¡Adelante! looks to the radio
Published July 9, 2008
¡Adelante!, the bilingual newsmagazine published by the Columbia Missourian, will not be returning from its summer hiatus as usual, but in its place will be a radio program.
The magazine has provided mid-Missouri’s Latino community with news and cultural stories from the local area and abroad.
The proposed KOPN/89.5 FM radio program would include long interviews and in-depth stories while the KBIA/91.3 FM radio program would be a brief overview of the news.
Radio-Television Journalism Faculty Chairman Kent Collins is analyzing the viability of producing a radio version of ¡Adelante!.
“This would be available 7 days a week for any radio station in Missouri to take off the internet and broadcast any time of the day or night,” Collins said. “The content would be statewide news of interest to the Spanish-speaking community.”
He said this could include state regulations, laws and procedures for being an American citizen or visitor or immigration news as it relates to Missouri.
So far, Collins said he has investigated populations and demographics and done a thorough content analysis of Missouri news that would be relevant to Spanish speakers. This was done by looking at stories in major newspapers and deciding if there is enough content to support a daily 5-minute newscast. The next step, Collins said, is to survey radio stations in Missouri to measure interest, then they can begin forming an operational plan and looking into advertising or underwriting.
Collins said that they aren’t sure how the newscast will work and how it will involve students.
“There are two levels of service here,” Collins said. “To provide news content to the Spanish speaking community and help students.”
He said interested students should stand by and watch for developments.
He hopes to have this process completed and the program realized by September.
Students and faculty hope to bring the print publication back next January.
¡Adelante! print editor and faculty adviser Katherine Reed said a lack of native Spanish speakers led to the print edition’s extended hiatus.
“It is difficult to publish in two languages,” Reed said. “But it is impossible without native speakers in both languages, and we ended up having only one native Spanish speaker available to work as an editor in the fall.” She said two editors are required because of the workload.
Last year, ¡Adelante! offered a fellowship for a native Spanish-speaking graduate student to come to MU and work with ¡Adelante! while earning a master’s degree. The chosen student who was supposed to start last January had to return to Mexico for personal reasons.
“There is no easy replacement for a person with the kind of skill set this student had,” Reed said.
The School of Journalism offered the fellowship again this year, but because of time restraints have not been able to find a student who can start before January 2009.
Reed said the ¡Adelate! staff decided to use the fall semester to regroup, do research and come up with a more sustainable business model for the publication.
Reed said though she regrets having to withhold this publication from the Latino community, she thinks when ¡Adelante! comes back, it will be more stable.
“I’m biased, but I think Adelante is one of the best things we do here at the journalism school,” she said. “Like all things worth doing, though, it’s a challenge. We just need to figure out how to preserve it as a valuable cross-cultural journalism experience, a unique service to the community and an opportunity for Spanish-speaking students to do journalism in Spanish.”
Reed said she would like to see more community involvement and encourage contributions from ¡Adelante!’s readership.
