Download Radio Stations In Uganda =LINK=

And then we turn to Radio Wa, a radio station in Lira, southeast of Acholiland in the Lango Sub-Region. Radio Wa began running defection messaging in 2002, and was very effective in encouraging defections during the early 2000s, especially as rebels moved through that area after a UPDF offensive in 2002. Unlike with Radio Mega, there was no contact with the rebel leadership except for rumored threats against radio staff. In September of 2002, the rebels made good on these threats and destroyed the radio station, attacking early in the morning and burning it down.

Both radio stations actively encouraged LRA fighters to escape and take advantage of the amnesty. Both radio stations saw themselves as supporting community efforts to achieve peace by bringing the LRA home. And yet the rebels chose to engage in public dialog with one radio station while burning down the other.

Download Radio Stations In Uganda

Download Zip 🔥 https://bytlly.com/2y3K0C 🔥

Those who violate this law may face a fine of up to twenty-five currency points. In Uganda, the value of one currency point is set by the finance ministry and is used as a reference point for calculating fines. For this violation, it means that the fine could be calculated based on the current value of a currency point, and the total fine would be 25 times that value. Alternatively, the affected stations may be imprisonment for a maximum of one year, or both.

In Uganda, community radio stations are grouped under a national network called the Community Media Network Uganda (COMNETU). COMNETU member stations, as many other community radio stations around the world, often struggle with issues of financial, social, and institutional sustainability. Most lack the strategic planning and management knowledge that would allow the stations to become stable agents for social change.

12 of these stations finalized sustainability plans during the workshops and subsequently had those plans adopted by the management of their stations. The remaining 8 stations were still developing and/or adopting their plans. Each radio station will present their business plan to the Uganda Communications Commission during their respective license renewal processes.

There is a need to ensure that the radio stations emerge as a distinct form of media that does compete with commercial stations because they are linked to the community and therefore truly community-owned.

Despite the explosion of digital news outlets globally, millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa continue to rely on radio as the most accessible independent news source. However, radio stations across the continent are facing unprecedented threats to their sustainability due to weak media markets, limited advertising revenue and intense competition. A more pragmatic understanding of viability and more flexible donor strategies can help these outlets stay on air and maintain their independence.

When it comes to evading censorship, reaching mass audiences, and overcoming sometimes-costly barriers to entry, digital delivery seemed to offer a panacea to the journalists and news outlets covering local news. But the shift to digital has brought its own substantial challenges, and in much of the global south, online alternatives have yet to overtake the time- tested mass medium: local radio.

In 2017, nearly 40 media professionals from across sub-Saharan Africa gathered to discuss the challenges facing independent media and propose collaborative solutions. They identified failing business models as the most significant obstacle to media pluralism in the region, exacerbated by limited advertising markets.1 Add to this the intense competition among media outlets, digital disruption, and governmental interference, and surviving as a local or community radio station can be a monumental struggle.

The COVID-19 crisis that emerged in late 2019 has highlighted the critical role that radio stations like the ones studied here play in keeping communities informed worldwide. As this report was going to press, all the case study radio stations in Uganda and Zambia remained on-air with full programming, though in some cases with scaled-down staff due to curfews. All were broadcasting special shows and public health messages to help combat the virus.

These are not necessarily representative of all proximity stations in sub-Saharan Africa,but the variety of sizes and business models highlights the range of approaches implementedin their drive for viability. Despite their differences, all eight are:

Regardless, the dizzying changes that have swept media across the globe over the past 30 years have also made their mark for the better. Political and technological developments have brought huge growth in the number and variety of media outlets in both countries. In Uganda, for instance, the media sphere has boomed from little more than the single state broadcaster to 31 free-to-air TV stations, five digital satellite TV stations, more than 30 newspapers (print and online), and 258 operational FM radio stations.7 In 2019, around 44 percent of the population had mobile phone subscriptions, half of which were used to access mobile internet services.8 From near zero in the 1990s, internet access has soared to 46 percent of the population, though actual weekly internet usage is closer to 27 percent.9 As a result, radio has seen its audience share slowly diminish in favor of the internet,10 but not nearly enough to unseat it as the most utilized mass medium in both countries, particularly in rural areas.

Despite the mobile and digital revolution, radio is still king in Uganda and Zambia. The latest figures (2018) show that in Uganda, 73 percent of the population tuned into radio at least once a week, compared to only 28 percent for television and27 percent online.14 Radio also remains the most accessible mass medium in Zambia, used by 67 percent of the population according to one 2018 estimate.15

Almost all proximity radios face challenges of staff quality, high turnover, difficulties attracting advertising and sponsorship, and difficulties paying their personnel. Compared to other professions, pay is low for radio journalists in both countries.

In 2018, about half of its revenue came from advertising. Its total revenue in 2018 was approximately 400 million UGX ($108,700). It is the only one of the four Ugandan stations examined here to make a profit in 2018, which was about 20 percent.

Proximity radio stations employ a wide range of strategies to survive, mapping out a diversified and pragmatic path toward viability. We grouped these strategies into three general approaches: fostering an enabling environment, harnessing viable funding modalities, and capitalizing on management and operations to expand reach.

Although the inclusion of such content might be seen as compromised journalism, several of the stations argue that they are able to balance the paid-for talk shows with their own editorially independent shows,for which no payments are involved. These, they say, are much more impartial. For example, at Phoenix FM, a flagship program Let the People Talk is aired twice weekly with one edition per week supported by BBC Media Action. It is a live, two and a half-hour talk show with invited (nonpaying) guests, including government representatives, who answer questions from listeners.

Financial support from donor grants, while offering an alternative to navigating domestic politics, inevitably comes with its own trade-offs. Just as we focused on politically independent radio stations, we also intentionally chose stations that were not heavily dependent upon donor support. Mama FM is the one exception to this, presenting a contrasting case as it remains almost entirely financed by donor funds, despite its efforts to attract advertising.

Nonetheless, we found that donors played a role in the finances of all our case study stations to some degree. Bigger grants normally come in a package, including training, equipment, and other support for the station. For example, UNESCO supported Speak FM with a package of information and communications technology (ICT) equipment and training; the Lutheran World Federation launched a large sponsorship for Tembo FM of up to four hours of airtime per day, specifically targeting a nearby refugee camp; and Phoenix FM, Breeze FM, Radio Mano, and Radio Icengelo all receive training, business management advice, and/or grant support for a specific production.

Companies advertising on our case study stations include the big telecommunications companies such as Zamtel, Airtel, and MTN, multinationals like Unilever and Pepsi, banks like the Bank of Zambia and Stanbic, as well as smaller, local enterprises including water/ sewerage companies, hotels, schools, and agricultural firms.

While advertising revenue is needed and highly sought after, it is not without its disadvantages. Undue corporate influence is potentially an issue for all would-be independent radio stations. At religious radio stations like Radio Icengelo, station policy often prevents running ads that promote condoms, gambling, cigarettes, and alcohol.

Large audience numbers are vital to selling advertisements. The Paris- headquartered IPSOS is the pre-eminent market-research companyin both Uganda and Zambia, and almost all the stations we spoke to depend on IPSOS ratings to demonstrate their reach. Additionally, IPSOS provides a service to media outlets which monitors the ads they play. This allows stations to prove to advertisers that their commercials are broadcast as contracted. Though they all referred to those surveys and ratings, only two of the eight case study stations, VOK and Phoenix FM, could afford to pay IPSOS25 for its monitoring services. Other Zambian stations benefited from research commissioned by BBC Media Actionor IPSOS reports being made available to them for free (though not always immediately).

In both Uganda and Zambia, we came across efforts by internationally funded agencies to help public-interest radio stations work together and take better advantage of the available advertising. In Uganda, the East Africa Radio Advertising Service (EARS) is helping proximity stations to bargain collectively for a bigger share of the advertising market and for better service and rates. Requesting a 20 percent commission, EARS is acting as a social enterprise with seed funding from a German nonprofit organization, Media in Cooperation and Transition (MICT).27 In Zambia, BBC Media Action has attempted to help proximity stations bargain collectively with advertising agencies through a loose association called the Zambia Radio Marketing Network. The idea was to appoint an agent to represent a group of 19 affiliated stations who would take 16 percent of sales (ad agencies typically take a much higher rate of 45 percent).28 EARS began in October 2019 so will be one to watch with interest. The BBC Media Action effort, however, has suspended activities for the time being after the Competition Commission in Zambia, a competitor of Zambia Radio Marketing Network, deemed the latter a cartel.29 2351a5e196