An impending deadline for Arlington Independent Media’s broadcasting license is reinvigorating the nonprofit’s requests for county help.
AIM — which has been attempting to reboot after laying off its entire staff last March amid significant debt and a pending county audit — has until March 21 to resume broadcasting at WERA 96.7.
The community radio station needs to broadcast something for at least 36 hours each week in order to keep its license with the Federal Communications Commission. If that doesn’t happen, the license will automatically expire, AIM said in a letter to members last week.
“That is a hard deadline,” AIM President Amanda MacKaye told ARLnow. “March 21, if we are not back on the air, we will lose the license forever. It’s irreplaceable, and the signal is irreplaceable — you know, it just goes away.”
To keep WERA alive, the nonprofit is seeking county funds to install an emergency alert system with internet connections and antennas. It is also seeking “support for music licenses required for broadcasting” as well as access to a transmitter room and necessary equipment.
The letter does not specify how much any of this would cost. It notes that AIM is preparing to launch a fundraising campaign to restart WERA — but not until the results of the county audit become public.
“We are committed to doing everything we can to get WERA back on the air,” the letter says. “However, if we cannot resume operations, we are exploring options to transfer the license to another nonprofit. Our future is uncertain, but saving WERA is a critical step forward.”
Beyond relaunching the FM station, AIM members have discussed various other possible initiatives over the past year, including establishing a community podcast, building out its fundraising efforts and leaning more heavily on volunteers. The organization got its start in 1982 as a public access TV station on local cable systems.
Delays in releasing the audit have limited the group’s momentum, MacKaye said.
“It perhaps was just naivete about, you know, what was going on and the depth of things, but initially … we just figured, once the audit is over, then we’ll be able to work with how we’re going to resolve these different debts,” she said. “And time just kept going, and going, and going, and then eventually there was, like — wait a minute, what’s happening?”
In October, County Board member Takis Karantonis told ARLnow that the audit, which began in March 2024, was “basically ready.”
Independent audit firm RSM completed the financial review and shared its findings with AIM leadership “late last year,” county spokesperson Ryan Hudson told ARLnow.
“AIM reviewed the report and provided their comments to the County,” Hudson said last Wednesday. “Staff are in the process of making their review, and then it will be shared with the County Board. After the Board’s review, the report will be finalized, shared with all parties, and posted publicly, likely in the coming weeks.”
In the meantime, AIM is now calling for its members to contact members of the Arlington County Board, asking them to release the audit and provide the support needed to bring WERA back on the air.
MacKaye acknowledged that AIM “has taken a very big hit to its credibility” following its collapse last year. However, she believes the community’s need for the nonprofit is as strong as ever.
“Right now, we are in desperate need of supporting and building and growing an independent media organization, and encouraging people to be able to use their own voice to spread messages into their community,” MacKaye said.
Though progress has stalled for almost a year, in MacKaye’s view, the stakes remain high.
“The quick and dirty update is, not much has changed, but we are in a critical position in terms of what happens next,” she said.
