The Largest Group of Ethnic Radio, African Americans, need to continue to close the coverage gap without personifying stereotypes

     African American radio is the largest group of ethnic radio listeners. Yes, some stations cater to America’s Spanish speaking nation or other ethnic groups, but African Americans dominate as ethnic radio listeners. In her article, Liana Fahle stated “Asian and Native Americans preferred ethnic newspapers and Arab Americans preferred television.” Ethnic radio is a way to cater to a specific group of people providing them with news, music, and other nuggets of information. Fahle stated that ethnic radio stations serve to close the coverage gap between the information that the mainstream radio stations provide and that information that the smaller ethnic stations. Because some groups go to the radio for their information, quality information should be provided to its listeners. When asked if Fahle thought the quality of the ethnic radio stations suffered because it had such a targeted audience, she disagreed.

     In Liana Fahle’s article, she also pointed out the fact that that sometimes ethnic radio stations personify stereotypes. She gave the example of the widespread support of President Barak Obama on black radio stations mainly because he is black. This personifies the stereotype that a black person should vote for a black candidate because of their race and they are a democrat, with little knowledge of the candidate’s actual platform. Fahle stated that when radio stations personify these stereotypes, it just narrows their audience.

     With the focus on African American radio, it is noted that their audience is the largest. The ethnic radio needs to widen its horizon as far as providing a smaller group with a more diversified view. America is a melting pot, therefore even smaller radio stations that target a smaller audience need to display this diversity to their audience.