Radio Arte

ISSUE AREA: JOBS

City: Louisville, KY
Education - Youth - Community Engagement

Contact:
Silvia Rivera
General Manager
Radio Arte WRTE 90.5 FM
National Museum of Mexican Art
1401 West 18th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60608
(312) 455-9455
srivera@radioarte.org

Date Published: October 2006

In 1998, The Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum began a youth initiative to educate, train, and empower underserved youth in the Chicago area, specifically in the area of radio broadcasting. The result of this initiative - Radio Arte - is a unique and successful model that has served the Pilsen/Little Village neighborhood of Chicago for over 6 years. Radio Arte WRTE 90.5 is the only bilingual (Spanish/English), Latino-owned, youth operated community radio station in the country. Radio Arte provides a needed medium by which the area Latino community can stay connected and updated on local community issues. It runs 24 hours a day and trains youth between ages of 15-21 in all stages of broadcasting, including running a radio station, production, on-air hosting, writing, promotions, etc.

At the core of Radio Arte is a two year program where 120 students enroll annually. In the first 6 months, students study creative writing, voice training and Federal Communications Commission regulations as well as broadcast theory. In the following months, the youths receive technical skills for radio production and broadcasting. The final phase of the program is the most challenging- students conceptualize, develop, and maintain their own on- air programs for one year. By doing so they are sent out into the community to learn about on-the-ground issues affecting the area. This program enlists the assistance of Chicago’s media professionals during training. After they have completed the program, students are encouraged to seek internships and jobs in broadcasting and media.

Of the many successes, Radio Arte provides "a feeling of empowerment that youth achieve after going through this program, a sense of ownership... They are responsible for their work and for what they’re informing their community about. That gives them more awareness of the world varound them," said Silvia Rivera, the Director of Community Relations. The program has received two Excellence in Production awards from the National Federation for Community Broadcasting. Numerous accolades from the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, the National Endowment of the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Resources:

www.wrte.org