Civic News

A new wave of local radio stations is coming to DC

WOWD in Takoma Park, WERA in Arlington and others will offer news and tunes straight from the neighborhood.

Low-power FM radio stations can reach about a three-mile radius. (Photo by Flickr user Mathias Pastwa, used under a Creative Commons license)

Feeling out of touch with where you live? Soon, a number of ultra-local radio stations will allow D.C.-area residents to tune out Capitol Hill and tune in to their own neighborhood.
For about a decade, a class of low-range radio stations had been shut down from large cities because lawmakers worried they would interfere with larger channels.
But since Congress decided to reverse the law prohibiting these hyperlocal, low-power FM stations in 2009, several have been preparing to enter the airwaves. Elevation DC reports:

WERA in Arlington and WOWD in Takoma Park are just two of the hundreds of new stations now signing on from coast to coast. They’re called low-power FM stations — a special class of broadcaster that covers only about a 3-mile radius with a signal of under 100 watts. Run by a hodgepodge of community groups and free from the pressure to raise lots of income, these stations can zero in on the kinds of community happenings that most other broadcasters ignore.

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