Welcome to Chikuni Community Radio Station 91.8 FM

Radio

It is from Chikuni Mission that the radio station operates on 91.8 FM and covers a radius of 60 Kilometres. It broadcasts to all the 21 out-stations in Chikuni Parish and beyond, with an estimated potential audience of 250,000(low estimate). The station also reaches four other parishes, Monze, Mazabuka and Choma towns.
The place could be seen from afar, thanks to its 69 meters guyed mast, accommodating radio’s FM antennas.
In a ground-breaking move, with the help from Jesuit Missions and many other organisations, Chikuni Praish, has raised over £100,000 to set up and operate the first Radio Station run by the Batonga people for the Batonga people: a true community effort in a wider sense of the word. With the first transmission in October 1999, the majority of the programmes are in the local Chitonga language and are aired at times that are most suited to the people. They are aimed at the subsistence farmers that make out a living in the dry and desolated land that is their ancestral home.
Everyone is encouraged to submit programme ideas and is invited to participate in the broadcasts as much as possible. To ensure that this is possible, each of Chikuni 21 centres has their “News Gatherers”. Their role is not just to gather important news but also to give detailed and constructive feed back on programmes, content and style, and to identify people in their areas that might take a more active role in the station. Filling the information vacuum, the topics covered by the programmes are agriculture, health, nutrition, HIV/AIDS, education culture, justice, family, women, youth, profiles of local talents, local issues and events. The radio has become a neutral forum where people are able to openly discuss taboos: property grabbing, sexual abuse of young girls, witch hunts and so on.
Big part in radio activities plays support for the local music artists, as music is the traditional medium of passing on wisdom. Other important projects of the radio are: Radio School (Taonga Market), Tonga Concert and Tape Production.
The radio is an example how people can find for themselves an answer to the real problems that they face in their lives. Radio is changing lives, developing minds and bringing people together in an environment based on their own needs in their own terms.
Thank you to all for making it possible!