(chron.com) Over the last decade, Vu and her husband, Duong Phuc, Radio Saigon Houston KREH 900 AM co-owners, have taken a strong foothold in the Houston Vietnamese media market with programming that mixes talk shows with news and music. The station’s presence is also credited with helping spur Vietnamese migration from the West Coast to the Houston area.
The station’s growth with the Vietnamese-language radio format also illustrates a thriving and expanding Vietnamese community in Houston with an appetite for programs in their native language. Their staff has grown from five to 35 part-time or full-time employees, plus more than 80 contributing hosts.
“This is just the beginning,” Vu said. “At first, we thought the language will die down with the older generation, but our success has proven that wrong.”
Although California has long been considered the Vietnamese epicenter in the U.S., over the past few years Houston’s comparably cheap real estate, cost of living and investment opportunities have lured West Coasters.
Word about Houston’s attractive market has spread in part due to the connection made by Radio Saigon Houston’s simulcast news program that airs in Orange County, Calif., San Jose, Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Vu said. Californians — and anyone who can access the radio station via the Internet — can get a dose of Houston from the daily programs.
Radio Saigon Houston has helped spread the rags to riches stories of some of Houston’s most successful Vietnamese entrepreneurs, said Danny Nguyen, co-founder and president of the Vietnamese American Houston Chamber of Commerce.
“I have a lot of inquiries from people in California. There’s a lot more opportunities in terms of investment and development” in Houston, said Nguyen, a commercial real estate developer and investor. (more…)
Demographics of Houston:
“Houston is a diverse and international city, in part because of its many academic institutions and strong biomedical, energy, manufacturing and aerospace industries. According to the U.S. Census 2000, the racial makeup of the city was 49.27 percent White, 25.31 percent Black or African American, 0.44 percent Native American, 5.31 percent Asian, 0.06 percent Pacific Islander, 16.46 percent from other races, and 3.15 percent from two or more races. Thirty-seven percent of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race.
The Hispanic population in Houston is increasing as more immigrants (illegal or otherwise) from Latin American countries look for work in the area. The city has the third-largest Hispanic population in the United States. It is estimated that about 400,000 immigrants reside in the Houston area illegally. This influx of immigrants is partially responsible for Houston having a population younger than the national average.”
