Chicago’s Ethnic Radio: Keeping the Roots Alive
You are driving up Western and stop at the redlight at Devon and look at the folks in the next car.
Wonder what they are listening to on radio?
Or, say, you are wandering along West Belmont and there’s a storekeeper staring into space and listening to a radio station.
I’ll bet they are listening to voices that remind them of places very close to them. I’ll bet they are listening to an ethnic radio station. I know I have three preset stations in Spanish and I switch constantly.
But Chicago is a global city and the languages uttered in the air can make you feel like you are spinning around this earth.
Here’s a well-written and enlightening story about ethnic radio in Chicago from Northwestern’s School of Journalism:
click on the url for the full story.
Stephen
A trip back to the homeland – in a dozen languages – right on your Chicago radio dial
by Taras E. Berezowsky
March 04, 2010
Graph: Taras E. Berezowsky/MEDILL
Chicago has a greater proportion of multi-ethnic stations than New York or Los Angeles.
Taras E. Berezowsky/MEDILL
Yousif Marei, host of “Islamic and Arab Voice of Chicago,” received accolades from Mayor Daley for his community involvement.
Related Links
Access Radio Chicago – Home of WSBCWCEV 1450 – We Are Chicagoland’s Voice
Cost and Content
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=159400
On a recent snowy evening at WSBC’s studio on Milwaukee Avenue in Jefferson Park, a former Ukrainian presidential candidate paced in the cramped lounge, waiting to be interviewed on the air.
Earlier, Hindu was heard on the intercom in the hallway as an Indian and Pakistani broadcast their program. The next day, Arabic and Spanish programs would have their turn.
But at that moment, it was time for Ukrainian Wave Radio.
WSBC, the station that hosts Ukrainian Wave, is home to some 30 ethnic radio programs in 13 different languages. One of the oldest stations in the city, WSBC – the call letters stand for World Storage Battery Co. – began broadcasting in 1925.
Clad in a military uniform with medals and official seals, the Ukrainian official looked as though he was about to testify before an army tribunal. Instead, Ivan Bilas readied himself for a conversation with Ukrainian Wave’s hosts, Maria and Mykhailo Klimchak.
“Even priests stop making their rounds in blessing people’s homes with holy water,” Maria said, “because, they say, ‘The Klimchaks are talking on the radio!’”
The program has been on the air since just after World War II, when its founders, Stepan and Angelina Sambirsky, arrived from Ukraine.
After the Klimchaks immigrated to Chicago in 1993, they helped read the commercials during the show. When the Sambirskys started to think about retiring to Florida, they began handing the reins to the Klimchaks. They’ve been running the show since 1998.
For an hour every Sunday evening, the Klimchaks combine local community news with international issues to bring a little bit of Ukraine to the airwaves. That night, they would discuss the country’s future under its newly elected president, Viktor Yanukovych.
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=159400
