Applied Broadcasting Centre (ABC) Ulwazi

Since 1997, ABC Ulwazi has trained more than 300 community radio broadcasters from more than 40 of the 70 existing community radio stations (CRS) in South Africa. Courses include: Radio Presentation Skills; News and Actuality; Writing and Producing Educational Radio Programmes; Creating Gender-Sensitive Radio Programmes; and, Community Radio Station Management. Manuals for training have been developed. ABC Ulwazi produces and writes radio programmes for a variety of clients including government departments, various educational and developmental bodies and the SABC, by commissions or on tender.

In July 2001, ABC Ulwazi began producing a series of educational radio dramas. Each series consists of 13 episodes of ten minutes of drama and ten minutes of expert discussion. The dramas are recorded onto CD and distributed to a network of 50 community radio stations. Five days of training are given to the community station presenters on the content of the topic and how to utilise the programmes interactively through phone-ins and discussions.

Five topics have been selected:

• The Nature of Local Governance in maintaining civil society (complete by September)
• The role of Community Based Organisations in civil society (in production)
• The role of the school, the parent and the pupil in civil society (future)
• The role of the aged in civil society (future)
• The role of women in civil society (future)

In each case the drama revolves around a cast of five characters, who appear in all the topics, just as one would expect in a soap opera. The dramas are funny, entertaining and sympathetic. Because they have been tested in focus groups, the content is immediately relevant to the audiences. The programmes are produced in English, but lend themselves to "localisation" in local languages and local conditions.

Also - ABC Ulwazi has embarked on a multi-pronged three-year programme to make 12 community radio stations sustainable. It believes that a great deal of training for community radio staff is wasted since so many community radio stations either go under for lack of funds or else lose their trained volunteers to other sectors (not necessarily radio) that can offer them some sort of income.This project has a three-fold aim:

• Poverty relief
• Creation of employment
• Sustainability and growth of community radio stations into Multi Purpose Community Centres.

The 12 community radio stations will start to derive income from sponsorship and advertising stemming from the increased economic activity and also by syndicating their combined listenerships to agencies. Local tourism officers, agricultural extension officers and financial and investment advisors will cluster around the station, making it the hub of their activities.

The final outcome will be a vibrant, financially sustainable network of 12 community radio stations, not reliant entirely on volunteer workers, able to carry out its mandate to serve the community educationally and developmentally and part of a community actively engaged in community tourism, small business and organic agriculture.

Human rights, education, community media, gender issues, media development, rights.

They run special training sessions for community radio station presenters and producers focussing on those programmes that have been produced. This means they can extend the usefulness of the programmes by using them to generate phone-ins, discussions and news items. The same participants are also trained in writing and producing their own "localised" versions of the programme content. Follow-up contact is maintained with trained individuals to ensure constant feedback and reports on broadcast programmes.

In April 2001, ABC Ulwazi released a 3 CD series on the history of South African jazz called "UBUYILE, it has come home." This series traces the history of jazz from Africa to the United States and back again to South Africa. (Details and soundbytes can be found on the website. See below.)

In October 2003, based on a research project funded by the Ford Foundation, ABC Ulwazi produced Community Radio: The People's Voice. Published by Sharp Sharp Press, the training handbook addresses the role of community radio in rebuilding civil society and supporting human rights. It also includes chapters on re-thinking community radio news, managing a community station, and marketing.

ABC Ulwazi was recognised at the annual Africa SMME [Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises] Awards of Stellenbosch University's Africa Centre for Investment Analysis (ACIA) in Johannesburg in October 2003. It won the award for the best SMME in Africa in the Education, Training and Consulting category.