Research Note 92, January 1997
CPB funded research to examine the radio programming needs of Native Americans who live in urban areas. The first part of the research was conducted in Anchorage, Alaska. While Anchorage has a Native American community, it does not have a public radio station programmed mainly to meet the needs of the Native community. Koahnic Broadcast Corporation's mission is to establish a public radio station that will provide specific information and programming to Natives. The second part of the research was conducted in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Anchorage
A focus group study and a mail survey were conducted in September of 1995 in Anchorage. The results showed that the Native American population in south central Alaska felt that they were being underserved by the local media. Of the respondents to the mail survey, 74 percent expressed dissatisfaction with the existing public and community radio stations; only three of the 16 media outlets were given a positive rating.
When asked to identify any specific information sources for Native news, one respondent in the focus group replied, "There is nothing on any local news except for a newspaper off in some small corner somewhere. It is always about the white man unless somebody gets shot or something."
Only one of the four focus groups identified some regular source of Native-specific programming--the KAKM public television show, Heartbeat Alaska. Produced by Jeanie Greene, this weekly program provides Native news and events from a Native perspective. It was the only show, however, on radio or television, that could be identified as offering any programming that caters to the Native population.
Both the survey and the focus group participants wanted to see more programming content that dealt with Native culture and issues and community advancements; specifically, positive developments and success stories. Ninety-one percent of the mail survey respondents felt that a new radio station targeted at south central Alaska's Native community would be valuable.
While most participants in both the mail survey and focus group study indicated that they typically chose their radio station based on the music played, most said they would change their listening habits if a new radio station offered programming specifically aimed at Native Americans. Many respondents suggested a need for more information on employment and job opportunities, combating alcohol dependency, and Native rights and sovereignty.
The research will help to define the programs that will offer Native listeners music, news, and discussion specific to their heritage, something they feel they do not adequately have at the present time. One Anchorage respondent replied, "This is our community and it has an effect when a radio station will offer [Native-specific] news and explain what is happening; it seems to draw the community more together."
Albuquerque
While the Alaska part of the project focused on determining the needs for a new station targeting Native listeners, the Albuquerque project looked at the programming already available on KUNM-FM. Through focus groups CPB examined the preferences of Natives living in the Albuquerque area for the music and talk programs aired. KUNM airs the program, Native America Calling. While this program has been well-researched in terms of the target audience on reservations, this new research examined the appeal of the program to Natives living outside of a reservation setting.
The groups in Albuquerque revealed many of the same findings as the Anchorage groups in that Native radio listeners were very similar to radio listeners overall (i.e. non-Native radio listeners). Their radio listening habits were determined by their schedule, not by programming schedules; they listened to the radio primarily to hear music, not news or talk; and they chose a station based on the music it plays. Like radio listeners in general, they are fairly set in their choices, and converting them to new stations or programs would be a challenging task.
Similar to the Anchorage groups, the participants in Albuquerque indicated that most of their news and information comes from television or print media‹radio is generally not considered a news source. However, many of them changed their minds upon hearing newscasts and feature programming specifically targeted to Native Americans.
While the participants did not bring up the issue of the lack of Native radio programming, when specifically asked, most felt there was not enough information directed toward the Native Americans in the Albuquerque area. One issue they discussed was the difficulty in programming for varied interests of the Native population in New Mexico due to the many different tribes.
"I think sometimes ...it is stereotype. As an Indian you are marketed like all Indians...They don't look at [the] 19 tribes. They all do different things. They are not all the same and therefore, it is really hard to, I guess, say all these Indians are going to do this thing. It doesn't work that way. The dialects are different."
Participants recognized that these differences make it difficult to provide radio programming with appeal to the entire Native American community. Most participants indicated that they are primarily interested in hearing local news and information, particularly on tribal events, yet each tribe's population may be too small to support its own program. Currently most of this information travels through word of mouth.
While these differences pose a problem for programming, there was still a feeling that radio programming directed toward Native Americans in general would be beneficial. There was an interest in sharing information both locally and nationally.
While many of the participants had not yet heard the program Native America Calling, upon hearing a segment of the program they were excited about the possibilities a national call-in show could offer. The discussions raised their awareness of the similarities shared by Native Americans and how sharing information could build strength both within the Native community and between Native and non-Native peoples.
Some of the issues mentioned as being important to Native American communities as a whole were gaming, sovereignty, tax-free gasoline, federal budget cuts, health insurance, and education. While there was enthusiasm for a national program, participants still felt a need to connect locally as Natives in New Mexico.
Listening to Native music was seen more as a music preference than a connection to Native heritage. It appeared from the small sample of participants that the Native music was more popular with older people. Some of the younger participants' awareness of the KUNM music program was from their parents and grandparents' listening. uggestions for marketing a radio program to Native Americans included billboards, posters at tribal offices, local magazines, village meetings, schools, and arts and crafts fairs.
Conclusion
In the case of the new station, the research has helped determine programming and positioning. The new Anchorage station, KNBA-FM, chose "Alaska's New Native Voice" for their positioning statement after listening to the comments from participants in the groups.
Both in Anchorage and Albuquerque, the respondents encouraged radio service in three directions:
- provide more local programming,
- provide more Native information, and
- keep "talk" programming to a minimum