Meet Stephanie Kim of DK Net

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Kim.

Stephanie, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Dknet Radio started 5 years ago in Dallas. At that time, there was no Korean radio station in the Southwest so the birth of Dknet Radio was met with enthusiastic support from the Korean American community in Dallas area. As 24-hour radio station serving Korean immigrant community there are many unique responsibilities and challenges not faced by other typical American radio stations. We have to cover local Dallas news, Korean community news, national and international news and also news from Korea. In addition, since we are serving immigrant community with many listeners unfamiliar with American laws and culture we feel that it is our duty to help support Korean immigrants integrate into American society by providing useful and practical information on laws, education, healthcare and many other topics relevant to immigrant community. DKnet has many radio programs to fulfill this very important role. We invite experts from laws, politics, healthcare, education and many other fields to provide valuable information to our audience.

We feel it is extremely important for Korean immigrants to actively engage in local issues and politics in order to successfully integrate into American society so we frequently invite local political leaders to our radio programs and heavily promote local elections to our listeners.

Another important goal of DKnet is to provide entertainment to our audience. We have many unique and interesting variety shows targeting both first generation Koreans and 2nd generation Korean Americans who might be less familiar with Korean culture. Since baseball is also national past time in South Korea and with arrival of wildly popular Korean Major league player Choo Shin Soo in 2014 we started live broadcasting Texas Rangers home games in Korean including playoff games from the stadium.

As the leading voice of Korean community in Dallas area DKnet also creates and supports many public campaigns and events like fundraising to help homeless, vote registration campaigns, photo contests, music festivals, children’s drawing contests, and many others to engage and support Korean American community in Dallas.

Has it been a smooth road?
Frankly, it was very difficult, when we first started, there was a big expectation from Korean community but also significant number of Korean community in Dallas was very skeptical that a radio station broadcasting in Korean language can financially survive in this community since as I mentioned earlier there was no Korean radio station in the whole Southwest. With limited budget and very limited small staff, we learned to become jack of all trades. For example, when we started 5 years ago, radio show host would write his own scripts, picked the music to play, and do all the necessary booking and reporting. With audience limited to Korean community and much smaller income from advertising compare to other radio stations in Dallas serving the whole DFW area we constantly struggled to pay our bills and hardworking employees.

But we were able to overcome early struggles in large part thanks to love and enthusiastic support from our Korean listeners who love listening to Korean broadcast in Dallas. Many listeners brought food, snacks and flowers to our radio station to show love and support and we received constant calls and letters expressing their support.

When a radio host had flu, our listener brought lemon tea and vitamins. I still remember a letter from one female listener, who immigrated to States 30 years ago and who works 12 hours a day at dry cleaner, thanking us for making her daily life much happier since she can enjoy old Korean songs, enjoy entertaining variety shows while working 12 hour shift.

I also remember a letter from Korean donut shop owner, many Koreans operate donut shops in Dallas area, they typically start the day very early in the morning, like 2 or 3AM, he wrote to thank us since now he can enjoy listening to Korean radio while baking early in the morning, as you can guess hundreds of Korean donut shops in Dallas area are one of the most enthusiastic supporters of DKnet. a Korean taxi driver wrote to thank us for opening his eyes to current issues after listening to our radio news everyday while driving. As you can see the main driving force behind success of our radio station is love and encouragement from our loyal listeners.

Also the enthusiasm and hard work of our small staff of around 20 plays a significant role in success of our radio station. The fact that most of our staff had no previous radio experiences actually worked in our favor since they approached everything from the point of view of listeners resulting in programs that our listeners truly enjoy and can relate to.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
DKNET Radio is always with the community.

No matter when or where, you can always meet DKnet Radio.

Twenty-four hours a day, through AM730, www.dknet730.com, and our mobile app DKNET, we are together with our audience no matter when or where you are in the world.

We enrich the lives of our Korean American community by providing community events, entertainment, and information.

DKNET Radio broadcasts programs that matter to the Korean American community.

We are always striving to provide programs and events that our audience wants and enjoys like news, variety shows, and sports. DKNET is the 2nd radio station in the United States to live broadcast Major League games in Korean. Since 2014, DKNET live broadcasts Texas Rangers games from the stadium including playoffs. As the largest and the most important Korean media in DFW, we take our journalistic responsibility very seriously, by broadcasting live news four times a day, and providing up to date local, national, and Korean news to our listeners.

DKNET Radio is always open to our audience.

We always want to hear from our audience. Please reach us through Facebook, social media, www.dknet730.com chat, and our message board.

We are always striving to provide programs and contents that will enrich our listener’s lives.

As the major public media serving the Korean community in Dallas, we take our responsibility very seriously. We will work ceaselessly to maintain our Korean community’s trust.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Korean community in DFW is growing, but still not big enough for radio business.

Contact Info:

• Address: 2356 Glenda Lane, Dallas, TX 75229
• Website: www.dknet730.com
• Phone: 9726206296
• Email: info@dknet730.com
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/dknet730
• Twitter: DKnet730

Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.