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Exercises On the airPhotos courtesy of Bangkok Post For the past two years, Praphapan Boonsalee (Noi) hasn�t spent her Saturday mornings the same way that most teens do. While other kids her age are still in bed, Noi is helping her community. Read the story from the Bangkok Post to find out what she does.
Locals in the neighbourhood of tambon Kaset Pattana in Ban Phaeo tune in to FM 106.25, where Noi keeps them informed of what�s happening to the children and young people in the community. PILOTS OF THE AIRWAVESThe programme features school news, community announcements, hot trends and music. �It is great to run my own show. It is like being in my own world and at the same time connecting with the people,� Noi said. Her mother was running a radio programme in her free time from working in an orchard when station co-founder Boonchop Tabkai offered Noi the chance to start a radio programme for teens. Noi jumped at the chance. Her programme has added variety to the station and opened it up to new faces that serve the local communities. POINT OF VIEWPathom Sakhon radio is one of the few community stations to not have commercial advertising. It is run with money donated by villagers, and all the radio hosts work for free. �My programmes offer entertainment and education for children and youths, as well as community service announcements,� Noi said. The volunteer radio host saves some of her weekly allowance to buy teen magazines so that she can keep up-to-date with pop-culture trends and health tips. Noi isn�t shy about airing her opinions on whether the trends are suitable for Thai teens. �I�m not a guru,� she said. �I just express my point of view as a teenager about what should and shouldn�t be adopted.� NEWS AND MOREA team of 30 junior reporters supply the stories. The reporters are students from five schools in the neighbourhood who received journalism training at the station. They report what is going on with children and what�s happening in their schools. Listeners learn about upcoming weddings, ordinations and fairs, as well as scheduled visits of the district hospital�s mobile health unit. Noi also keeps them informed about new public policies that might affect the farming community. She talks about issues that children in the community can relate to and encourages audience participation. �On-air calls reflect the problems locals are facing and their advice on how to solve them,� she said. ExerciseRead the story. Then, answer the following reading comprehension question. 1. Who supplies the radio station with stories? 2. How much money does Noi receive from the job? 3. How does Noi catch up on pop-culture trends and health tips?
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Noi heads to a tambon health office and climbs the stairs
to the second floor, where the Pathom Sakhon community radio station in Samut
Sakhon is located. The 17-year-old hosts her own programme, Student Wave,
from 8 am to 10 am every Saturday. 
