HOUMA, La. (AP) – United Houma Nation members can now turn their radio dials to a station of their own.

The American Indian tribe has launched a project years in the making, going on-air with its first radio station aimed at providing a place members can go for news during times of disaster, said Kirk Cheramie, station manager.

“It's awesome,” said United Houma Nation Chief Thomas Dardar. “It's going to give us the opportunity to reach our citizens with information and updates during a hurricane.”

The station went on the air in November as KUHN 88.9 FM, Voice of the United Houma Nation, Cheramie said. The signal, broadcast from the United Houma Nation tribal office in Golden Meadow, can only reach about 6 or 7 miles now, and residents of south Lafourche from Larose to Fourchon can pick it up, as well as residents of Pointe-aux-Chenes and Lafitte.

But tribal members anywhere in the world can also listen to the radio station online at the United Houma Nation's website, unitedhoumanation.org.

It's categorized as a “community-based radio station,” designed to provide tribal information, local news and emergency information related to storms and hurricanes threatening Houma Indian communities.

The station is now broadcasting an eclectic mix of music and a local news program at 2 p.m. hosted by Cheramie that features interviews with tribal members.

The United Houma Nation applied for a grant to start the radio station in 2006 from the Administration for Native Americans, a federal agency that promotes self-sufficiency and cultural preservation.

Most of the tribe's members live in low-lying, flood-prone communities across south Louisiana.

“After Hurricane Katrina, the tribe was spread out all over the country like everyone else, and a lot of tribal members couldn't make it home,” Cheramie said. “We needed a way to get information out to them.”

The United Houma Nation has received nearly $500,000 to launch the radio station. In 2009, the tribe received a construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission to build a radio tower. This year, the tribe finally received its license to operate.

The next step will be to make the station self-sufficient, Cheramie said. The station is on its last year of a three-year grant, and after that it will have to pay for itself with sponsored programs and advertising, similar to the Public Broadcasting Network.

The tribe hopes to expand the station's reach, building towers in Terrebonne and St. Bernard parishes so it can broadcast to all United Houma Nation members from St. Mary Parish east to the state line.

“But for now,” Dardar said, “we're thankful to the people who worked so hard to get this station up and running. Without their foresight, this wouldn't have happened.”

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Information from: The Courier