Over at Adams Morgan's Line Hotel, innovation is the name of the game.
For one thing, the D.C. location of the hotel is housed in the former First Church of Scientist Church, and the architecture takes advantage of that with 60-ft. ceilings and repurposed organ's pipes used as a chandelier. But behind the wide-ranging restaurant offerings and the 10,000 sq. ft. of events space is a little-known, homegrown creative project: Full Service Radio.
Serving as both a community podcast network and as an in-house internet radio station for hotel guests, Full Service Radio hosts a variety of programmings — with shows hosted by the D.C. Public Library, Brightest Young Things and Songbyrd, to name a few.
One show, though, brings Full Service Radio into the D.C. tech and innovation scene: The Tidbit, hosted by Cureate's Kim Bryden.
"It completely aligns with Cureate's mission of access to knowledge, by providing a space for a variety of different voices to be able to be heard," Bryden said. "D.C. is both local, national and global all at once, and I think by providing this platform, you're providing that local voice."
The whole goal of The Tidbit is to share the stories of the region's small business community through local food and beverage entrepreneurship. That sounds really niche, sure. But Cureate is all about supporting food and beverage groups, on its own. Founded in 2014, Curate is a resource designed to help food entrepreneurs expand their businesses in the D.C. and Baltimore areas. In January 2017, Bryden launched Cureate Connect, a service that pairs small business owners with larger corporations for upcoming projects. For example, if a hotel needs a caterer, they can use Cureate Connect's online platform to find the perfect local vendor.
Now, as of December, Cureate has expanded its brand into the radio world.
For two years, Bryden has been curating and sending a bi-weekly newsletter, called The Tidbit, to business owners and consumers who are interested in building a business to a bit more than 500 people. In it, the focus is on what Cureate is reading, eating, learning and listening. "The radio show is a natural extension of the newsletter," Bryden said.
When I spoke with Bryden, she had just recorded her sixth episode of The Tidbit radio show. Now, Bryden and Full Service Radio have just released the 11th episode of a 15 or 16-episode run (the exact number is still to be determined).
The first five shows focused on the foundational principles of how and why people start small businesses. Episodes ranged from the nitty gritty of the co-op business model to community banking and cryptocurrency.
From there, episodes focused more on the core tenants of how you would enter the food and beverage space, telling individual stories. And at the end, The Tidbit is hosting a pitch competition with three local businesses, and the winner will receive all of the money donated to The Tidbit through its Patreon page.
"At the end of the season, the finale episode will be how much money and to whom that money is given and what their next steps are," Bryden said.
Full Service Radio founder Jack Inslee said The Tidbit will be back for a second season after it wraps up, and Inslee is the "main man" of The TidBit's production team, Bryden says. And all of Full Service Radio's programs are recorded live from a studio with glass walls in the lobby of the Line Hotel.
"I do a lot of pre-thinking and planning — even if it's just a bulleted list of talking points that I want to bring up because once you're there your nerves can get the best of you," Bryden said. "Having your structure thought out is a great best practice."
The Tidbit can be found on Simplecast or Apple Podcasts.
