This article presents the qualitative results of an investigation carried out on community radios in Ecuador, based on two questions: what has happened to the local stations that, in 2014, took advantage of the opportunity opened by the Organic Communication Law to become community? Have they achieved economic, institutional and social sustainability? Fieldwork has focused on the analysis of four case studies. The results, obtained through in-depth interviews and participant observation, put on the table a discussion: the distance between the expectations that we find in the stations as a result of the approval of the LOC and the reality shown when, five years later, begins the reform of the lawt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]