Kao Xiong: Helping refugees settle with the power of radio

It has been over 40 years since Kao Xiong left Laos, yet he remembers his home as though he left it yesterday.  “As long as I can remember the war has already started”, Kao stated while recounting the constant artillery fire his village experienced “My father would always tell me to keep your head down or you will get hit”. Kao is from the small mountain village of Houaphou, right across from the border with Vietnam.  During Kao’s childhood, the Laotian civil war erupted between the Royal Lao government and the communist Pathet Lao, who were allied with the communists in Northern Vietnam.  The war would eventually evolve into a broader regional conflict as the Vietnam War began to spill across the border. When the United States got involved in the Vietnam War, the destruction his village experienced became more intense, with the surrounding area becoming frequently sprayed with Agent Orange. As a teenager, Kao was recruited into the Laotian army to fight the Pathet Lao and the People’s Army of Vietnam.  It was during this time that Kao would suffer severe personal loss. Two of Kao’s brothers and his sister were killed during the war, with his sister succumbing to an Agent Orange attack on his village.  At the end of both wars in Vietnam and Laos in 1975 these two countries came fully under communist control.  The Pathet Lao began a mass persecution of the Hmong community, with thousands killed, tortured, or imprisoned and sent to reeducation camps.  Many were persecuted due to their religious beliefs, which went against the Pathet Lao’s anti-religion policy while others were persecuted for sympathizing with the United States.  Thousands chose to leave Laos to escape the persecution, creating a refugee crisis. Kao knew he had no other choice but to flee. “My older brother wrote a letter to me and said if you don’t leave Laos, you are going to be dead sooner or later”.  

Kao left Laos with his mother while the rest of his family stayed behind.  Kao originally went to Chicago before moving and settling in Eau Claire, Wisconsin in 1989.  When Kao arrived in Eau Claire, a well-established Hmong community was already in the area, but it was still in its youth phase.  While the number of American-born Hmong youth was growing, much of the Hmong population at the time had a limited grasp of the English language, and the United States government made few accommodations for them.  Kao knew that something had to change. 

Kao eventually became acquainted with the operators of a local radio station WISM, and was asked to host a Hmong-language radio program on their broadcast.  The owner of the radio program was a Vietnam vet who had become well acquainted with the Hmong community and wanted to create a radio program tailored towards them.  Kao was initially hesitant to host the program as he had no prior radio broadcasting experience. Still, the radio director convinced him otherwise, and when Kao looked at the Hmong community and the issues they faced in Eau Claire, he took the position.  One of the main issues was a linguistic issue. While the Hmong language did have a writing system, it was a fairly new creation, and very few Hmong speakers could read the written script.  According to Charles Vue,  who was one of the first Hmong refugees to Eau Claire, few efforts were made by the government or local businesses to communicate with the Hmong population as the Hmong were still a very small minority in Eau Claire and using the written script for signs or documents was seen as pointless anyway.  The language barrier between the Hmong and non-Hmong populations made communication difficult and it hampered the Hmong’s ability to truly settle into their new lives in Eau Claire.   In 1992 Kao gave his first broadcast. His radio program was broadcast entirely in the Hmong language and was broadcasted from 5 PM to & PM during prime listening hours when most people would be tuning into their radios.  Each section of the radio program was targeted towards a specific age demographic.  The program featured traditional Hmong music, which appealed to younger audiences, while Hmong language news appealed to older generations.  One of the most important aspects of the radio program was the shopping section.  Here, Kao gave a brief rundown on what different shops in Eau Claire were selling and their prices to help the Hmong community know what they could buy from local stores.  Marty Meldahl, who was one of the main contributors to the station and who worked closely with Kao, said that the decision to greenlight the show was quite obvious.  “We had a population who were far away from their homes living in a completely unfamiliar place.  With the program, we wanted to make them feel like they were at home. We wanted to make them feel comfortable”. Charles Vue stated that the decision to utilize radio to speak to the Hmong population made perfect sense.” Back in Laos many of us listened to the radio” Vue stated. “Newspaper didn’t make sense when many of us couldn’t read the Hmong language and we couldn’t afford TV so radio was the best way to reach people.  The reception from the Hmong community was overwhelmingly positive.  The reception from the non-Hmong of Eau Claire was more mixed.  The station received several calls from viewers who complained about having a radio program that wasn’t in English.  Some went as far as to accuse Kao of spreading communist propaganda completely unaware that he fought communists in his home country a few decades prior.  Kao did not let such accusations turn him away from continuing his work at the station.

In 2002, the WISM AM station was in a difficult financial state, and the owners found it increasingly difficult to keep operations going as usual. The station was eventually sold to Relevant Radio a catholic radio group. Despite the leadership change, Kao still desired to continue hosting the program for the benefit of his fellow Hmong.  Kao petitioned Relevant Radio to continue the program but they expressed no interest in the idea.  The new owners wanted to create a program schedule primarily focused on catholicism.  Kao’s program wouldn’t fit into their new plans for the station.  Although the organization claimed that the decision was so that more catholic programs could be aired at the station Kao doesn’t believe this to be the case. “They said they wanted more Catholic stations, but they had programs on that station that were not catholic focused,” Kao stated clearly showing a great sense of bitterness over the decision.  “They just didn’t want the program on the air”.   Kao would never do work involving radio ever again and the Hmong community lost its outlet for music and news. 

22 years have passed since Kao left the station. He has since retired and is currently living in Elk Mound.  Kao still looks back fondly at his time at “WISM” and is often reminded of his work by others impacted by his broadcasts.  “People sometimes come up to me saying they remember my program.  Tell me they miss the sound of my voice,” Kao says with a cheerful smile.  “They sometimes ask me if I will do a radio program again”.  Kao has no plans to return to radio.  In his opinion, the station was a product for its time.  The status of the Hmong community and the time made the program necessary but that time has passed.  Charles Vue explained that for the broader Hmong community, the radio program was part of a broader initiative by the community to achieve their desire to be self-sufficient. “When the Hmong population arrived in Eau Claire there was a lot of hand-holding to try to get us to integrate into Eau Claire”, Vue stated.  We didn’t want to rely on anyone and the radio program allowed the Hmong to get their news and their music from their people in their language.  That period of hand-holding that Vue speaks of is relatively over. “We have a Hmong church, a Hmong mutual assistance association, our average earnings have risen, and we have become independent”.   In many ways, Kao’s story is similar to that of many Hmong in the United States.  A refugee who fled political violence to come to a new land with an unfamiliar language and culture.  Through radio, Kao created a program that gave them access to entertainment and information familiar to them and made their time away from home less burdensome.  Kao was more than just a member of the Hmong community, in many ways he was an ambassador for the Hmong community in Eau Claire.  However, Kao’s deeds don’t have to be a remnant of the past.  Over the past few decades, many nations have been ravaged by constant conflict each creating a refugee crisis. While public radio is no longer a prime media that people regularly interact with other media forms still exist. With new forms of media such as video and podcasts refugees from all over the world can follow Kao’s example and create entertainment outlets for their communities.  Kao’s work is proof that with words and an outlet to share them, refugees can become miniature ambassadors for their communities.