Show tunes to Latino culture

WFHB-FM Community Radio created the radio show Hola Bloomington, a volunteer-powered program broadcast completely in Spanish, 10 years ago in an effort to tune the city’s Latino population into local happenings.

“We wanted to look into developing forums that are under-represented or misrepresented by the mainstream media,” WFHB General Manager Chad Carrothers said. “We wanted to develop what we call diversity-based programming.”

Hola Bloomington is a news and public affairs show that features a weekly wrap-up of local news, a guest interview, information about local events and volunteer opportunities and short segments that vary by week. The show broadcasts live from 6 to 7 p.m. every Friday on FM channels 91.3 and 98.1 in Bloomington, 100.7 in Nashville, Ind., and 106.3 in Ellettsville, Ind.

Carrothers campaigned for the creation of the show in 2002 as the station’s news director and helped establish the collaboration between the City of Bloomington Community and Family Resources Department and WFHB Community Radio.

Hola Bloomington, like the other shows on WFHB, is volunteer-driven. It’s recorded by a committed rotation of 10 to 15 volunteers, including IU and Ivy Tech Community College students, retirees in the community and working professionals.

Melissa Britton, the Latino outreach coordinator in the Community and Family Resources Department, is the show producer who writes and translates the script for each broadcast.

Hola Bloomington “serves as a bond of communication and cooperation within the service agencies and Spanish speakers, with the goal to promote participation and integration throughout the Bloomington community,” according to its mission
statement.

However, Britton said their main goal is to produce an entertaining and informative show that is relevant to their audience.

As the producer, Britton said she strives to meet this goal by incorporating the thoughts and suggestions of the volunteer hosts. In July 2011, the group paused the show for a month to revamp its structure, adding additional short segments.

“We cater to the short attention span these days,” Britton said with a laugh.

The segment topics include Latino pop culture, health, an EcoReport and a sports report called “Luis v. Luis.” The weekly hosts also have a call-in segment in which four attorneys from Indianapolis answer listeners’ legal questions about immigration, power of attorney, family law and visas.

In addition, they conduct interviews with special guests during the program. A recent guest was Martha Montoya of Los Kitos Produce, who travels all over the country advocating for a range of people and organizations, from small farmers to large grocery chains such as Wal-Mart Inc.

In the future, Britton said she hopes to gain more listeners, call-ins and high-school student contributors, as well as to work with the IU Spanish Department to use Hola Bloomington as part of the cultural learning curriculum.

Those who miss the live show can listen at wfhb.org/news/holabloomington. On average, the show gets around 400 podcast downloads, and Britton said she would like to see the show syndicated statewide.

“I would love for other Indiana radio stations who don’t have a Spanish speaking show to pick up a half hour of our show,” she said. “It’s really informative, and only a part of it is geared toward our local audience only.”

Since she became the show’s producer five years ago, Britton said she has already seen a shift in the way Hola Bloomington caters to the community, a sign she said she thinks is indicative of a new mix of Latinos in Bloomington.

“We aren’t telling our listeners where to go to get clothes or food anymore, but what businesses to invest in,” she said. “It’s not just migrant workers anymore, but students and families and working adults. It’s a new mix now.”

The most recent census reported that there were 4,000 Latinos living in Bloomington, and there was an 80 percent increase in Latinos living in Monroe County in comparison to the previous census.

“We are seeing people of Hispanic heritage are becoming less of a minority and are coming from all different walks of life,” Carrothers said.

Britton said the show wouldn’t be possible without the dedication of the volunteers and the support from the City of Bloomington and Mayor Mark Kruzan.

“Mayor Kruzan’s administration is really about diversity and inclusion,” she said.