frequently asked questions

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The objective of the FREEPOD founding group is to develop and implement a trusted, transparent, and most importantly, local news resource for everyone in the community. 

Visit your favorite podcast platform (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.) to search for FREEPOD or download from this website. 

We post a new podcast every Thursday at noon. A downloadable script is also available for those who prefer to read their news. You can sign up on the website to receive an email with a link to new podcasts as they are posted. 

As a volunteer organization, we do not currently have the resources to produce a more frequent podcast, although we may consider increasing our frequency as FREEPOD grows. Please bear in mind that FREEPOD is not intended to be a replacement for any daily news source.  

Our reporters and editorial staff work together to select which submitted stories get covered in each broadcast, using carefully crafted criteria that help us evaluate newsworthiness, timeliness, objectivity, variety of subject, breadth of audience to whom the story will be relevant, and other factors. Our format does not allow us to include all the news submitted to us, although we hope to be able to grow the amount of content over time. 

If you'd like to submit a news story for consideration, please complete the form at www.freepod.org. If your organization distributes press releases on a regular basis, please add our podcast to your press release distribution list.  See the Contact page for more details.

Anyone can submit news for consideration and we encourage you to do so. We cannot promise that we’ll use everything we receive, but we will review everything sent our way. We also hope that you will tell friends and family about the podcast and help them to be added to our audience!

We have no sunset date in mind.

Printing requires more time, money, and resources to put together, and also comes with inherent distribution issues. Our volunteer group agreed that a simple podcast would be more economical, need fewer people to produce, and be more easily accessed by a broad audience. We have no plans to create a printed piece.

Social media is built for frequent, immediate use. While we value social media references to FREEPOD and appreciate others including FREEPOD in their posts, we currently do not have the resources to dedicate individuals for this kind of reporting.

We have a committed group of volunteers who are willing to donate their time and talent to bring news to our community at no cost to listeners. Our partnership with HCC is a valuable asset where we can obtain professional recording capability as students gain journalistic and technical expertise. We also are offering ways for community members who would like to help our non-profit efforts to be able to do so.

FREEPOD was started by a small group of Freeport-area citizens who felt compelled to fill the gap for much local news content, access, and distribution. We are in regular contact with a large group of community members who are able to provide information on all kinds of topics that may be of interest to the community at large.

FREEPOD does not have a brick-and-mortar location and our volunteers work remotely.

FREEPOD is independently produced and broadcast, but is accessible through the Northern Illinois National Public Radio (NPR) website as well as other podcast platforms (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.).

We have more information on our website, and you will also learn more by listening to our podcasts. We hope you will become a regular listener!