En El Aire: Temas de Salud Para La Mujer Latina (on the air health resources for Latinas); Wake County (North Carolina) Human Services.

Community served: Spanish-speaking radio audience

Wake County Human Services coordinates a call-in radio broadcast on WETC 540 AM (La Super Mexican). The objectives of the radio series are to raise awareness of health issues, improve access to services by reducing fears around intimate subjects, and increase listeners' knowledge of local services providers.

This 25-week live, call-in radio broadcast provides expert information and advice in Spanish for Latinas and their families. The broadcasts are staffed by volunteers and professional staff from community organizations who are experts in the topics of the week. These experts share information and answer questions prompted by the radio host as well as by calls from the listening audience.

The radio station's listening audience primarily consists of first- and second-generation Mexican immigrants working in landscaping, construction, and hospitality as well as stay-at-home mothers and single women. The average age of listeners is between 19 and 23. In planning the radio series, Wake County Human Services works to include topics relevant to this population.

The series, which was supported in part by the March of Dimes for the past three years, began again in January 2004 with funding from participating organizations. The topics scheduled for this year include HIV prevention, drinking and driving, obesity in children, STDs, and the relationship between STDs and birth defects.

Contact information: Maria Ines Rabayo, Wake County Human Services, 10 Sunnybrook Road, Ste 301A, Raleigh, NC, 27610, phone: [phone], email: [e-mail].