"This toolkit is unique in the sense that it is designed as a one-stop-shop practitioner’s guide to setting up and maintaining – what the Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS) defined as – best practices for managing healthy and sustainable community radio stations, which a
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re deeply rooted in the communities where they operate. With this handbook, one can understand the essential ingredients for building a healthy community radio station from scratch. At the same time, it provides important troubleshooting information to existing community radio stations. The handbook outlines in detail the nature and form of healthy community radio stations: how their governance structure should look like; how they should be staffed and managed; what infrastructure and financial management systems have to be in place; how to produce good quality programming; and how to ensure real community participation in all aspects of their daily work." (Foreword)
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"This publication is a diagnostic tool for a "health check" or assessment of the sustainability of community radio stations. The check includes five areas: mission and governance of a community radio station; management and staffing; infrastructure and finances; programming; and community involvemen
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t. Core aspects of these five areas are succinctly described in the first part of "The healthy community radio station". The second part provides checklists of ten factual questions (which require a simple yes/no answer) and two qualitative questions for each of the five sectors, and proposes combining the "checklist scores" and "judgement scores" to get an overall picture of the "health" of a given radio station. Also included are guidelines for focus group discussions. This publication is highly recommended, both because of its convincing concept of five "pillars" of community radio sustainability and its practical approach." (CAMECO Update November 2013)
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"Anyone working with community radio in one way or the other longs for a recipe on how to ensure long-term sustainability. Such a recipe does not exist. But there are a number of important factors that are crucial for sustainability - and a related number of traps on the way it is easy to fall into
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which will effectively undermine long-term sustainability." (Page 2)
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"This publication puts deep-rooted community ownership at the heart of sustainability and real impact of community radios. Jallov focuses on core processes to reach the most adequate realization of a station according to the specific needs and context of the community. Based on her rich hands-on-exp
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erience, she provides examples illustrating processes of preparation, establishment, and building of long-term sustainability and empowerment, as well as the provision of an enabling environment. Practical advice ranges from planning needs assessments and strategic plans to managing partnerships and practising community-based impact assessment. Written in a clear, straightforward way, 'Empowerment radio' does an excellent job in providing guidance both on conceptual and practical aspects of community radio broadcasting." (CAMECO Update 2-2012)
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"The Government of India has recognized community radio through its guidelines in 2002 and amended guidelines in 2006. Yet, in the domain of community media, a large gap remains between policy and practice. Communities from the media dark regions of India continue to struggle to get their voices hea
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rd and to receive critical and locally relevant information. Their voices remain absent in an environment dominated by the mainstream media, disseminating only entertainment and national level or state level information. This publication brings some of these voices to the foreground. It includes pieces by some of the community radio practitioners who have been engaging with their communities for many years at the grassroots level, and address issues critical to community radio, such as capacity building, sustainability, technology and other aspects of their experience. It also includes write-ups by specialists from various other fields who have contributed to equally critical aspects of community radio, such as copyright issues, policy perspectives, knowledge sharing and capacity building." (Foreword)
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"This manual describes the process for starting a local radio station—the organization of community support and planning, equipment needs, programming strategies, business growth and sustainability and journalistic ethics and standards. This manual does not insist that you follow a set of rules to
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start and operate a station. But it does offer important guidelines about what things you might think about, why they are important and how you can learn from the experiences of other communities in other parts of Afghanistan and the world. There’s information in this manual for community supporters, station managers, reporters, technicians and other workers, and you can give copies of this manual to them." (Page 7)
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"This toolkit illustrates what it takes to set up and manage a community radio station in Nigeria. It discusses what community radio is and how it can contribute to the individual (provide relaxation, information, entertainment, promote self-expression and creativity) or to the community as a whole
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(raising awareness of the resources a community has for solving its problems, stimulating discussions, bringing government's attention to the community). It explains the application process, the seven steps towards setting up a community radio station, the necessary capacity building with the staff members, as well as technical matters, programme formats and types of funding. Another chapter highlights the opportunities for partnerships and participation of the community which can be established with the different stakeholders. Interesting about this publication is its easy-to-understand language and its consideration of the Nigerian sociocultural context: all given examples are derived from local environments and prove an awareness of the multi-ethnic and multi-religious communities of Nigeria." (commbox)
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"This guide and the included mulitimedia CD will guide you step by step mulitimedia CD will guide you step by step through the process of establishing your own community radio. It starts by explaining what community radio is and how to determine the communication needs of a community. It continues w
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ith the importance of community involvement and volunteering, includes information on appropriate technology and ends with financial sustainability and evaluation. This guide also builds on examples and reflects upon lessons learnt from the pilot project in Khoun District and draws your attention to important issues you need to consider when establishing your own station. The biggest challenge in setting up a community radio is not the technical equipment or the transmitter, there is always a solution to that. The challenge is how to organize the community support and involve members of the community right from the beginning in developing in developing their community radio. The other challenge is how to produce creative interactive programmes that community radio. The other challenge is how to produce creative interactive programmes that allow as many people within the community as possible to participate in the broadcasts in different ways." (Introduction, page 3)
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"Setting up a community radio station can seem complicated and intimidating. However, there is a lot of information and resources available to guide you and your community through this process. This section will help you find some of that information. This manual is divided into six steps: Getting S
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tarted; Legal Considerations; Funding Options; Selecting Equipment; Managing a Community Radio Station; and Broadcasting. This guide briefly explains the significance of each of these steps and then points to where you can look to find additional information." (Page 4)
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"According to the foreword, 'this manual is designed to accompany you in the demystification of each piece of equipment usually found in community radio stations'. This is exactly what the guide does. The first section provides an overview of all relevant technical questions to non-technicians, incl
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uding the functioning of radio waves, the setting up of a studio space, studio equipment, field recording equipment, transmission equipment, telecommunications and maintenance. The second section offers insights into the technical details of any kind of equipment by explaining the technical terms and concepts in an easy-to-understand language. Originally conceived for the specific context of India, this publication nevertheless serves as a helpful primer for local radio stations elsewhere." (CAMECO Update 2-2008)
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