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Radio
is a medium that is extremely culturally compatible with the Hispanic
population and their way of life. Radio relates to the listener on
a personal level and moves with the listener, unlike any other media.
Hispanic people are mobile, with lots
of time spent on wheels of one sort or another. Ninety-five percent
of cars have radios and 74 percent of adults are in cars every week.
Since radio is available in cars 24 hours a day, it has a tremendous
reach with the Hispanic audience.
The Hispanic population in the Yakima
Valley is now approaching the 300,000 mark.There has been a commensurate
growth of an increasingly responsive radio communications network,
which operates in this area and includes some seven Spanish FM stations
and another five AM stations in central Washington alone.
As a result, WSU Cooperative Extension
has been looking at using radio as an educational method to reach
the ever-increasing Hispanic population with information about Extension
educational programs. The focus of an initial effort in this area
is Radio Cadena, in Granger, Washington.
Radio KDNA covers a 100-mile radius,
which includes eight counties in southeastern Washington and north
central Oregon. It is the only full-time Spanish language educational
public radio station in Washington and is licensed to the Northwest
Communities' Education Center, a non-profit corporation. Traditional
estimates have indicated that Radio Cadena reaches some 150,000 listeners.
But, recent census figures and estimates
of the migrant worker listening audience had caused that traditional
estimate to be nearly doubled. A recent study by the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting shows that more Hispanic people listen to Radio
KDNA (Radio Cadena) than any other local Hispanic radio station. This
situation caused Station Director Ricardo Garcia and WSU Extension
Specialist David Youmans to begin some conversations about new outreach
strategies for WSU Cooperative Extension. |
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Radio KDNA's programming mix includes news, music, public affairs, entertainment, cultural and educational programs, children's programs and public health programming. All of this meshes well with what Washington State University Cooperative Extension has to offer area residents in educational programs focused on agriculture, family and consumer science, youth programs, rural community development, energy and resource management.
Radio KDNA seeks underwriting support to sustain its educational programming. And, this seemed like a perfect opportunity for WSU Cooperative Extension to enter into a cooperative agreement to provide Spanish language educational programming on a monthly basis for the station.
The initial programming efforts were launched under the direction of Dr. David Youmans, Rural Development Specialist at WSU's Prosser Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center. The programs are an hour-long talk show format, entirely in Spanish. They are aired on the third Friday of each month, from 5 to 6 pm. Subjects discussed to date on this program include the drought and water management, foot and mouth disease, illegal butchering, 4-H recruitment, agave research and the recruitment of Latino/Hispanic students into higher education.
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Extension
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