocal Marketing: Strategi Iklan Berdasarkan Lokasi Tertentu
#Iklans - #Hyperlocal Marketing: #Strategi Iklan Berdasarkan Lokasi Tertentu - Di era #digital yang sangat kompetitif, keberhasilan sebuah #bisnis tidak hanya ditentukan oleh seberapa luas jangkauan iklannya, tetapi juga seberapa relevan pesan tersebut bagi audiens yang dituju. Salah satu #strategi pemasaran modern yang kini banyak diterapkan adalah hyperlocal marketing — pendekatan #iklan yang…
-
Hyperlocal Marketing: Strategi Iklan Berdasarkan Lokasi Tertentu
#Iklans - #Hyperlocal Marketing: #Strategi Iklan Berdasarkan Lokasi Tertentu - Di era #digital yang sangat kompetitif, keberhasilan sebuah #bisnis tidak hanya ditentukan oleh seberapa luas jangkauan iklannya, tetapi juga seberapa relevan pesan tersebut bagi audiens yang dituju. Salah satu #strategi pemasaran modern yang kini banyak diterapkan adalah hyperlocal marketing — pendekatan #iklan yang…
-
Hyperlocal Marketing: Strategi Iklan Berdasarkan Lokasi Tertentu
#Iklans - #Hyperlocal Marketing: #Strategi Iklan Berdasarkan Lokasi Tertentu - Di era #digital yang sangat kompetitif, keberhasilan sebuah #bisnis tidak hanya ditentukan oleh seberapa luas jangkauan iklannya, tetapi juga seberapa relevan pesan tersebut bagi audiens yang dituju. Salah satu #strategi pemasaran modern yang kini banyak diterapkan adalah hyperlocal marketing — pendekatan #iklan yang…
-
Hyperlocal Marketing: Strategi Iklan Berdasarkan Lokasi Tertentu
#Iklans - #Hyperlocal Marketing: #Strategi Iklan Berdasarkan Lokasi Tertentu - Di era #digital yang sangat kompetitif, keberhasilan sebuah #bisnis tidak hanya ditentukan oleh seberapa luas jangkauan iklannya, tetapi juga seberapa relevan pesan tersebut bagi audiens yang dituju. Salah satu #strategi pemasaran modern yang kini banyak diterapkan adalah hyperlocal marketing — pendekatan #iklan yang…
-
Hyperlocal Marketing: Strategi Iklan Berdasarkan Lokasi Tertentu
#Iklans - #Hyperlocal Marketing: #Strategi Iklan Berdasarkan Lokasi Tertentu - Di era #digital yang sangat kompetitif, keberhasilan sebuah #bisnis tidak hanya ditentukan oleh seberapa luas jangkauan iklannya, tetapi juga seberapa relevan pesan tersebut bagi audiens yang dituju. Salah satu #strategi pemasaran modern yang kini banyak diterapkan adalah hyperlocal marketing — pendekatan #iklan yang…
-
all local apps are subject to weird nextdoor flex but ok syndrome #intent #what is actual news #osint #hyperlocal #intelligence
-
all local apps are subject to weird nextdoor flex but ok syndrome #intent #what is actual news #osint #hyperlocal #intelligence
-
all local apps are subject to weird nextdoor flex but ok syndrome #intent #what is actual news #osint #hyperlocal #intelligence
-
all local apps are subject to weird nextdoor flex but ok syndrome #intent #what is actual news #osint #hyperlocal #intelligence
-
https://www.pomologen-verein.de/landes-und-regionalgruppen/lg-nordrhein-westfalen/
> NRW-Regionalsorte des Jahres 2025: Der „Bergischer Herrenapfel“ kommt nach jetzigem Kenntnisstand in einem eng begrenzten Bereich des Bergischen Landes in der Gegend um Rösrath und Overath (nähe Köln) vor. Die knackig süß-säuerlichen und verhältnismäßig aromatischen Früchte des Bergischen Herrenapfels sind hauptsächlich als Tafeläpfel verwendbar, aber auch zur Saftherstellung und als Küchenapfel zur Verarbeitung geeignet.
-
https://www.pomologen-verein.de/landes-und-regionalgruppen/lg-nordrhein-westfalen/
> NRW-Regionalsorte des Jahres 2025: Der „Bergischer Herrenapfel“ kommt nach jetzigem Kenntnisstand in einem eng begrenzten Bereich des Bergischen Landes in der Gegend um Rösrath und Overath (nähe Köln) vor. Die knackig süß-säuerlichen und verhältnismäßig aromatischen Früchte des Bergischen Herrenapfels sind hauptsächlich als Tafeläpfel verwendbar, aber auch zur Saftherstellung und als Küchenapfel zur Verarbeitung geeignet.
-
https://www.pomologen-verein.de/landes-und-regionalgruppen/lg-nordrhein-westfalen/
> NRW-Regionalsorte des Jahres 2025: Der „Bergischer Herrenapfel“ kommt nach jetzigem Kenntnisstand in einem eng begrenzten Bereich des Bergischen Landes in der Gegend um Rösrath und Overath (nähe Köln) vor. Die knackig süß-säuerlichen und verhältnismäßig aromatischen Früchte des Bergischen Herrenapfels sind hauptsächlich als Tafeläpfel verwendbar, aber auch zur Saftherstellung und als Küchenapfel zur Verarbeitung geeignet.
-
https://www.pomologen-verein.de/landes-und-regionalgruppen/lg-nordrhein-westfalen/
> NRW-Regionalsorte des Jahres 2025: Der „Bergischer Herrenapfel“ kommt nach jetzigem Kenntnisstand in einem eng begrenzten Bereich des Bergischen Landes in der Gegend um Rösrath und Overath (nähe Köln) vor. Die knackig süß-säuerlichen und verhältnismäßig aromatischen Früchte des Bergischen Herrenapfels sind hauptsächlich als Tafeläpfel verwendbar, aber auch zur Saftherstellung und als Küchenapfel zur Verarbeitung geeignet.
-
https://www.pomologen-verein.de/landes-und-regionalgruppen/lg-nordrhein-westfalen/
> NRW-Regionalsorte des Jahres 2025: Der „Bergischer Herrenapfel“ kommt nach jetzigem Kenntnisstand in einem eng begrenzten Bereich des Bergischen Landes in der Gegend um Rösrath und Overath (nähe Köln) vor. Die knackig süß-säuerlichen und verhältnismäßig aromatischen Früchte des Bergischen Herrenapfels sind hauptsächlich als Tafeläpfel verwendbar, aber auch zur Saftherstellung und als Küchenapfel zur Verarbeitung geeignet.
-
Arlington’s embarrassing waste of a low-power FM license
For the first time in many months, I tuned the radio in our car to 96.7 FM Thursday evening and realized I hadn’t missed anything: WERA, Arlington County’s sole low-power FM station, was once again playing a canned loop of instrumentals, without a live human voice to be heard.
That this rated as an improvement over the dead air previously on that frequency shows how far WERA has fallen from the promise of “LPFM” after years of funding problems compounded by what seems to have been rampant mismanagement bordering on fraud. All of this ineptitude, as ArlNow reminded me in a report Wednesday afternoon about the station’s unexpected but unstaffed return to the airwaves, has left the station in a zombified state.
In other words, WERA has become the sort of lifeless broadcaster that it was created to counter.
When this station went on the air on December 6, 2015, dozens of guests packed Arlington Independent Media’s studio in Clarendon and toasted its debut with sparkling wine in plastic cups. Advocates of LPFM had spent a decade lobbying Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to ignore the opposition of incumbent broadcasters and authorize a class of nonprofit, hyperlocal stations; almost five years after President Obama signed the Local Community Radio Act into law, listeners next door to Washington finally had their own indie LPFM listening option.
WERA almost immediately earned a preset on our car’s radio for its delightfully eclectic mix of music and talk programming, which the limited reach of its 21-watt signal meant I could only hear within a few miles of the station’s transmitter. As I wrote at Yahoo Finance in late December of 2015:
The station has since served up a free-form mashup of music that you almost never hear on commercial FM. One DJ with his medium on his mind followed R.E.M.’s “Radio Free Europe” with Donna Summer’s disco hit “On the Radio” and Rush’s “The Spirit of Radio,” but the selection has also extended to French chanteuse Edith Piaf and 1950s mambo king Pérez Prado.
But over subsequent years, the ongoing decline of cable TV left less of a subsidy for Arlington Independent Media from taxes paid by Comcast on that revenue. Arlington’s government chipped in, but the real problem was not income but expenses. In March of 2024, ArlNow reported that the county had suspended further payments until it could complete an audit of AIM, while AIM staffers alleged “reckless” management of the station’s funds.
(The irony of one small, independent local-media organization doing such a good job of covering another small, independent local-media organization while the Washington Post has ignored this story is duly noted.)
Days later, AIM sacked its entire staff and took WERA off the air. The county’s audit, finally published in February of this year, revealed seriously sloppy financial management under former CEO Whytni Kernodle that included inadequate documentation of more than $1 million in expenses over two-plus years. The County Board referred the matter to a special prosecutor who then declined to file charges against Kernodle.
(My wife works for the county government’s IT department but thankfully has had no role in any of this.)
Things could be worse: The lack of paid employees somehow did not stop WERA from getting back on the air in time to prevent the FCC from revoking its license. But as ArlNow’s Dan Egitto wrote Wednesday, the entire operation seems otherwise dead on the inside. Would-be AIM turnaround president Amanda MacKaye told him that she’s no longer on AIM’s board or otherwise involved with the organization, nobody still on the board answered his questions, and the County Board seems set to wash its hands of this whole ugly affair.
You shouldn’t read this an indictment of LPFM, which was and remains a good idea and a useful antidote to soundalike corporate FM. The D.C. area’s other LPFM station, Takoma Radio, has been on the air since 2016 at 94.3 FM, and the chance to listen to WOWD on the way to and from D.C.’s Costco makes the traffic a little more pleasant. I’m listening to its stream as I type this.
But you absolutely should read WERA’s miserable saga as a stupid squandering of cultural potential. And everybody in media-policy circles who worked so hard to make LPFM a reality should be angry about it.
#943 #967 #ArlingtonIndependentMedia #ArlNow #broadcast #freeFormRadio #hyperlocal #indieMedia #lowPowerFM #LPFM #mediaReform #radio #RadioArlington #TakomaRadio #WERA #WERALP #WOWD
-
Arlington’s embarrassing waste of a low-power FM license
For the first time in many months, I tuned the radio in our car to 96.7 FM Thursday evening and realized I hadn’t missed anything: WERA, Arlington County’s sole low-power FM station, was once again playing a canned loop of instrumentals, without a live human voice to be heard.
That this rated as an improvement over the dead air previously on that frequency shows how far WERA has fallen from the promise of “LPFM” after years of funding problems compounded by what seems to have been rampant mismanagement bordering on fraud. All of this ineptitude, as ArlNow reminded me in a report Wednesday afternoon about the station’s unexpected but unstaffed return to the airwaves, has left the station in a zombified state.
In other words, WERA has become the sort of lifeless broadcaster that it was created to counter.
When this station went on the air on December 6, 2015, dozens of guests packed Arlington Independent Media’s studio in Clarendon and toasted its debut with sparkling wine in plastic cups. Advocates of LPFM had spent a decade lobbying Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to ignore the opposition of incumbent broadcasters and authorize a class of nonprofit, hyperlocal stations; almost five years after President Obama signed the Local Community Radio Act into law, listeners next door to Washington finally had their own indie LPFM listening option.
WERA almost immediately earned a preset on our car’s radio for its delightfully eclectic mix of music and talk programming, which the limited reach of its 21-watt signal meant I could only hear within a few miles of the station’s transmitter. As I wrote at Yahoo Finance in late December of 2015:
The station has since served up a free-form mashup of music that you almost never hear on commercial FM. One DJ with his medium on his mind followed R.E.M.’s “Radio Free Europe” with Donna Summer’s disco hit “On the Radio” and Rush’s “The Spirit of Radio,” but the selection has also extended to French chanteuse Edith Piaf and 1950s mambo king Pérez Prado.
But over subsequent years, the ongoing decline of cable TV left less of a subsidy for Arlington Independent Media from taxes paid by Comcast on that revenue. Arlington’s government chipped in, but the real problem was not income but expenses. In March of 2024, ArlNow reported that the county had suspended further payments until it could complete an audit of AIM, while AIM staffers alleged “reckless” management of the station’s funds.
(The irony of one small, independent local-media organization doing such a good job of covering another small, independent local-media organization while the Washington Post has ignored this story is duly noted.)
Days later, AIM sacked its entire staff and took WERA off the air. The county’s audit, finally published in February of this year, revealed seriously sloppy financial management under former CEO Whytni Kernodle that included inadequate documentation of more than $1 million in expenses over two-plus years. The County Board referred the matter to a special prosecutor who then declined to file charges against Kernodle.
(My wife works for the county government’s IT department but thankfully has had no role in any of this.)
Things could be worse: The lack of paid employees somehow did not stop WERA from getting back on the air in time to prevent the FCC from revoking its license. But as ArlNow’s Dan Egitto wrote Wednesday, the entire operation seems otherwise dead on the inside. Would-be AIM turnaround president Amanda MacKaye told him that she’s no longer on AIM’s board or otherwise involved with the organization, nobody still on the board answered his questions, and the County Board seems set to wash its hands of this whole ugly affair.
You shouldn’t read this an indictment of LPFM, which was and remains a good idea and a useful antidote to soundalike corporate FM. The D.C. area’s other LPFM station, Takoma Radio, has been on the air since 2016 at 94.3 FM, and the chance to listen to WOWD on the way to and from D.C.’s Costco makes the traffic a little more pleasant. I’m listening to its stream as I type this.
But you absolutely should read WERA’s miserable saga as a stupid squandering of cultural potential. And everybody in media-policy circles who worked so hard to make LPFM a reality should be angry about it.
#943 #967 #ArlingtonIndependentMedia #ArlNow #broadcast #freeFormRadio #hyperlocal #indieMedia #lowPowerFM #LPFM #mediaReform #radio #RadioArlington #TakomaRadio #WERA #WERALP #WOWD
-
Arlington’s embarrassing waste of a low-power FM license
For the first time in many months, I tuned the radio in our car to 96.7 FM Thursday evening and realized I hadn’t missed anything: WERA, Arlington County’s sole low-power FM station, was once again playing a canned loop of instrumentals, without a live human voice to be heard.
That this rated as an improvement over the dead air previously on that frequency shows how far WERA has fallen from the promise of “LPFM” after years of funding problems compounded by what seems to have been rampant mismanagement bordering on fraud. All of this ineptitude, as ArlNow reminded me in a report Wednesday afternoon about the station’s unexpected but unstaffed return to the airwaves, has left the station in a zombified state.
In other words, WERA has become the sort of lifeless broadcaster that it was created to counter.
When this station went on the air on December 6, 2015, dozens of guests packed Arlington Independent Media’s studio in Clarendon and toasted its debut with sparkling wine in plastic cups. Advocates of LPFM had spent a decade lobbying Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to ignore the opposition of incumbent broadcasters and authorize a class of nonprofit, hyperlocal stations; almost five years after President Obama signed the Local Community Radio Act into law, listeners next door to Washington finally had their own indie LPFM listening option.
WERA almost immediately earned a preset on our car’s radio for its delightfully eclectic mix of music and talk programming, which the limited reach of its 21-watt signal meant I could only hear within a few miles of the station’s transmitter. As I wrote at Yahoo Finance in late December of 2015:
The station has since served up a free-form mashup of music that you almost never hear on commercial FM. One DJ with his medium on his mind followed R.E.M.’s “Radio Free Europe” with Donna Summer’s disco hit “On the Radio” and Rush’s “The Spirit of Radio,” but the selection has also extended to French chanteuse Edith Piaf and 1950s mambo king Pérez Prado.
But over subsequent years, the ongoing decline of cable TV left less of a subsidy for Arlington Independent Media from taxes paid by Comcast on that revenue. Arlington’s government chipped in, but the real problem was not income but expenses. In March of 2024, ArlNow reported that the county had suspended further payments until it could complete an audit of AIM, while AIM staffers alleged “reckless” management of the station’s funds.
(The irony of one small, independent local-media organization doing such a good job of covering another small, independent local-media organization while the Washington Post has ignored this story is duly noted.)
Days later, AIM sacked its entire staff and took WERA off the air. The county’s audit, finally published in February of this year, revealed seriously sloppy financial management under former CEO Whytni Kernodle that included inadequate documentation of more than $1 million in expenses over two-plus years. The County Board referred the matter to a special prosecutor who then declined to file charges against Kernodle.
(My wife works for the county government’s IT department but thankfully has had no role in any of this.)
Things could be worse: The lack of paid employees somehow did not stop WERA from getting back on the air in time to prevent the FCC from revoking its license. But as ArlNow’s Dan Egitto wrote Wednesday, the entire operation seems otherwise dead on the inside. Would-be AIM turnaround president Amanda MacKaye told him that she’s no longer on AIM’s board or otherwise involved with the organization, nobody still on the board answered his questions, and the County Board seems set to wash its hands of this whole ugly affair.
You shouldn’t read this an indictment of LPFM, which was and remains a good idea and a useful antidote to soundalike corporate FM. The D.C. area’s other LPFM station, Takoma Radio, has been on the air since 2016 at 94.3 FM, and the chance to listen to WOWD on the way to and from D.C.’s Costco makes the traffic a little more pleasant. I’m listening to its stream as I type this.
But you absolutely should read WERA’s miserable saga as a stupid squandering of cultural potential. And everybody in media-policy circles who worked so hard to make LPFM a reality should be angry about it.
#943 #967 #ArlingtonIndependentMedia #ArlNow #broadcast #freeFormRadio #hyperlocal #indieMedia #lowPowerFM #LPFM #mediaReform #radio #RadioArlington #TakomaRadio #WERA #WERALP #WOWD
-
Fact. What feels like decades of back to back coverage, and yet Cuff still can’t spell, I blame the dog. (Thx for the fix!) Also. Where’s the dog at? :-) #hyperlocal!
-
Fact. What feels like decades of back to back coverage, and yet Cuff still can’t spell, I blame the dog. (Thx for the fix!) Also. Where’s the dog at? :-) #hyperlocal!
-
Oi! What the dickens is this thread anyhow?
Well, I'm Knizer, and I started compiling interesting #boston events as a way to self-motivate exploring my beloved and vibrant #NewEngland and called it #bostonWeekend here, because why not share it with my neighbors? Its become my little #hyperlocal content-generating project to help me meet some neighbors (you're all lovely) and gives me something to talk about when I'm bragging about our lower-stress, no advertisement, social media lifestyle here on the #fediverse
No algorithm - you've got to post, boost, or like stuff, its the #CategoricalImperative of the fedi, that, hope, and some trans and/or furry server admins keep this place running.
Anyway, rock on, #Massachusetts and surrounds.
#BostonWeekend 14/x -
Oi! What the dickens is this thread anyhow?
Well, I'm Knizer, and I started compiling interesting #boston events as a way to self-motivate exploring my beloved and vibrant #NewEngland and called it #bostonWeekend here, because why not share it with my neighbors? Its become my little #hyperlocal content-generating project to help me meet some neighbors (you're all lovely) and gives me something to talk about when I'm bragging about our lower-stress, no advertisement, social media lifestyle here on the #fediverse
No algorithm - you've got to post, boost, or like stuff, its the #CategoricalImperative of the fedi, that, hope, and some trans and/or furry server admins keep this place running.
Anyway, rock on, #Massachusetts and surrounds.
#BostonWeekend 14/x -
Oi! What the dickens is this thread anyhow?
Well, I'm Knizer, and I started compiling interesting #boston events as a way to self-motivate exploring my beloved and vibrant #NewEngland and called it #bostonWeekend here, because why not share it with my neighbors? Its become my little #hyperlocal content-generating project to help me meet some neighbors (you're all lovely) and gives me something to talk about when I'm bragging about our lower-stress, no advertisement, social media lifestyle here on the #fediverse
No algorithm - you've got to post, boost, or like stuff, its the #CategoricalImperative of the fedi, that, hope, and some trans and/or furry server admins keep this place running.
Anyway, rock on, #Massachusetts and surrounds.
#BostonWeekend 14/x -
Oi! What the dickens is this thread anyhow?
Well, I'm Knizer, and I started compiling interesting #boston events as a way to self-motivate exploring my beloved and vibrant #NewEngland and called it #bostonWeekend here, because why not share it with my neighbors? Its become my little #hyperlocal content-generating project to help me meet some neighbors (you're all lovely) and gives me something to talk about when I'm bragging about our lower-stress, no advertisement, social media lifestyle here on the #fediverse
No algorithm - you've got to post, boost, or like stuff, its the #CategoricalImperative of the fedi, that, hope, and some trans and/or furry server admins keep this place running.
Anyway, rock on, #Massachusetts and surrounds.
#BostonWeekend 14/x -
Oi! What the dickens is this thread anyhow?
Well, I'm Knizer, and I started compiling interesting #boston events as a way to self-motivate exploring my beloved and vibrant #NewEngland and called it #bostonWeekend here, because why not share it with my neighbors? Its become my little #hyperlocal content-generating project to help me meet some neighbors (you're all lovely) and gives me something to talk about when I'm bragging about our lower-stress, no advertisement, social media lifestyle here on the #fediverse
No algorithm - you've got to post, boost, or like stuff, its the #CategoricalImperative of the fedi, that, hope, and some trans and/or furry server admins keep this place running.
Anyway, rock on, #Massachusetts and surrounds.
#BostonWeekend 14/x -
Acheter chez un disquaire local, c’est minimiser les impacts négatifs sociaux, environnementaux et économiques de l’industrie. En encourageant les labels indépendants via les disquaires, vous soutenez avant tout les artistes locaux. Nos disquaires connaissent la musique d’ici mieux que personne et leurs conseils sont précieux.
📍 Consultez la carte qui répertorie les disquaires indépendants québécois! https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1_XEeVZrRu7TmamUJ5U5MD7EkwqH_2Tc&ehbc=2E312F&ll=47.60637784402829%2C-73.42340394454081&z=6
-
Acheter chez un disquaire local, c’est minimiser les impacts négatifs sociaux, environnementaux et économiques de l’industrie. En encourageant les labels indépendants via les disquaires, vous soutenez avant tout les artistes locaux. Nos disquaires connaissent la musique d’ici mieux que personne et leurs conseils sont précieux.
📍 Consultez la carte qui répertorie les disquaires indépendants québécois! https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1_XEeVZrRu7TmamUJ5U5MD7EkwqH_2Tc&ehbc=2E312F&ll=47.60637784402829%2C-73.42340394454081&z=6