Listen Up! Challenges for Healthy Living

Boulder, CO, 2004

KGNU, the People's Clinic, the Family Learning Center and the all-Spanish commercial station, KGRE-AM/Greeley, collaborated to produce La Vida! Challenges for Healthy Living. The radio series demonstrated how good health education and lifestyle support can reverse obesity, diabetes and heart problems, and in addition, improve children's behavior and academic performance.
Working in partnership with the Boulder and Weld County Health Departments, schools, local activists and statewide political campaigns, La Vida! promoted public programs and grassroots efforts to help improve people's health, especially in Boulder's low-income and minority communities. In addition, the project sought to educate the public about shortsighted policies and lifestyles that sabotage health.

This yearlong radio series aired during high-listener drive-time slots, with 12 news features and three half-hour documentaries. Once per quarter, a real life radio saga of short features ran Monday through Friday, followed by an hour-long call-in show. Like a soap opera, the sagas built suspense from day to day, using real people in a time-lapse version of their efforts to improve personal or community health. During the call-in shows, the saga's “heroes” joined health experts to talk with listeners. For special outreach to the Hispanic community, KGNU produced key programs in both English and Spanish. The all-Spanish station, KGRE-AM, broadcast the sagas and an extended series of call-in shows.

La Vida! is available on CDs, cassettes, short videos, online and in print for outreach/training of health educators and community activists. Ongoing outreach is seeking to engage people with healthy eating habits using demos and educational training sessions at schools, town halls, support groups and churches. One popular demo is the “Fast Food Shake,” where a Happy Meal and soda are buzzed in a blender to show how much bad fat rises to the top.

Awards:

KGNU Round Three
Colorado Community Health Champion 2004
—Colorado Community Health Network
Local Documentary Award Finalist 2004
—National Federation of Community Broadcasters

Round One
Golden Reel Award, Best Local and Public Affairs Programming
—National Federation of Community Broadcasters