Khmer TV: Television for the Underrepresented
In a nondescript building in Bellflower, a small team is trying to make its mark on the Khmer community in the greater Los Angeles area. The building lacks any signage to let anyone know it’s there, but when you walk in, you’re greeted with a massive green screen and multiple show sets.
Khmer TV was started in 2013 by an unlikely founder. Tony Lai specializes in IT, but wanted to give a voice to the Cambodian community in Los Angeles. The Cambodian-American community is a culture that is highly underrepresented in broadcast according to Khmer TV’s producer, editor and sole employee, Kampheak Va. Khmer TV’s goal is to “bring together and empower the Cambodian-American community by serving as the unifying platform for Cambodian-Americans.” Va says, he doesn’t find many news outlets or coverage of Khmer events. Because of this, Khmer TV tries to cover anything that might be useful to the Khmer community such as Cambodian culture festivals or city council meetings involving Khmer-Americans.
Lai started Khmer TV because he used to struggle with finding information. He didn’t want others to go through the same thing he did. “Basically, our idea is to help publicize information to the Cambodians who are living outside of Long Beach.” Lai said. He wasn’t aware of any Khmer culture festivals or parades “ because the way they did it before, for any events they have, all they do is put a flyer in front of the shop. I live in Bellflower, so I had no idea they have parades, I had no idea Cambodia Town existed because you don’t have information.”
It wasn’t easy for Khmer TV starting out. Lai had to work hard to gain the trust of his community. “Khmer people, they don’t trust a lot of news or TV,” Lai said. Much of that is due to politics. Sathuka Tien, a Khmer-American who doesn’t follow Khmer TV, says this might be due to Cambodia’s current political situation. She says President Hun Sen stifles Cambodia’s freedom of speech, and has continued to rule much like a dictator would, so a lot of Khmer people are wary of propoganda. Pissy Seang watches Khmer TV. She says, “Cambodian newspapers are biased. They focus a lot on politics and usually choose a side.”
A large portion of Khmer TV’s audience comes from Long Beach, specifically, Cambodia Town. The LA Times stated that Cambodia Town houses the largest diaspora of Cambodian people outside the country. According to Census Reporter, Long Beach houses more than 10,000 foreign-born Cambodians. According to nonprofit news website Respectability.org a large number of Cambodians currently live in Long Beach because they came as refugees during the Khmer Rouge, a brutal regime in Cambodia led by Marxist dictator Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979. The first wave of Cambodian refugees came through Camp Pendleton which was 70 miles south of Long Beach.
However, after they settled, it was difficult for Cambodians to start working due to their situations during the Khmer Rouge. This may have resulted in a large health crisis for the Cambodian American people. According to an article published in the Progress Community Health Partnerships in 2016, Cambodian Americans struggle with a major disparity in health compared to the average American.
Much of Khmer TV’s audience is also older. “The viewers, a lot of older people like us because it’s free and easy for them,” Lai says. He mentions that the older generation struggles with newer technology, so public TV is easier to access. “We broadcast 24 hours on the public airways, so all they need is an antennae.” Lai also says the fact that they broadcast 24–7 helps the older viewers. “They don’t want to turn it off because they’re afraid that the TV will disappear and won’t come back and having Khmer TV on their TV set helps a lot since we have such variety.”
Khmer TV covers a lot of major problems plaguing the Cambodian people. It tends to cover a lot of health issues “Sometimes older people, especially when they’re sick, they watch and they call in,” Lai stated. “And they let us know what’s on their mind and what’s going on in their lives.”
Khmer TV hopes to give Khmer people a voice and bring awareness to this small community. “One of the big issues for Cambodian people is deportation. So we cover the court cases to publicize it and bring awareness to the younger generations,” Lai stated. “There are a lot of kids that get deported because they did something minor. We want to bring awareness to things like that.”
Most of Khmer TV’s engagement comes from people calling into the station. “Phone calls are how I know people are watching. It lets me know which shows are doing well and even lets me know the type of people watching” Lai said. “We even get people from other cultures. One time I even had an Armenian person call to let us know he watches Khmer TV.”
When it comes to social media, Khmer TV is rather weak. Apart from Youtube, Lai says, “we pretty much only use Facebook. Most of our audience is older, and older people tend to use Facebook. We don’t really touch other websites.” The outlet mostly uses it to gauge how well a particular show is doing. Lai said, “a lot of our more serious shows, they don’t get much interaction. But when we cover entertainment it gets a lot. That’s why we added a karaoke show. It gets a lot of engagement on Facebook.” The show lets viewers call in and sing along with the hosts.
However, social media can be a powerful tool for Khmer TV. Despite being one of the only Khmer-American TV stations in California, it’s still a very small station. Twitter can help greatly expand Khmer TV’s reach due to its fast paced nature. It can also help reach the younger generation of Khmer-Americans. As the newer generation of Khmer-Americans are born, and technology continues to grow, Khmer TV needs to adapt in order to continue providing Khmer-Americans with a voice. Until then, Karaoke with Khmer TV seems to be a pretty big hit. “People are so stressed these days, including myself. And when you have something fun, people come to watch, and that’s what this is, it’s a show that’s fun for people to watch.”
