Asheville FM took home multiple awards including Best of Overall Excellence in Community Radio!

Asheville, NC─ JUNE 1, 2022 ─ Asheville FM (WSFM-LP) received a number of 2022 Hometown Media Awards from the Alliance for Community Media Foundation. The awards program was established to honor and promote community media, community radio, and local cable programs that are distributed on Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) access cable television channels. Proceeds go to the ACM Foundation which is exclusively used for facilitating, preserving and promoting education in community media.

Asheville FM started in 2009 as an internet radio station before going on the air at 103.3 FM in 2015. The station values diversity and wants to be a platform for voices, music, and information that isn’t normally heard on mainstream radio. Programmed by nearly 100 volunteers of the community, the station is a perfect example of community radio. The station regularly changes it schedule to accommodate new voices and the next schedule iteration begins in May 29th with several news shows.

Asheville FM has won awards in the following categories!

1. I Am Sitting In A Junk Yard, As the Best of Experimental Community Radio by Jonathan Price, host of Tenor To Tabla.

2. Orchestral Maneuvers, 20th & 21st C. Classical Music, As the Best of Entertainment & Arts- Single Episode Community Radio by Don Howland

3. CousinTL, Stank Free Radio, Radio DJ of the Year, As the Best of Radio DJ of the Year by Cousin TL Allen

4. Overall Excellence in Community Radio, As the Best of Overall Excellence in Community Radio <$300,000 budget by KP Whaley, General Manager.

“We are thrilled to get recognized nationally, for the amazing local radio we provide the Asheville community,” said KP Whaley, General Manager. “As a small low power station we always thought the quality of programming we provide was exceptional for our size. These awards reinforce that notion and we celebrate the incredible passion that our volunteer DJs have for what they do,” he said.

Asheville FM s nonprofit, volunteer-driven, community radio at its best. Offering a diversity of programming as diverse as the community served. That includes community journalists producing hyper-focused local news in both English and in Spanish; talk shows that run the gamut from politics to arts & entertainment; and the most eclectic freeform mix of music that you can hear – from DJs with a scholarly appreciation for the genres they represent. All of this is from a community of passionate volunteers who want to give the microphone to other members of the community who don’t have the opportunity in other media outlets.

Each year, nearly one thousand entries are submitted. These entries, or programs, are submitted and evaluated on several factors resulting in over 100 award winners. A panel of judges from the industry evaluate the entries. Awards are presented to the most creative programs that address community needs, develop diverse community involvement, challenge conventional commercial broadcast formats and move audiences to experience media in a different way.

“The Hometown Media Awards celebrate both the excellence of work and the diversity of media that appears on community channels being produced around the country. The ACM Foundation is proud of their achievement and of how they represent their communities in their work,” said Mike Wassenaar, president & CEO, Alliance for Community Media.