Community Radio Monologues

Community Radio Discussion
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Marks.

I went along to a session today on community radio. Held in the Mexico room, it was actually overstuffed with people. It was a shame that the people from AMARC, the world association of community radio, just talked about what they are doing, rather than why they are doing it. There was no real discussion of why community radio was not specifically mentioned in the final “Rome Consensus Draft version”. AMARC Africa’s current management problems didn’t come up, although the crisis is well known amongst donors. AMARC needs to show the clear business case as to why radio is so powerful in keeping communities talking with each other. To quote Bush Radio’s Zane Ibrahim, the best stations are 90% community and 10% radio – not the other way round. I get the impression few community stations are doing follow up research on their effectiveness.