Posted on 08/24/2012 7:21:13 PM PDT by Lorianne
Fresno Radio Hosts Become Global Celebs; Farm Advice in Hmong; Punjabi Auto Tips ___ On a recent broadcast, Sam Vang engaged in the kind of on-air banter that has helped make him a global radio celebrity. Mr. Vang broadcasts on KBIF-AM, a radio station in Fresno that serves local immigrants but has gained a world-wide following thanks to Web streaming. Sugar cane farmers call him from Australia. A community in French Guiana contacted him seeking advice on raising dragon fruit.
"I'm always on call," says Mr. Vang, 48 years old, who broadcasts in the Hmong language.
KBIF is an institution in California's agricultural-heavy Central Valley catering to non- English-speaking newcomers for decades, its language adjusting with each immigrant wave. On weekdays, it has shows in Vietnamese, Hmong and Lao. Weekends belong to Punjabis.
Born in Laos, Mr. Vang was 10 in 1974 when he left a refugee camp in Thailand to join former Hmong guerrillas resettling in California's Central Valley. He joined the USDA while completing a plant science degree from California State University, Fresno.
It is a throwback to the era when the USDA reached out to new Americans working in agriculture—at the time, mostly Latinos—who wanted advice they could receive on a transistor radio while working in the fields. These days, it is Hmong farmers.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Awww Stinkin WSJ. There’s no mention of brussels in that article. (Urban farming fret.) But the thing about the water buffalo was pretty funny.
I’m thinking about growing something challenging and I think I’ve settled on Paw Paws. They’re native here but virtually extinct in the wild.
One of the big drawbacks is that carrion flies are what pollinates them and I don’t think my neighbors would appreciate me hanging dead animals in the trees.
The part about the Brussels was at the very end ... just a farmer who calls him for advice often on that item.
Took a lot of words to not say a damned thing
Aha! At the *very* end. I guess by that time, I had given up on it.
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