Native Times: Tribes reaching out to their citizens with radio

Tuesday, July 12, 2011  

"Across Indian Country, commercial radio has become a way reach tribal diasporas, preserve tribal languages and promote government services.

For the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, commercial radio was a way to simply get the word out about the tribe’s services and businesses. The tribe purchased KGFF-AM 1450 in 1999 after a nine-month management agreement.

“At the time, we (the Citizen Potawatomi Nation) didn’t have nearly as many enterprises,” Michael Dodson, the tribe’s Public Information Officer, said. “KGFF was a way to advertise our enterprises in the communities we do business in. It’s also a way to counter-balance what might be said about the tribe in the mainstream media.”

Reaching portions of the Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek), Sac and Fox, Seminole and Absentee Shawnee nations, Most of KGFF’s current programming is mainstream, including Shawnee High School and Oklahoma Baptist University athletics. However, the station does air a half-hour program on Sunday morning that focuses on the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and contemporary issues in Indian Country.

Launched in the 1970s by the non-profit organization Americans for Indian Opportunity, “The Native American Speaks” originally had a pan-Indian focus. Five years ago, the group decided to abandon the program and Dodson, who was freelancing for the program at the time, approached the program manager at KOKC-AM about keeping the show on the air at the same time on Sunday mornings, but with a Citizen Potawatomi focus instead."

Get the Story:
On Air: Tribes use radio to reach citizens (The Native American Times 7/11)