Arlington Independent Media’s website and flagship radio station are down, but the bedraggled nonprofit’s leadership has few answers about what happened.

Multiple tipsters informed ARLnow that WERA, AIM’s low-power FM radio station, stopped broadcasting its lo-fi beats earlier this month. Additionally, AIM’s website now directs to a page reading “bandwidth limit exceeded.”

“The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit,” the webpage says. “Please try again later.”

In response to an emailed query directed at AIM’s board of directors, ARLnow received a message from someone unaffiliated with current leadership. They identified themselves as the person in charge of the websites for AIM and WERA.

“I emailed the board and staff when the URLs were about to expire, but never heard from them,” the emailer said. “The WERA URL expired a few months ago and it looks like someone else hopped on it. I didn’t want the ArlingtonMedia.org URL to be lost, so I went ahead and picked it up when they let it expire.”

AIM’s president, secretary and producers’ representative all resigned in March and April, but two board members remain: Don Masters and Ted Schneider.

Masters informed ARLnow that he needed to get more information on the website, and was unaware WERA had gone dark.

“The County controls all access to the property and operation, so you need to contact them for answers,” he said.

However, county spokesperson Erika Moore told ARLnow that the county “does not have any role in AIM’s operations.”

“WERA is licensed to and wholly operated by AIM, and the County has no knowledge of WERA’s broadcasting status,” Moore wrote. “Currently, the County’s only involvement with AIM is the continued storage of some of AIM’s property in County-owned facilities, which AIM can access by request.”

In a final email to AIM producers in April, former Producers’ Representative Jeff Hoffman said that leaders were working to find another entity to assume control of the radio station at 96.7 FM.

“Due to AIM’s financial challenges — no cash reserves, significant debt, and limited county and community support — [former AIM President Amanda MacKaye], Ted, Don, and others have been working to identify an organization willing to take over WERA’s FCC license,” Hoffman wrote. “I don’t have details on the status, timeline, or likelihood of a transfer, but discussions are ongoing, and nothing is imminent.”

He noted that, if at some point AIM could no longer keep WERA on the air, it could file a six-month request to go silent with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

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. Around that time, it also pulled the plug on WERA, which had been broadcasting an endless loop of lo-fi beats since December 2023.

Over the following months, AIM’s remaining leaders and members batted around ideas for fundraising and restarting programming. The nonprofit reinvigorated its calls for county help in early February, as it faced an impending deadline to resume WERA broadcasting in order to keep its license with the FCC.

The nonprofit urged the county to release the results of an independent audit into the organization’s finances. The county complied, publishing a report that suggested AIM failed to provide adequate documentation for over $1 million in expenditures, including payments to dozens of third-party contractors.

The shoddy documentation extended to $414,763 in costs incurred on credit and debit cards, as well as via checks, wire transfers and mobile payment apps. It included $18,254 to employees outside of the payroll, and $9,030 to former AIM CEO Whytni Kernodle outside of the payroll.

In his email to AIM producers, Hoffman said that he was leaving because “no new content production is anticipated in the near future.”

“It’s been a privilege to serve as your Producers’ Representative, and I truly hope to see and hear you on the air again in the future,” he wrote.