Latest news with #WURD
Axios
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Philadelphia Weekender: Food truck festival and Juneteenth celebrations
There's plenty to do around the Philly metro this weekend. 🔥 Check out Chester County's hot-air balloon festival, which runs Friday-Sunday in Kennett Square. Live bands, beer, food and crafts, plus a kid zone with bounce houses and a petting zoo. Single-day tickets: $33.85 adults, $12.51 children; free for kids 6 and under. 🎙️ WURD Radio takes over World Cafe Live in University City with a "Message is Our Music" event hosted by Tiffany Bacon. Expect a live performance from "Queen of House" Lady Alma. Plus: WURD's own DJ Tee Alford will spin beats that'll keep the dance party going. Friday, 6-11pm. Tickets: $32.65 🆕 It's the grand opening of FDR Park's Gateway Plaza. Free paddle boating, food trucks, guided tours and more. Saturday, 10am-2pm. 📝 Stop by the Sketch 2025 brunch Saturday at Location 215 for a first look at art works part of ArtPhilly's What Now 2026 festival. Live music, choreography and a drag opera performance. 10am-4pm. Register here. 🎟️ It's free admission at the Penn Museum for its annual Juneteenth festival, which runs Saturday 10am-6pm. Art workshops, music and dance performances. Plus, check out a special pop-up exhibit from the West Philadelphia Community Archaeology project. 🗓️ Mercer Museum in Doylestown is holding a free Juneteenth celebration, including a living history presentation about Harriet Tubman, a live DJ, food trucks and kid-friendly activities. Saturday, noon-3pm. 🛻 Taste all the offerings at Linvilla Orchards' food truck festival on Saturday from 11am-5pm. More than 20 local food trucks will visit the 300-acre farm. Plus, a beer garden for adults, and pony and train rides for the kiddos. 🌱 Philly VegFest is back at Queen Village's Bainbridge Green. Plant-based foods, live music, panels, and more. Saturday, 11am-5pm.
Axios
06-06-2025
- Business
- Axios
Scoop: Four employees out in shakeup at WURD Radio
At least four employees, including one of WURD Radio's top hosts, are being let go as part of what's described internally as a cost-cutting measure, Axios has learned. Why it matters: WURD is the only Black-owned radio station in Pennsylvania, and among only a handful nationwide. The station, founded by the late Walter P. Lomax Jr., broadcast live during last year's presidential campaign from the White House complex — a major get. Driving the news: The layoffs include "Reality Check" host Tonya Pendleton and her lead producer, Troy Wilmore. He had been with the station for 18 years. Pendleton, one of Philly's well-known radio personalities, has led "Reality Check" for the last two years. Content writer Kiara Santos and one other employee were also among those let go. The show won't continue to air, the station's general manager, Ashanti Martin tells Axios. She wouldn't say whether WURD would ever bring back the program. WURD CEO and president Sara Lomax-Reese, the late founder's daughter, wrote in a memo obtained by Axios that the layoffs were meant to "ensure the station's long-term survival." She praised the laid-off staffers' "meaningful contributions to our station, our community and our city." "This decision was not made lightly. As an independent media radio station, it is imperative that we maintain our ability to give Black Philadelphia a voice and a place to make their voices heard," she wrote. What they're saying: The WURD employees affected by the cuts either declined to comment or didn't immediately respond to Axios' request for comment. State of play: The media landscape is shifting, and competition for dwindling advertising revenue is fierce. WURD faced a setback earlier this year, when a conservative health care nonprofit filed a lawsuit alleging the station and one of its partners engaged in reverse racism when it launched a Black doctors directory to help connect people seeking care with physicians of color in the region. Martin tells Axios the cuts were unrelated to the lawsuit. The bottom line: Martin says the radio station is trying to find its footing while dealing with the "erasure of Blackness" from society. "I'm very confident we will survive and thrive," she says. "It's time like this that outlets like WURD are needed more than ever. We want to be around for another 22 years and another 22 after that."
