Meeting the Needs of Native American Radio: A Preliminary Exploration of Native America Calling

Ethnic radio talk shows are rare in the world of media, especially those airing daily on terrestrial radio. One exception is found in the Native American culture in the daily program Native America Calling produced by Koahnic Broadcasting and aired on over 30 stations with substantial Native American audiences. Because of the unique, but culturally diverse audience of this program, this paper examines how it meets the needs of Native American radio stations and their listeners. First, a content analysis of the Native America Calling was conducted in order to identify show topics and reoccurring themes, which found Cultural/Arts/Entertainment, Native Issues, and Health to be the most prevalent discussed topics, with Religion being the least discussed topic. Next, a second content analysis of Native America Calling was conducted in order to identify tribal affiliations in show topics and guest tribal affiliations, which found that only 90 of the 781 programs specifically focused on a particular Native American tribe, with Native Alaskan being featured the most. According to Debra Merskin (1998) the 1990s was the decade in which media had decided to turn their attention to the Native American culture. We see this in the explosion of Native American media study publications, such as Signals In The Air: Native Broadcasting In America by Michael C. Keith (1994). Since the 1990s, very little research has been conducted on the actual content or effectiveness of the media that target the Native American community. This is the basis of our research. This study focuses on one specific radio program, Native America Calling, since radio is the dominant form of broadcasting targeted towards this community. This study hopes to discover what topics are covered by the programs presented on Native America Calling, what are the most prevalent issues, what topics address the unique needs of the native population, and which tribes are featured on this program as both the specific topic of a program and/or as the guest experts. The research in this paper is meant to be a starting point for further research. Literature Review When we look at research that deals with Native Americans and the media, we tend to refer to research that has been conducted about the media representations, or misrepresentations, of the Native Americans. Murphy and Murphy (1981) discuss how the media’s stereotyping of Native Americans has been so prevalent that this minority group was left out of the civil rights movement.