By Kelvin Ogome
Over the recent past, community radio stations in the country have grown in numbers adding to the list of the already populated broadcast field.
While the work of a community radio serves to unify and trigger socio economic development in a specific community, their influence has attracted business people as well as politicians who now sit at the helm.
Begging the question whether this is in a way interfering with the freedom of press.
In the maiden days, radios were mostly used as government mouth pieces and not social agents of change.
Kenya has approximately 40 community radio stations with only 27 of them being functional in different parts of the country. They broadcast majorly on the 99.9 frequency module as most of the continuity announcers, reporters, editors and even anchors work on a pro bono basis…..
Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popular and relevant to a local, specific audience but is often overlooked by commercial or mass-media broadcasters.
Ideally, a Community radio station is supposed to be operated, owned, and influenced by the communities they serve and are generally nonprofit.
According to Thomas Odhiambo, the radio manager of Reuben FM, a community radio serving the Mukuru kwa Reuben communityin Nairobi, unique programming is the best approach a community radio can use to survive in the ever changing broadcast world.
Just like any other profession, journalism and more so the radio industry has been faced with stiff competition from forces within and externally. Does that mean that community radios will be phased out eventually? John Njoroge the director of ithaga fm however says that there is a difference between regional radio stations and community radio stations. The future of regional stations may be shaky as they are commercialised as opposed to community radio stations.
Provision of free services to the society comes with a cost which including the dissemination of factual, verified and balanced information as ethical journalism dictates. It then begs the question how independent are community radios? Are they just mere mouthpieces of the high and might in the society? Victor Bwire, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Programmes Manager at the media council of Kenya believes that some of these outlets lack a proper model of designing and controlling the flow of information.
” What they lack is operational management…you find that a reporter might be doing a story on FGM and then there’s a politician who comes in to interfere. There’s also alot of interference from youth groups.”
As it has been said before, change is inevitable and if you don’t swing into action immediately when the wave of change sweeps across redundancy may be the only your pie. As a way of keeping up with the high cost of living and meeting the operational management costs, the laws have been bent to allow community stations to run a few adverts that resonate with the community.
According to a research conducted in 2017 by Geopol, a research firm, radio takes the lead in uniting and influencing the community at 89% followed by television at 77% and newspapers which come in third at 65%, could this be the reason why many business people opt to venture into the radio broadcasting business?
That notwithstanding community media and radio as a whole has had an impeccable impact on the social economic status of the nation and such a contribution cannot be ignored.
A survey report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization unesco indicates that gfx, 95% of people across the world listen to radio with Peru being among the top nations with registered radio station. the report further says Congo is the leading county in having many community stations as Uganda takes the lead in having many stations that broadcast in mother tongue across Africa.