Serving Specialized Audiences
With Specialized Programming
Wisconsin Public Radio has programs for
general audiences (such as Conversations
with Joy Cardin and To the Best of Our Knowledge) and programs for more-specific audiences (such as Garden Talk with Larry Meiller and Old-Time Radio Drama).
And then there are
programs designed and produced for very targeted audiences.
At Wisconsin Public
Radio’s studios in Green Bay, for example, regional
manager Glen Slaats has been broadcasting specialized
programming for the Hmong-speaking residents of northeastern
Wisconsin since 1985. “The program is produced by Hmong
residents for Hmong residents,” Slaats explained.
“It’s a source of information for the Hmong and
allows them to celebrate their heritage. And it helps them
better understand their new country.”
Hmong Public Radio is
broadcast Saturdays from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on WHID 88.1 FM /
Green Bay, WHDI 91.1 FM / Sister Bay-Ellison Bay, and WHSH 91.7
FM / Sheboygan. The program coordinator, Bee Lor, and a
dedicated group of Hmong volunteers provide listeners with
local, state, national, and world news that pertains to the
Hmong. They also present community calendars, traditional and
contemporary Hmong music, and interviews with doctors, lawyers,
politicians, and other guest experts. Bee Lor is a
para-professional bilingual aide with the Green Bay Public
Schools. He, too, volunteers his time at the Green Bay studios.
Lor says Hmong Public Radio
was created to serve the 10,000 Hmong who live in northeastern
Wisconsin. “Listeners look forward to our program every
weekend because they want to hear news they can understand and
be updated on current issues. Beside that, many of our
listeners are older individuals who cannot read the newspapers
or understand English,” he explained. “Hmong Public Radio is
the only reliable resource for news for many Hmong.”
Regional manager
Slaats says volunteers have also been hosting and producing
Spanish- language programming for 11 years. La Voz Hispana airs
Sunday nights from 5:00 to 8:00 on WHID, WHDI, and WSHS.
“Host Jairo Huilar and his volunteers provide listeners
with news, community information, interviews, and music,”
said Slaats. “We try to serve communities that are
under-served, and provide programs which are not economically
feasible for commercial broadcasters to address. Those are the
traditions at public radio.”
Kao Xiong in the WUEC-FM studios.
Over on the other
side of the state, public radio takes a different approach to
reach a specialized audience. Dean Kallenbach, Wisconsin Public
Radio’s regional manager in Eau Claire, worked with
UW-Eau Claire and community leaders to provide a service for
the Hmong in his area. Radio Hmong is broadcast from the studios of WUEC-FM
Saturdays from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. on a special subcarrier
channel.
Every FM station has
a subcarrier frequency that can be accessed by using a special
pre-tuned radio receiver. “It’s a chance for the
Hmong community to have its own radio station without going to
the expense of building or buying one,” Kallenbach said.
Working with the Eau Claire Area Hmong Mutual Assistance
Association, Kallenbach applied for, and received, a grant from
the Eau Claire Area Foundation to purchase 165 receivers. The
radios were distributed free of charge to households with at
least one person who speaks Hmong.
With the receivers
distributed, Radio Hmong began on August 4, 2003. Volunteer host
Kao Xiong presents a mix of international and local news,
community event information, and music. The Hmong community
hopes to add talk shows and children’s programming in the
future. And Kallenbach says Wisconsin Public Radio is working
with the Hmong Mutual Assistance Association to find more grant
money to provide free receivers to the remaining 150 to 200
Hmong households in the region.
