LISTENING TO NATIVE RADIO

Community-based radio is vitally important to Native Americans in the United States. These radio stations broadcast programs that meet the diverse needs of the communities they serve, such as news about tribal politics, educational programming, programming related to health and other vital aspects of daily living, and perhaps most importantly, programming that seeks to preserve and perpetuate indigenous languages, histories, cultures and values. Reflecting on listening to indigenous radio both tells us more about the ways radio creates community and it tells us more about the diverse cultural positions of indigenous audiences. Through an analysis of listener feedback and related data from two Native-owned community radio stations in Minnesota (KKWE and KOJB), alongside an analysis of my own listening to these stations, I seek to identify the “communities” built by these stations.