Jimena Lopez, broadcaster and assembly member of the community radio La Tribu FM, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Jimena Lopez has been a part of the station for nearly ten years, where she has had many different roles. Right now she is a part of the station’s communication team, responsible for Social media and other communication activities. She is also in the Station’s assembly made up by 20 core people, responsible for overall management, which meets up every second month.

La Tribu started in 1989 and has been going uninterrupted since. Since 2006, when the new communication and media law[1] in Argentina legalized community media as the third sector with íts own regulations, La Tribu has been on air, legally. Jimena says that whereas the station is not a women’s station, it has a feminist approach in most of what it does.

La Tribu is run by a collective of around 20 assembly members, who take turns on the many different administrative, practical and programmatic areas. The assembly members also work in the editorial groups, which also count many community members who come to the station, and take part in the ongoing training activities. Often, they are then, thereafter, effectively, softly integrated into the editorial teams, if and when they so wish.

The station therefore never has a shortage of community broadcasters – and considers itself, sustainable. Part of the financial sustainability is secured through providing access to organisations who want to run their own programmes. When within the values and principles of the station, they can do so, and they pay for airtime and for rent of the studios. This secures a minimum financial basis along with projects that the station is a part of.

La Tribu also has a cultural space in their radio-house, which has a bar and hosts different cultural events. The radio and the cultural space complement each other very well. It helps the radio to remain a lively place, where all who want to approach the station with issues, stories – or a desire to become one of the team, easily can access.

Jimena estimates that Argentina has 2000 community radio stations, which have mushroomed since the new 2006-law was passed. They are all different – both due to the place where they are situated (big city? Rural area?) and the local culture. La Tribu is very active in the Latin American AMARC network[2], where stations from the continent meet regularly in the big, general group – and where an active women’s network run projects together and meet up.

Jimena Lopez has a Social Communications Degree, is radio producer and host as well as Radio workshop coordinator. Jimena is also a Product Manager at an insurance company.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimena-l%C3%B3pez-costantini-4359174b

[1] https://www.loc.gov/item/global-legal-monitor/2009-11-23/argentina-new-media-law/
[2] https://www.amarcalc.org/