Question Fifteen: How can our station better serve the many linguistic communities of the signal area?

 

 

WBAI Listener-Sponsor candidates

Marian Borenstein

In addition to doing strong outreach in various linguistic communities. I think the station should also seek input from educators in the field of linguistic studies and sociology. I believe that the Spanish-language news program that the network offers, Informativo Pacifica -- which was the result of efforts by Justice & Unity -- is an excellent way to broaden our audience with the Spanish-speaking community. I also think it would be great at times to offer programs in other languages as well. The station should also try to make use of the Internet to collaborate with some of the progressive radio stations that are geared toward various linguistic communities and link to some of their programming.

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Rolando Bini

no answer submitted

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Tibby Brooks

New York is a bilingual Spanish-English city. A Justice and Unity initiative has been the superbly anti-imperialist “Informativo Pacifica,” which is aired four nights a week on WBAI, and is also played on other community stations in the U.S. and Latin America. This features reporters from over 30 countries. We need to do outreach to different linguistic communities with bilingual flyers and hold meetings with simultaneous translations to find out how WBAI can better serve these groups. It should be noted that WBAI has over half a dozen other Latino programs, either in Spanish or bilingual; also, our station gives great coverage throughout its programs to the people’s movements in Latin and Central America, as well as to the immigrant community’s fight-back on our soil and to North American solidarity movements.

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Omowale Clay

Thanks to a Justice and Unity initiative at the national level, we already have a Mon-Thurs Spanish-language progressive news show produced by Pacifica and aired on WBAI. The station should do outreach and hold town halls meetings to various linguistic communities to determine the best way to serve them. We may be able to use our sideband (extra frequency near 99.5 that can be heard over special radios costing around $40) for this purpose. We also need flyers in various languages promoting the station.

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Carla Cubit

Pacifica could consider offering content in different languages on its websites and printing literature in different languages for its listeners and readers.

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Lisa Davis

Again, it is important to go where the people are. And it is also important to try to examine the various community publications that serve the needs of these people. I also think that the station should look into various translation services. It might be very expensive right now, but it is still good to be forward-thinking in terms of the various technologies that are available. I also think it would be good to sometimes hold specials in various languages.

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Wellington Echegaray

There are many different ways the station can serve different linguistic communities. We have a good start with strong programming in Spanish with Informativo Pacífica and La Voz Latina, which the station can build on. This is also something to think about in the use of the Internet, where there could be programs broadcast in many languages. WBAI could also use its side channels for programming in other languages, and with new technologies the station could find even more ways to give everyone a voice.

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Sara Flounders

The example of the new half-hour Spanish language news program – created due to an initiative from the Justice and Unity Campaign -- is a good model for other programming. We should also be aware that the newest immigrant populations in the NY area are those who are forced to rise far earlier and work late shifts. Special early morning programs such as 5 to 6:30 am could bring a whole new audience of listeners to WBAI.

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Robert M. Gold

I think that we could have a Spanish language program on for about 30-60 minutes each day. We need to reach out more to this very large Latin American population.

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Seth Goldberg

By continuing to exist.

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Jennifer Jager

Provide translations of programs to interested institutions.

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Kenneth Laufer

This is a tough question. The Spanish language programs are good, but we obviously can't have programs in all languages. If there were a Folio again, we could perhaps have articles in different languages.

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Pat Logan

Obviously It is not possible for Pacifica or WBAI to accommodate the language of all our immigrant communities. Since in New York City Spanish is virtually a second language WBAI should endeavor to create bilingual programming which will inform non-English speakers and accomplish the mission by increasing understanding of Latino issues.

Should HD become a reality a portion of our second stream should be given over to public affairs and arts programs in several languages.

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Don Mathieson

no answer submitted

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Lee McClure-Come

Evaluation of WBAI listeners can help determine what shows could be in foreign languages.

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Stefan S. Neustadter

Community organization ought be invited to LSB meetings to evaluate how they might contribute programming and in the long term monies.

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Bok-keem Nyerere

Those from different linguistic communities should be reached out to, to find out how their communities can best be served.

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Bernardo Palombo

no answer submitted

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James Ross

This is a good question. If non-English-language broadcasting is to be done, it needs to be done in a way that does not lose the English-speaking audience. WBAI has essentially been conducting an experiment for the past year, by running the Spanish Language News at 11:30 PM. It would be worthwhile to examine arbitrons, fundraising data, etc., to see how and whether this change has affected our listenership.

WBAI can stream and archive non-English language audio. Also, with the advent of HD radio (which has multiple streams over the air), a stream can be devoted to non-English language audio. With proper management, the station's audio archive could be a place where people of many languages find interesting programming.

None of these potentially worthwhile ideas will come to fruition until we solve our financial crisis.

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Marianella Trioche

We should reach out to these communities by holding town meetings, by inviting their leaders to small gatherings, preferably within their own neighborhoods. We should print fliers in their own languages. We could probably have volunteer translators working with us when reaching out to the different members of these linguistic communities. Thanks to a Justice and Unity initiative, we already have a progressive Pacifica news show in Spanish (Informativo Pacifica) that airs Mon-Thurs.

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