A radio show that got its start at Arlington Independent Media has received recognition at the national level.
“Choose to be Curious,” run by former AIM president and producer Lynn Borton, won the Alliance for Community Media Foundation‘s Hometown Media Award for best audio programming by an independent producer. The award will be formally presented in June at a conference in San Jose, Calif.
Founded in 2016 and now syndicated on more than 15 radio stations by the progressive nonprofit Pacifica Network, “Choose to be Curious” has broadcast over 200 episodes about different perspectives on curiosity.
Though Borton pulled her show from AIM in March 2023, she credits the struggling community media organization with providing her the initial support, training and equipment she needed to make “Choose to be Curious” a reality.
“Absolutely, I would not be doing what I am doing now but for AIM, and but for the fact that they were in the business of helping people discover the stories they wanted to tell,” she told ARLnow.
Borton began thinking about pitching a show to AIM shortly after the nonprofit launched the community radio station WERA 96.7 in late 2015. She visited the station and found the culture there “fabulous.”
“I thought, what an amazing dynamic for this interesting place I’d just walked into,” she said. “It was really vibrant — there was all this energy. There were people a long time involved in radio, there were complete newbies, a whole age span, just a real diversity.”
Borton originally came up with a list of 25 program ideas for her show, all related to aspects of curiosity in theory, research and daily life. The goal was to help listeners think differently about the world and become more open to new ideas.
“I want to give people lots of on-ramps to being a little less convinced that they’re right, and a little more open to the idea that maybe other people are right,” she said.
As the show gained momentum, Borton became increasingly involved at AIM. She began participating in board meetings as the producer’s rep after about a year, and in fall 2019, she became the board’s president.
Alarmed by the nonprofit’s “wobbly” finances and concerned about sustainability, Borton oversaw layoffs of AIM staff in early 2020. She says the organization “stopped the hemorrhaging” over the next two years and had about $250,000 in its bank account when she left the board.
Borton pulled her show from AIM last spring following what she characterized as a dispute about a guest with the organization’s then-CEO, who was laid off along with all remaining staff in March.
According to Borton, AIM’s board declined to intervene. Rhonda Snipe, AIM’s new board president, told ARLnow that she “doesn’t have any context” about the alleged dispute.
“We are onward and upward on program ideas and memberships,” Snipe said.
Like many current and former AIM members, Borton is concerned for the future of the nonprofit, which shut off the transmitter for WERA in March. The organization is currently awaiting the results of a county audit as it mulls its future.
“What saddens me about the situation now is that the community has lost in all of this,” she said.
Still, Borton is proud of her recent accolade and hopes that other programs produced at AIM can eventually repeat her success story. As AIM attempts to reboot with events like a live podcast recording and fundraiser, held last night, she hopes more people someday get to “discover a voice they didn’t know they had, and to share it.”
“I feel that it’s really important for Arlington to have a really strong media presence,” she said, “and I hope it does again.”
