Founded in California’s San Joaquin Valley in 1976 by volunteer farmworkers, activists, artists, and teachers, Radio Bilingüe is the leading Latino public radio network and content producer in the United States, serving as a voice to empower Latinos and other underserved communities. Radio Bilingüe’s daily non-commercial news, public affairs, music, and cultural programs are broadcast via its own twelve full-power FM stations in California and the Southwest. More than eighty affiliate stations across the United States and Mexico carry many Radio Bilingüe programs, including the only national Spanish news and information service in public broadcasting. Regular live programs are also currently produced in English and Mixteco.
Headquartered in Fresno, Radio Bilingüe has grown from a single station into a transnational network with more than half a million weekly listeners, the majority lower-income Latinos. Signature programs include the Línea Abierta national news/talk show, the La Hora Mixteca music and information program connecting indigenous Mexican communities in the United States and Mexico, and the Raices – Art Moments on Radio series that has featured hundreds of legendary and emerging artists who draw upon multicultural roots traditions.
Radio Bilingüe’s broadcast can be heard 24/7 via its website, radiobilingue.org, which also offers an archive of rare interviews with Latino history makers, artists, musicians, political figures, human rights advocates, and grassroots community leaders.
At the Folklife Festival, members of the production team interviewed other participants to produce daily audio features.
Participants
- Chelis López, host, producer
- Hugo Morales, executive director, co-founder
- Samuel Orozco, national news director
- Michael Yoshida, engineer
