We
are all affected by AIDS pandemicA Decade of Excellence
By Vanessa Mweemba
Radio Chikuni this year celebrates its tenth anniversary as a community
radio station that is dedicated to satisfying the varying informational
needs of a growing, diverse audience.
Ten years since the first broadcast, a number of things have changed, from
conventional simple broadcasting equipment to the latest, state of the art
digital equipment, broadcasters have come and gone, but the vision to be
relevant to the community we serve takes precedent in this ten year history.
Of course it has not all been rosy, a number of challenges have been there
but those challenges have helped us seek solutions that have helped to make
the Radio Station bigger and better in terms of programming.
Our total dedication to excellence in community broadcasting has become part
of what we are, never at any time have we taken our audience for granted,
our programming is tailor-made to respond adequately to the informational
needs of the community we serve, our programmes are usually a product of
hard work, research and brings to the fore many issues people may be hesitant to talk about.
We have not been afraid to be controversial if we believe it will benefit the audience,
and in all this we have never forgotten our guiding principle of Love as commanded by Christ.
Our name is often associated with thorough, incisive, thought provoking
documentaries and programmes that impact our listeners by responding to
individuals’ unique needs and tastes, and we have never forgotten that our
duty is not to be popular but to be relevant to the community we serve.
As we reflect back on the ten years of our existence, we can celebrate
numerous successes, and we can say it by the grace of God that we have come
this far, doing what we love doing, which is service to humanity.
Our failures have taught us life long lessons, and in this short journey we
have learnt a lot. We are not saying we have become perfect, no, what we are
saying is that we have learnt from our past and we have become better and
stronger, the trials have made us stronger, the successes have made us
believe in unity of purpose and total dedication to an unparalleled excellent
service, that only comes to those who labour in love.
The various people we have worked with, dead or alive, we salute them as we
celebrate a decade of excellence.
The thousands of calls and letters we receive from a happy audience leads us
realise that we do not speak in a vacuum, but to people,
whether its a farmer listening to “Mwakotoka nobalimi” or a child to "Taonga Market", we are
touching lives, changing the society through our development oriented programmes.
The annual concert we host has become synonymous with the Radio Chikuni, and
it speaks volumes on our desire to help preserve the Tonga culture.
The music production section of Chikuni Radio also enlivens our dream of
being the cradle of culture and provides the needed platform for young
musicians to sing their song and sell it to the world.
We look forward to improving our operations so as to satisfy the varying
informational needs of our growing, diverse audience.
Yes indeed it’s a decade of excellence.
