Community radio gets R1,4m boost
Mogale FM will be broadcasting from its new state of the art premises soon.
Local community radio station, Mogale FM just earned itself a brand-new premises with new equipment from the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA).
The three-year-old community radio station has a support staff of 32 and caters for their 15 000 listeners. The station is the brainchild of Patrick Rankatisho, who has a passion for radio. After briefly studying the craft, he decided to recruit like-minded individuals and establish a local radio station.
“We received our licence from Icasa in 2012 and have moved twice before settling on this new premises,” Patrick said. The young station first operated from a residential area and due to some challenges, they moved to another premises, which they also had to vacate because of infrastructure problems. The station staff is very happy at their new home, specially designed for a radio station.
“We applied for funding from the MDDA a while ago but since the inception of this project we have been doing it entirely out of our own pockets. We are relieved to finally have a premises with a production studio and a broadcast studio.”
Running such a big project completely out of their own pockets has not been easy for Patrick and his team – they have lost staff because they can’t afford to pay them, have suffered theft of valuable equipment, have had to explain themselves to community members who don’t understand stakeholder relations, but that did not deter them one bit.
“Our challenges have only served to help us grow and taught us to take care of our staff. Although they work on a volunteer basis we have learnt to give them stipends when this business makes enough money, because staff is king,” said Anton Sello, the station’s business development manager.
“The reason we moved to the new studio is to improve quality and our working standard. A radio station needs infrastructure – this means having the muscle to deliver quality broadcasting and service to clients. The station is producing industry-ready disc jocks who receive training from experienced individuals using the latest technologies in the industry, and their efforts have not gone without recognition. Mogale FM has won three awards and one of our previous DJs has gone on to work at a national radio station, Motsweding FM.”
The radio station will have its first broadcast in their digital studio on Monday, 19 September. If you are curious, listen to the studio on 93.6 FM.
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