Community Radio Tunes Into Ad Revenues in India

Community Radio (CR) broadcasting in India, long bound by red tape, has received a fillip with the government announcing a hike in advertising tariffs and the auction of licenses.

Red Tape Mutes Community Radio in India

Security concerns appear to have stymied the growth of community radio (CR) in India, a vast and diverse country of 1.2 billion people, the bulk of them living in remote, rural areas.

Lessons in Democracy on South Sudan’s Airwaves

It is late afternoon and a group of men and women begin to converge under the shade of a huge mango tree in Yambio town, the capital of South Sudan’s western Equatoria state. The group is not gathering for an ethnic, political or religious meeting. They are here to listen to the radio.

The Sound of Peace in Kenya’s Kibera Slum

In a Kibera-bound mini-bus taxi, the driver changes the station just as he turns onto Ngong Road, kilometres away from the Kenyan slum. He tunes into Pamoja Radio 99.9 FM, a local community radio station that broadcasts only in Kibera.

Campus Radio Turns Grassroots Voice

Since it first hit the airwaves more than 50 years ago, the University of the Philippines (UP)'s campus radio has evolved into a community broadcaster, serving as the voice of the people.

JAMAICA: New Technologies Extend Life and “Mobility” of Radio

In the last 25 years, there has been an explosion of commercial radio stations in what Jamaican broadcast professionals describe as "a revolution" that has extended the "mobility of radio".

URUGUAY: Community Radios Have Innovative Law, But Are Off the Air

Uruguay took a giant step towards more democratic media when it passed a law on community radio broadcasting in 2007. But although regulations for the law were approved in late 2010, many broadcasters are now off the air and waiting to be assigned a frequency.

Airwaves Cut Distances in Rural Peru

The Onda Rural communication for development initiative in Peru has come up with a range of strategies to get information out to remote villages, to help them with decision-making on questions like climate change adaptation or disaster preparedness.

Community Radio Stations Divided Over Law in Chile

Community radio stations in Chile continue to call for a legal framework that would allow them to operate without restrictions, because although a specific law was passed nearly two years ago, it has not yet entered into effect.

CHINA: Radio Keeps Tibetans Tuned In

No road leads to Motuo County. There is no post office or newspaper. But, for the 10,000 residents of one of the planet’s remotest corners, a local radio station serves as the vital link to the outside world.

Bangladesh Braves Climate Change With Community Radio

"Welcome to Krishi (farming) Radio. You are listening to FM 98.8 megahertz and I am your hostess Shahnaz Parvin," the local community radio crackles over the mobile phones and transistors of residents in coastal Barguna district.

Papua New Guinea’s New Dawn With Community Radio

It was the decade-long civil war in the autonomous Bougainville region that inspired the founding of New Dawn FM, a community radio station recognised for contributing to the rebirth of civil society and development.

INDIA: Community Radio Saves Lives and Livelihoods

Fisher Wanka Masani, 25, has been inseparable from his two- dollar transistor ever since a community radio (CR) station started up in this coastal town. The square black box blares popular songs while Masani waits for his brothers to land the daily catch.

Paraguayan Radio Station Buses Internet to the Barrios

"I want my own computer so that I can talk to my cousins who live in Italy," says eight-year-old Camila Ojeda, sitting in front of a computer monitor on a bus that acts as a mobile cybercafé in the Paraguayan capital.