WFHB's Spanish program a success

Bloomington radio station WFHB is producing the first Spanish radio program for the Bloomington community. The program, "Hola Bloomington," airs Sunday nights with the mission of providing entertainment, education and information to Spanish speakers in the area.\nThe concept of "Hola Bloomington" began in mid-March as a chance to provide Spanish speakers who might not have a good grasp of the English language with information they might need to know and to entertain them at the same time. \n"Hola Bloomington" features information such as local, national and international news, along with public service announcements, calendar events for the week and, of course, music. In each segment, they feature three to five songs, which can be requested by listeners. \nThe program also gives callers "an opportunity to express their current situation and express themselves," said Maria File-Muriel, a special projects program assistant for the City of Bloomington. \n"The creators had a meeting to give Spanish speakers the opportunity to say what type of information and content they would like," she said. "They gave us ideas about music, news and entertainment and topics such as immigration or social services." \nThis meeting allowed the creators to plan a program that catered specifically to what the community members wanted to hear. One thing they desired to hear more of was popular Latino music, because "the outlet isn't really here for that," WFHB general manager Ryan Bruce said. \n"Hola Bloomington" is a one-hour segment that airs from 8 to 9 p.m. Sunday on 91.3 or 98.1. This time was specifically chosen because it is the time when community members said they would most likely listen, Bruce said. \n"If we're going to target for a specific population, we can't just stick it when we can fit it; we need to find a decent time when people can listen," he said. \n"Hola Bloomington" is put together by 10 to 12 volunteers who take an active role in the production process by hosting, answering phone calls and running the boards. The volunteers are comprised of high school and college students and adults. \n"Nobody gets paid to do this radio program," Bruce said. \nOne of these volunteers is junior Mauricio Rosendo, who is one of the co-hosts of the show.\n"It's cool because it's a diverse aspect with our ages," Rosendo said. "I know a couple of my friends who are learning Spanish have listened to it because they want to perfect their Spanish."\nBruce said the program was created to serve the community.\n"It's worth it to us to have the program on even if it's costing us additional money to run it because of the public service it's providing," he said. \nHe said he believes the chance to sit down with 20 people from the Latino community and hear their input as to what they would prefer to hear on the radio is "the definition of what we do here." \nMuriel said she believes what is really innovative about this program is the fact that "it is a grass roots program (because) it's been created by people in the community. What is good and different about this program is that we're not seeing community members as people that need services but as people that can give back something as resources." \nWFHB is a radio station targeted at the Bloomington community as a whole, so "there is an element of making sure we're representing as well as we can the groups that are underrepresented in Bloomington," Bruce said. "It's interesting to give it this personal radio element."\nAlong with "Hola Bloomington," the station features a Native American music and public affairs show and Youth Radio, which aims to relate to teenagers.