An entire professional broadcast studio is going up for auction because of about $70,000 in unpaid debt at Arlington Independent Media, an official says.
Hundreds of professional-grade items — including camcorders, cameras, MacBooks, iPads, microphones, audio mixers, audio recorders, turntables, lighting kits, TVs, desks, chairs, broadcasting equipment and a 360-degree photo booth kit — are up for bidding over the next few weeks.
Rasmus Auctions, operating by order of Arlington County Treasurer Carla de la Pava, describes it as “a rare chance to purchase fully operational broadcast equipment from a working studio.”
For de la Pava, the seizure of assets is also a final attempt to reclaim some of the roughly $20,000 in delinquent taxes and $50,000 in unpaid rent that she said AIM owes the county.
“My job is to pay off taxes, but I also owe it to the individual taxpayer to get as much money as possible for these items that we’re selling,” de la Pava told ARLnow. “I have that obligation.”
This is by no means the first time that de la Pava, who was first elected in 2014, has had to sell people’s property because of unpaid debt. Normally, however, auctions involve assets like cars or houses — not entire studios.
She recalled only one other major instance of a recent auction like this in Arlington. She said it had “some very expensive items,” but “I don’t think it had the sheer volume of things.”
“I will tell you, this is rather large,” de la Pava said.
Bidders can set up a time to inspect equipment at 3700 S. Four Mile Run Drive on Friday, Sept. 19. The auction starts closing on Monday, Sept. 22 and removal will take place on Sept. 24 and 25.
De la Pava said she is unsure how much all of the equipment is worth. At the time of this story’s publication, most of the items don’t have any bids, although someone is already offering $1,100 for a Sony Alpha 7 IV camera.
De la Pava said that much of the bidding will probably happen in the last three days of the online auction.
“I don’t want you to be alarmed that there are things on there for 70 cents — they won’t go for 70 cents,” she said.
The treasurer noted that it’s still theoretically possible for AIM to stop the auction, if it finds a way to pay off its debts. Don Masters, one of AIM’s remaining two board members, was unable to provide comment at publication time but said an update will be coming soon.
WERA, AIM’s flagship low-power FM radio station, stopped broadcasting its lo-fi beats last month. The organization’s website — which last month directed to a page reading “bandwidth limit exceeded” — has come back online, but it displays only the AIM logo with no text or links.
AIM hasn’t had any paid staff since March 2024, when the nonprofit laid off its entire staff following months of financial uncertainty and internal divisions. In a final email to AIM producers in April, former Producers’ Representative Jeff Hoffman described the nonprofit as having “no cash reserves, significant debt, and limited county and community support.”
The outstanding debts are owed by AIM and not any individual within the organization, de la Pava said. She noted that auctions like this are rather unusual in Arlington.
“Arlington County residents and businesses are fairly good at paying their taxes,” she said. “This is a last resort that we use.”
