21341: (Hermanti)Miami-Herald-Poll: Haitians favor Creole TV, radio (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Wed, Apr. 14, 2004

BROADCASTING


Poll: Haitians favor Creole TV, radio

>From the morning drive to prime time, South Florida's Haitian-American
community prefers Creole-language programming, a poll says.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

jcharles@herald.com


>From getting live updates about Haiti's latest crisis to finding comic
relief in their mother tongue, South Florida's Haitian community is tuning
into Creole-language programming, according to a poll released Tuesday.

With the exception of newspaper readers -- the majority of whom prefer their
news in English -- most Haitians prefer to get information from
Creole-language television and radio programs, the poll found.

The poll was conducted in English and Haitian Creole by Miami-based Bendixen
& Associates for New California Media, a nationwide coalition of ethnic news
organizations, funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation. It has a sampling
margin error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Pollsters surveyed 400 Haitian Americans, most of whom were born in Haiti,
about their television and radio habits, as part of a larger poll about
political attitudes. About 44 percent said they had Creole-language
television programming in their home, while an overwhelming 83 percent said
they would watch it if it were available.

More than half said they preferred to listen to the radio in Haitian Creole
rather than English, while 58 percent said they read the newspaper in
English.

Overall, the poll results say that South Florida's Haitians are remaining
close to their roots even as some attempt to assimilate in American society,
said pollster Sergio Bendixen. Striking evidence of this can be seen in the
83 percent of those surveyed who said they send money back home to families
in Haiti.

''This is a very low socioeconomic community. They don't make a lot of
money, yet they are making great sacrifices,'' Bendixen said. ``They are
close to their families and what is going on in Haiti and that is why you
see such success of Haitian Creole radio and television even though they are
not the most sophisticated products on the market.''

Radio Carnivale (WRHB-AM 1020), which recently turned three years old, was
listed as the leading radio station for those surveyed. A 24-hour Haitian
station, it offers live news updates from Haiti and lively afternoon
discussions about current events both in Haiti and here.

''This says the Haitian community is pleased with the format that we have
brought to them,'' said Dr. Rudolph Moise, who founded Radio Carnivale three
years ago as an alternative to more partisan Creole-language programs in
South Florida. ``They get updated news, they get entertained, they get
educated. I have people who would never listen to Haitian radio who now do.
We have made real strides.''

Those strides are reflected in the poll. Fifty-three percent of those
surveyed said they listen to the radio in Creole as opposed to English. And
of those who do, Radio Carnivale was their top choice.

While Moise finds such numbers encouraging, he also finds it equally
discouraging that despite his station's reach, it continues to struggle
financially. Since its launch, the station has been forced to go off the air
on more than one occasion after being unable to make its monthly $85,000
lease payment.

He hopes the poll encourages both local and national advertisers to realize
that the Haitian community can be reached through radio and television.

''If you want to reach Haitians after 5 p.m, at night, they are watching TV,
and they are watching us,'' said Claude Mancuso, president and CEO of HTN, a
24-hour Comcast cable station, which, like Radio Carnivale, offers
programming in Haitian Creole, French and English. ``We know the community
exists. We are hoping that the agencies truly try to represent their clients
correctly by reaching the community.''

HTN is available in the city of Miami on Channel 32; and on Channel 24 in
North Dade, Aventura, Hollywood, Miramar and Pembroke Pines. Mancuso said
HTN will soon announce an expansion to other Comcast areas, including parts
of Broward County and Kendall and Homestead in Miami-Dade.

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