Immigrant Airwaves Reimagined: Institutional Pathways of Ethiopian-Origin Radio Journalism in the United States

This study examines Ethiopian-origin immigrant radio in the United States as a durable form of institutional journalism embedded within community broadcasting infrastructures rather than as marginal or transitional ethnic media.

Through comparative historical analysis of KNON (Dallas–Fort Worth), KFAI-FM (Minneapolis–St. Paul), and KETO-LP (Aurora–Denver), the study integrates nine semi-structured interviews with founders, hosts, station managers, and producers; longitudinal analysis of broadcast recordings; institutional documents; and platform-based archives.

The findings show that Amharic, Oromo, and Tigrinya programming developed through noncommercial licensing, nonprofit governance, and sustained volunteer labor rather than commercial ethnic markets. The study argues that immigrant radio functions as a stable civic infrastructure within U.S. media history.

Recommended citation: Chala, Endalkachew H. (forthcoming). "Immigrant Airwaves Reimagined: Institutional Pathways of Ethiopian-Origin Radio Journalism in the United States." American Journalism.