Takin' It to the Teens: Sound Partners Projects Talk About Teen Pregnancy

Whether you're a parent, a member of the local school board, part of the medical community or the media, talking to young people about teen pregnancy is tough. First of all, it requires talking about teen sexuality. Then you have to decide what messages to give out. And, hardest of all, it involves delivering information to an age group who, for the most part, aren't reached by traditional media and would sooner die than ask an adult about anything regarding sex.
Despite these challenges, two Sound Partners grantees, KSTX-FM in San Antonio, Texas, and KUNM-FM in Albuquerque, New Mexico, addressed the health issues related to teen pregnancy in their projects. And both recently received statewide media awards for their coverage, showing that their efforts clearly made a difference. In New Mexico, teen pregnancy and access to prenatal care were talked about as two of several children's health problems facing the state, while in San Antonio, the topic was the focus of a six-month campaign. In both communities, the public radio stations faced the task of discussing and delivering information on an issue facing teens to a much older listening audience. How these stations and their partners designed and developed their projects provides an interesting look at reaching your target audiences.
Teens deliver the message in New Mexico Having researched recent U.S. health statistics, KUNM news director Marcos Martinez knew that children's health was the area on which his station wanted to focus. In designing their project, the station and its partner, the SouthWest Organizing Project, decided to cover 12 major children's health issues with a monthly radio program and to collaborate on a citywide children's health fair. "We figured that our programs would reach parents and policymakers, but we also wanted to reach young people," said Martinez. Since New Mexico has a high proportion of teen mothers who don't receive prenatal care, the partnership chose this topic to focus on with young people.
The idea to involve teens in the campaign grew out of focus group research KUNM did to determine the best way to get health information to young people. Finding that teens were most receptive to messages delivered by their peers, the station gathered a group of young people to help them produce a series of 30-second radio spots on the importance of prenatal care. "We had a group of five or six teenagers develop scripts, then we took them into the studio to record," said Martinez. "We got a lot of material, some scripted, some improv." Out of this session, the station produced four spots, each ending with the statewide "800" number for information on accessing prenatal care.
KUNM decided to buy time on two commercial teen radio stations although the spots could have been aired for free as public service announcements. "We recognized that NPR has a small percentage of teen listeners," said Martinez, "so we took the spots where we knew they would be heard by young people." The station purchased the time to be sure that the spots aired in peak hours and had maximum effect. Their Sound Partners grant provided the funds for buying the air time. The station augmented the radio campaign with a flyer on prenatal care that was inserted into issues of six area high school newspapers. "I really enjoyed working with young people on this project, using their voices, capturing their interactions," said Martinez, "and it was an effective way to reach our target audience."
Reaching those who reach teens In many cities across the country, the number of teen pregnancies has dropped in recent years-not so in San Antonio, Texas. The city also has the unfortunate distinction of having the highest rate of births to girls ages 10 to 14 in the U.S. This fact led KSTX and the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District to join forces and develop Caring for the Children of Children:Teen Pregnancy in San Antonio, a six-month project on the health aspects of children raising children.
From the outset, the partnership decided that the best audience to target was KSTX listeners. "We couldn't really focus on the teens; they aren't in our demo," said Ernie Villarreal, KSTX news producer. "But a large part of our listeners are parents, medical people, civic leaders-the people who can effect change, make programs happen." The station put resources into providing special coverage of teen pregnancy, hiring an executive producer and five reporters to produce a monthly series of reports to air during Morning Edition.
The resulting series included documentary-style reporting as well as short commentaries written and read by people in the community whose lives were affected by the issue. "The coolest thing about the project," said executive producer Linda Cuellar, "was pairing the news features with commentaries that matched the topic, but with a very personal tack." Indeed, the voices of everyday people-a teacher, a couple hoping to adopt a baby, a woman who chose to remain childless-talking about their views or experiences related to the topic provided the series with real emotional impact.
The partners report that the radio features became a conversation starter within the community. People began to call the Health District to get more information or find out how they could help. At the end of six months, the segments were aired as an hour-long special hosted by Cuellar and Jennifer Herriott, Health Education & Promotion Program Manager at the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District. "Having the series rather than just a one-time report really put the issue on people's radar screens," Herriott said.
The partnership found other connections within the community to reach teens, most notably a unique photo exhibit, Children of Children: Portraits and Stories of Teenage Parents, by Michael Nye. Nye had photographed and recorded interviews with dozens of people, both young and old, whose lives had been affected by teen pregnancy. While the exhibit was on view at the Witte Museum in San Antonio, KSTX and the health department hosted a youth summit on teen pregnancy, attended by more than 800 teens. The young people viewed the show, then discussed the topic with a panel of teen parents. "The exhibit was a really effective way for both teens and adults to deal with this issue," said Herriott. "It was not confrontational; it just presented the issue and let you come to your own conclusions."
During the campaign, the partnership also focused on getting information out to adults in the community who work with teens. The project produced and distributed a comprehensive information packet on teen pregnancy including tapes and transcripts of the six-part radio series, questions for group facilitators to use in discussions with teens, resource lists, fact sheets and an eye-catching poster featuring a photo by Michael Nye. This packet was sent to any KSTX listener who called in for more information, as well as to local schools, community centers and youth organizations.
Although both projects took different paths, they both succeeded in raising awareness of teen pregnancy in their communities. In San Antonio, there's an expanded network of adults concerned about teen pregnancy, as well as information packets in use at local youth centers. As a result of KUNM's effort to reach teens, calls to the New Mexico hotline for prenatal care increased. Success in both cases came from knowing who to target and how to do it effectively.
Contacts:Marcos Martinez, Program Director, KUNM-FM, at 505-277-8014 or e-mail: kunmpd@unm.edu and Ernie Villarreal, Production Manager, KSTX-FM, at 210-614-8977 or e-mail: ernie@tpr.org