Bush Radio, Africa’s oldest community radio station project is in the process of renewing its broadcast and frequency spectrum license.
As part of this process we would like all our listeners, supporters, community organisations and clients to sign a petition to show their support for the application.
You can sign the form online.
Thank you for your support.
Related: Disrupting the media and saluting our roots
This #IWD2023 we call for a more inclusive world online:
#PowerOn to give women and girls equal access to technology!
#PowerOn to end technology-facilitated violence against women and girls!
#PowerOn to close the digital gender gap!
Are you with us?
At Bush Radio we deal with very serious issues everyday and an important part of what we do is also individual development (you need to be learning something to be part of Bush). So every Wednesday at the station we host a Staff Development session – normally we gather around “The Big Table” to discuss, debate, watch and learn.
Sometimes we have a chance to get out of the office for some fun. This time Rush hosted us for a fun session, where we could blow off some steam.
Disrupting the media and honouring our roots
Zola, Clinic Assistant (Health and Support Services Programme) of Triangle Project demonstrates how to use the finger clot, dental dam, female condom, and male condom from the Triangle Project pleasure pack.
Watch Bush Radio videos on YouTube
Related: If it’s not on, it’s not in – International Condom Day
World Radio Day marks an important reminder of the power of radio for good – 2023 is also the 30th anniversary of Bush Radio challenging the apartheid government to free the airwaves in South Africa.
Related: Disrupting the media and saluting our roots
Almost 30 years after Bush Radio went on air to defy the apartheid government’s control of the airwaves, staff, volunteers and interns had the opportunity to host one of the first volunteers at the community radio station, Mervyn Swartz.
A representative of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) in the 1990s, Swartz can be seen in the Bush Radio Partial Eclipse documentary, and trained with “networkers” (the former term for Bush Radio volunteers) and partner organisations to establish community radio in South Africa and help free the airwaves from the apartheid government’s control. Originally an engineer, Swartz went on to serve as the director for Cosatu’s Campaign for Democratic Communications (CDC) in Johannesburg.
He was interviewed for a new documentary on the impact of community media, and Bush Radio grabbed the opportunity for new interns to meet him, and hear about his experiences in the early 1990s.
Bush Radio is constantly welcoming fledgling media disruptors and active citizens to the station, and listening to how the station was repeatedly denied a broadcast license by the repressive state, but still went on to broadcast without one, showed how important history is to the present day.
Watch Bush Radio videos on YouTube
The 2023 State of the Nation Address is scheduled to be delivered by to a joint sitting of both houses of Parliament by President Cyril Ramaphosa on the 9th of February 2023.
We asked listeners what they would tell the president he needs to address if they had the opportunity.
You can catch full coverage of the activities organised by civil society groups and NGOs leading up the address on Bush Radio 89.5fm or online, as well as the speech itself and then reactions to the speech in our coverage the next morning.
Related: We keep going as a nation
WATCH Bush Radio Videos on YouTube
In line with the Bush Radio philosophy of “Don’t curse the darkness, light a candle”, the station has been hard at work looking for the resources to ensure that we remain on air during load shedding.
In 2018 the station installed a UPS system, but the constant load shedding led to the batteries degrading to such a point that the station would only remain on air for 20 minutes when the power went out at its studio in Salt River.
This past weekend the Bush Radio team guided AB Technical Solution installed and tested an auto-start diesel generator system which will allow us to stay broadcasting during load shedding.
As much as the new system relieves the immediate need for the station to remain broadcasting, it is not the final step. We would like to have a more environmentally and economic solution to power the entire station (the newsroom and administration). To this end we are looking for partners who could assist in taking the station to the next level, perhaps exploring a solar power solution and make sure that the “Mother of Community Radio in Africa” keeps bringing light to the airwaves and online with its dynamic programming and social upliftment projects.
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