Long Time Listener Wins AIROS Survey Grand Prize
A longtime AIROS listener from southwest Texas has won NAPT's grand prize after taking the recent AIROS survey.David Cantu wins a $50 Wal-Mart gift card, a NAPT T-shirt and five CDs from the AIROS audio vault.
Cantu, who has been tuning in since 1999 to hear such shows as Native Sounds-Native Voices, said he was surprised because this is the first time he has won anything by responding to a survey.
His fondest memory of AIROS is when he and his grandmother were listening to a Memorial Day special back in 2007. He remembers the big smile on her face as she listened to the different veterans' songs. She passed on in November of 2007, but now whenever he hears an honor song on AIROS he knows that she is still with him.
Five additional people have won prizes, including Shelly Shafer of North Carolina and April Chalfant of Montana.
Shafer has been listening since her family got a home computer 10 years ago.
"AIROS is a part of our everyday family life. My grandchildren and I really enjoy singing and dancing and doing bead work as we listen," Shafer said.
Currently, Shafer is taking language courses online through the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.
"I don't know much about computers, and yet my life has been richly blessed through the use of them," Shafer reflects, feeling that the technology is not as important as what it allows Native people to do.
Proving that everyone is Indian Country is related, April Chalfant, is cousins with renowned Cheyenne blues guitarist and AIROS favorite Gary Small. Chalfant has been listening to AIROS since shortly after it started, first tuning in back in 1998 when streaming media was still pretty new. She remembers that the IT guy in her office wasn't too happy as she was taking up so much bandwidth. Now she just listens at home using her broadband service.
Thanks to everyone who took the AIROS survey. We had hundreds of responses. The information will help us make AIROS a better service as we launch our new Web site soon.
If you'd like to share your thoughts on AIROS or how you use AIROS audio, please feel free to e-mail us anytime at airos@unl.edu. Feedback from our listeners is what keeps us going.