Star2.com Exclusive: Indie Radio Gives Chiang Mai's Village Tribes A Voice

In the heart of Dong Dam, a Karen community in the Hot District of southern Chiang Mai, a local radio station has been sending out their voices, messages and songs since 2004. It’s one of the few independent broadcasting networks in Thailand, and its transmission reaches a distance of 50km, covering nine districts. The station aims to empower the tribes people by keeping their culture alive while educating the over 1,500 villagers listening in every day. Though the townsfolk from a nearby settlement support the station financially, it was set up in Dong Dam because 40% of Karen folk live there, says Thapat Maneerat, who presents a weekly show on the radio.

Seven villagers currently volunteer as radio announcers, handling broadcasts from 8am to 5pm, Mondays to Saturdays. The station operates out of an edifice that’s half the size of a normal classroom, and just outside its entrance are two satellite dishes and a transmitter tower, all within a 1,000sqm compound. Its studio works on th