Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
KBBG-FM (Radio station : Waterloo, Iowa); African American radio stations--Iowa; Radio audiences--Iowa; African American radio stations; Radio audiences; Iowa;
Abstract
"KBBG-FM: Communicating to Educate" is a qualitative study conducted to examine an African-American owned and operated, public, listener-supported radio station in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls community in Northeast Iowa. The researcher wanted to study how such a local radio station reaches out to its community. A review of literature revealed since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, radio has become less and less diversified, harming community localism in radio. Minority ownership of radio has also declined to an even smaller scale than before the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Based on the review of literature, the researcher formed four research questions for this study: 1. What are the experiences of radio listeners as KBBG community members? 2. How does KBBG construct community with their program offerings? 3. What is KBBG's staff philosophy and practices to build community? 4. How will KBBG continue to sustain its relationship with the Waterloo/Cedar Falls community in the future? The researcher served as a moderator for four focus groups--KBBG management, staff, and two groups representing its listening audience. The researcher used fieldnotes as a participant-observer, and in-depth interviews to answer these research questions. The researcher found there were three ways KBBG's management, staff, and audience conceptualized "community": ( a) geographically, (b) demographically, and (c) financially. The researcher found that KBBG's management describe their "community" in terms of listeners who contributed to KBBG. KBBG' s staff and audience members defined "community" as residents in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area. The researcher concluded that in order for KBBG to continue to exist as an non-commercial, African-American owned and operated station, its audience, staff, and management will have to have similar conceptions about KBBG's "community."
Year of Submission
1999
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of Communication Studies
First Advisor
Christopher Martin
Second Advisor
Sarina Chen
Third Advisor
Roberta Davilla
Date Original
1999
Object Description
1 PDF file (118 leaves)
Copyright
©1999 Edward W. Ellis, Jr.
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Ellis, Edward W. Jr., "KBBG-FM: Communicating to Educate" (1999). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2573.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2573
Comments
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