By Robert Mentzer

Wassau Daily Herald 

Youa Xiong, aging and disability resource specialist, hosts a radio program about aging and disability issues on WNRB-LP, a low-power FM radio station at the Wausau Area Hmong Mutual Association. Corey Schjoth/Wausau Daily Herald

From a closet-like studio at the Wausau Area Hmong Mutual Association, Karl Thaojntxhebvwg is on the air.

Thaojntxhebvwg's Hmong-language radio show, "Karl's World," airs from 11 a.m. to noon every weekday on 93.3 FM, WNRB-LP in Wausau, as well as from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Mondays. An animated, good-humored host, Thaojntxhebvwg said the show covers "whatever is out there that I think would be of interest and would be educational for the Hmong community." Topics range from updates on local road construction to international news from Laos and Thailand.

Thaojntxhebvwg is one of about 20 people who host Hmong-language radio shows on the station. The broadcasts have become an important part of the life of the area's Hmong community, offering news and information as well as allowing a place for discussion about integration and Hmong culture.

"I think most of the people want to discuss the conflict (of being) bicultural," said Blong Yang, a media specialist for the Hmong Association who is also the coordinator for Hmong programming on the station.

It's a pretty low-tech studio. To put callers on the air, DJs pull a mic in front of a speakerphone. But it works. Yang, whose show airs on Thursday evenings and Fridays at noon, said he takes seven or eight calls every time he is on the air.

When Hmong-language programming is not on the air, WNRB-LP also serves as a community radio station for a variety of English-language talk and music programming. The station, which was hosted by Northcentral Technical College until August 2006, went back on the air under the auspices of the Hmong Association in October of last year.

Chuedua Her, 64, of Wausau does not speak or read English, so the Hmong radio programs are his main source of news.

"Without the radio I would not know anything that is going on," he said through an interpreter.

"Hmong society has always been an oral society," Thaojntxhebvwg said. "Written language has not developed until relatively recently. ... Most of our population gets more information by hearing and seeing than by reading."

Besides news and information programming, other programming on the station includes discussion of traditional cultural practices, religious programming, and even language instruction in both Hmong and English. Many DJs also spin music, both traditional folk songs and newer, more pop-oriented Hmong groups.

"If there was a song somebody played that a couple of people like, they will call all the time requesting it," Thaojntxhebvwg said. "Then that song is being played over and over and over."

Radio programming allows community members to air their opinions and debate them with others, Yang said.

"When they're talking on the radio, those voices can be heard," he said. "They think, wow, so many people think the way I do -- or, so many people disagree with what I think, so maybe it's time for me to change a little bit."

This election season, the station has also allowed listeners to become better-informed voters, hosting interviews with both mayoral candidates that Yang described as "pretty good, and pretty aggressive." The interview with City Council President Deb Hadley included questioning about quotations attributed to her in a 1993 newspaper story that referred to southeast Asians using derogatory language. (Hadley maintains that the quotes were fabricated.)

Bao Xiong, 42, of Wausau listens every day. Xiong, who speaks English, also gets news from other outlets. But she said the Hmong radio gives her a connection to the community.

"It's a good connection to ... what happens locally, what is new and what will happen in the future," she said.

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