The University of Montana here in Missoula — where about 600 Native students attend college — doesn’t have an American Indian radio program. I talked to the KBGA general manager and program director. They both said no one has ever tried before. So, I’m going to try, along with a few student colleagues, to get a Native radio program on the air. Oh, yes, we are thanking Gary Farmer, a founder of Aboriginal Voices Radio in Canada, for the inspiration after he visited our campus a few weeks ago.
Thanks to Gary, I have submitted an application for a two-hour show on KBGA. As part of this process, I asked the managers if I could see the station’s American Indian music collection. I saw it. And it consisted of about one dozen CDs. They also showed me the music director’s latest mandatory playlist selection of Native music. One was a CD of what appeared to be a white man and a white woman playing what looked like South American-style flutes. The second CD on the KBGA playlist included “shaman” and “kundalini” music, a good sign that the music on this CD wasn’t created by American Indians, either.
My point: If you know a Native musician, or if you are a Native musician, please, please, please, send your CD to this address so we can listen to you on the Montana radio airwaves! Here is the address for the KBGA music director:
June West, Music Director
University of Montana, U.C. Room 208
Missoula, MT 59812
Thanks for reading. And, please, share this blog information with your Native musician friends. Send the station American Indian music. We want to hear it!
Jodi Rave