This week’s Micronesian Monday Feature is about longtime radio host, podcast host, producer and multimedia correspondent Victorious Falan, who was born and raised in Yap and is now based in Guam. Victorious is using his skills to spread messages of positivity and unity among Micronesians from all islands. 

Back in June 2019, a thick undercurrent of tension flowed through Guam. News broke of a group of guys striking passing cars with machetes and throwing rocks at vehicles in Mangilao. 

Two men had been arrested after a fight broke out in front of a store and the fray spilled onto University Drive.

“The comment section was just crazy…it was just like, ‘Go back home. Deport, deport, deport,’” recalled Victorious Falan. “The vibe was bad, the vibe was literally bad.” 

 Victorious works at KUAM News Network. The news outlet decided to douse the distasteful comments and the bad vibes with a healthy helping of positivity. KUAM partnered with Mañe’lu¹ and the Micronesian Resource Center One Stop Shop. They produced a five-part series of short profiles of residents thriving on Guam who were from the freely associated states². They named the series One Micronesia. 

Viewers had been drowning in bad press about Micronesians and flocked to the series, thrilled to see stories of Micronesians flourishing and giving back to the Guam community. 

After all the parts aired, it became clear that five four-minute packages weren’t going to be enough. There are more stories to be told. The show should be in a longer format. It should be a podcast.

And it needed a host. 

Victorious had been working in radio since 2007. He’s currently a multimedia correspondent and audio production producer with KUAM. He’s also the host of the One Micronesia Podcast. 

Born and raised in Yap, he, like many of the region’s most prominent figures, graduated from Micronesia’s premier high school Xavier High School in Chuuk. 

In his junior year, Victorious remembers wondering what he was going to do once school ended. His classmates had plans to work in different professions.

In the summer before his final year in high school, he learned of a summer internship program and there were only a couple of slots left at the radio station. 

“I’ve always wondered how radio worked,” Victorious said. “As a kid growing up, radio was the main thing. We didn’t get TV until just now so radio was our only entertainment.” 

victoriousfalan

A post shared by Victorious Falan (@victoriousfalan)

His curiosity about how radio worked, how songs were played, and the faces behind the voices he grew up hearing morphed only grew as he was exposed to the magic of sound. He learned about microphones and mixers and transmitters during his internship. 

“It was just so fun. I was like ‘Whoa, this is really cool,’” he said. 

The summer and the internship came to an end and Victorious had to fly back to Chuuk for school. After he graduated, he worked at the radio station during the summer while his parents pressed him to go to college and continue with school. But the airwaves continued to tug at Victorious’s ear, like the call of a siren. 

He told his parents he didn’t want to go to school. 

“I want to continue. I love this job. It's very entertaining. I'm entertaining the public every day. It's fun, this is what I want to do,” Victorious said. 

Eventually, his father came around to the idea.

“That’s where my road started,” Victorious said. 

Victorious continued to host in Yap. He took a break to go to community college for a couple of semesters then he moved to Guam in 2012 with his girlfriend at the time who was pursuing her education at the University of Guam. 

When he arrived on Guam, it was a bit of a restart. He had to find a job. He was hired as a deckhand for a tourist tour company. But in the back of his mind, Victorious mulled his return to radio.

He had some doubts.

“In my head  I'm like, ‘You can't do that. You can't go out there and try to compete with Guam DJs. Who are you? Who are you from Yap, to come to Guam and think you can take over these airwaves?” Victorious recalled. 

Then one night he threw caution into the wind. 

“Hey, the worse thing that could happen is they tell you no,” he thought. 

victoriousfalan

A post shared by Victorious Falan (@victoriousfalan)

He sent his resume to all of the radio stations on Guam. He tapped his Yap radio connections who knew Chris “Malafunkshun” Barnett on Guam to put in a good word. 

Chris reached out to Victorious and offered him an internship. When Victorious showed up at the station, he sat in the lobby, legs shaking. Chris finished his morning show and sat Victorious down and told him there wasn’t any openings but he could intern at the station for three months, and Victorious jumped at the opportunity. He continued to work at the tour company and intern at the radio station, splitting his time between his passion and what paid the bills.

When the three months were up and there still weren’t any available positions, Victorious agreed to do another three-month internship—something no one else had done. 

“I kept learning and learning and vibing with everybody. The feeling of working here at KUAM, it is all about being family, everybody’s close and we got each other’s backs. That’s what I loved about it,” he said. 

“I had to transition from Yap radio to Guam radio,” Victorious said. “Guam radio is competitive….This took years for me to learn to get it down to what it is today.” 

After his back-to-back internships, there still wasn’t an open position for Victorious but he’d proven himself to be an asset and he was at the top of the hiring list. 

Not too long after that, the day before New Year’s Day in 2013 that he got the call. 

“I was like, ‘I want it. I’ll take it, whatever, like, give me anything, I’ll take it at this point,'” he said. 

He resigned from the tour company job and threw himself into radio. He started out doing reporting traffic and worked on promotions. About a year later he got his own show, an afternoon spot where he connected with listeners playing games and having a lot of fun. 

It was after a couple of years of being on the radio and entertaining the listeners of Guam that Victorious was approached to host the One Micronesia Podcast. 

Sabrina Salas Matanane, managing director for news and local productions, pulled Victorious aside. She told him she’d like him to host what would be the One Micronesia Podcast. 

Victorious was, at first, hesitant.

“She's like, ‘I'll give you time. I know. It's a lot to think about. I know. You're scared.’ I'm like, ‘Yes, I'm scared.’ I’m scared because what if I say something wrong? What if I said the wrong thing? You know, at this point in time, you say the wrong thing, youre atarget and people are gonna take you down, or they're gonna hit you with anything and everything. 

“She's like, ‘We’ll give you time. Think about it.’”

After a night of deep contemplation and a couple of beers, Victorious decided he’d do it. 

In the weeks after the incident on University Drive, local officials along with the FSM Consulate General in Guam hosted what was a contentious public meeting in Mangilao. At the meeting, one of the Chuukese residents to speak out was Nedine Songeni. Though her voice shook with emotion, Nedine shared the words she held in her heart. 

She would be the first One Micronesia Podcast guest. 

Victorious recalled feeling nervous, though you couldn’t tell if you rewatched the episode. 

The episode premiered live on Facebook and the comments in the first few minutes weren’t pleasant. Mentions of “deport” came rolling in quick as Nedine and Victorious spoke about the incident in Mangilao. 

But as Nedine, eloquent and respectful, shared her perspective with Victorious, he saw in real-time the tone of the commenters shift. 

“And then you slowly see the comments like lighten up,” he said. 

As they discussed Nedine’s work with Humanities Guahån, viewers tuning in started posting their support, cheering her on. 

Nedine’s interview was a grand slam. After they wrapped, Sabrina pulled Victorious aside and asked him if he’d seen the reaction from the public.

“She said, ‘That’s exactly what we wanted to do,’” Victorious said.

“The hate just can’t overpower the love that we all have for each other. So she’s like, ‘Ready to do another one?’”

To which Victorious responded, “Bring it.” 

Since then, the One Micronesia Podcast has put out some 80 episodes, featuring Micronesian artists, content creators, public and private sector officials, and more. 

victoriousfalan

A post shared by Victorious Falan (@victoriousfalan)

As a host, Victorious is welcoming and approachable, putting guests at ease. As soon as he begins the podcast, his years of professional experience become apparent. His voice glides through the mic, transitioning seamlessly through each segment, expertly reading nonverbal cues from the guests and navigating both guest and listener through his well-trodden territory. He’s been riding the airwaves for years and makes it all look so easy—a mark of a pro. 

The feedback from One Micronesia listeners has been positive. 

“You can definitely feel the vibe, the change in the way we’re going, the change in how people look at FAS citizens,” he said. 

Victorious went from questioning whether he could rival Guam radio DJs to becoming one of them and hosting a show on Guam unlike any other. 

It’s not lost on him that if he gave up years ago, this would not have been possible. 

“I’ve always got to thank God,” he said. “This is the gift that I was given to use. This is what I’m going to do, use it to give back to the community that was literally being scrutinized and was suffering years ago and now…doing amazing things.” ◉

Follow Victorious on Instagram at: @victoriousfalan

Subscribe and follow the One Micronesia Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

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