Media Infrastructure

Building Radio Stations

While Internews always strives to work with existing broadcast stations, in many regions of conflict where no stations exist, Internews and its local partners have built radio stations from the ground up. 

This radio station facility in Logar province is one of 32 independent stations established and supported by Internews Afghanistan. Photo: Noah Miller/Internews

Since the fall of the Taliban, Internews has established 32 independent community radio stations in Afghanistan, with an estimated signal reach of about 11 million people (approximately 37% of the population). These stations are especially important as few citizens have access to print media and TV in a country where the literacy level is among the lowest in the world and the vast majority of households have no access to electricity. Internews also provides transmission equipment and radio programming and helps the stations develop business plans to give them a reasonable chance of long-term viability.

In eastern Chad, on the border with the Darfur region of Sudan, Internews is establishing three radio stations, including transmission equipment, to serve the tens of thousands of Sudanese who have fled the genocide in Darfur and the Chadians impacted by their arrival. The Internews-established radio stations cover issues from access to water and firewood, to information about health and refugee rights.

Following the Asian tsunami of 2004, in Aceh, Indonesia, Internews quickly mobilized to help the first emergency radio station get on the air in the capital of the province, which was devastated by the tsunami. An Internews team flew to Aceh with two suitcase radio stations and other equipment to donate to local radio stations.

Five rural communities in Tajikistan will soon have access to information about their region and the country through a radio project implemented by Internews. This first-ever community radio initiative is working in the isolated areas of Shaartuz, Korgenteppa, Tajikabad, Kulyab, and Khorog to set up small-budget radio stations.

Internews also helped build a resource center in Tavildara, a remote village in eastern Tajikistan, which will eventually house a community radio station. Internews is providing the broadcast equipment and has been working with the radio staff, assisting with regulatory issues and providing journalism, management and technical training.

Similar work is being done in southern Kyrgyzstan, where Internews is working with rural communities to launch two small radio stations – the first such initiative in the country.