Kampala         Writing about community radio in Uganda could be very short, even if not sweet, story:  there is none!

            At least, there is none in the way we might recognize such a concept in the US or even in African countries.  Kenya has a fledgling network of small community radio stations in twenty-two different areas around the country, including four in major slums of Nairobi.  South Africa reportedly has a burgeoning community radio scene.  Uganda, not so much.  At least not yet, and that’s been part of the discussion I have had for days with colleagues while in Kampala, including Ricky Moses and Kenneth Lubangakene.  

            Interestingly, there is no real difference between commercial and noncommercial radio in Uganda.  Every licensed station is able to sell commercials.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  The rationale is straightforward:  it’s hard to support noncommercial radio, so even a station wanting to be community-focused or operate as a noncommercial, is allowed to sell advertisements in order to try and stay on the air.  That makes sense.  In fact, talking to a radio engineer on the phone, as well as my friends, I remarked that a quick count on a website I thought was the government’s came up with almost fifty-five stations.  In such a crowded market, even for a city of 1.5 million that number of stations alone explains why most of them were relatively low power at 1000 watts with only a few at 4000 or 5000 watts.  He claimed that there were as many as 200 that had been licensed.  I was scratching my head at these very different numbers until my friends simply noted how many had gone off the air, unable to make a go of it.

            So even if arguably being able to sell ads might make a station more sustainable, there are still some peculiarities.  The Catholic Church runs a half-dozen stations, and they also sell ads.  Listeners are hardly able to distinguish the church’s stations from any other in terms of programming except that there is a Sunday service that is broadcast and some daily prayers.  The government owns a newspaper which also owns a half-dozen stations or more around the country.  They also sell ads.  That’s a bit dicier when most would wonder if some enterprises might be buying to curry favor.  It’s not quite the Trump emoluments issue, since it is for public, rather than private, gain, but it’s a bit odd.  Add to that another fact that the national police and the national government require any licensed station to provide them each a free hour of broadcast time per week for any messages they want to deliver to people  Given that all stations are also required to pay 5% of gross revenues as a tax along with $500 USD per year annually to maintain the their license, and it all adds up, as another reason stations are allowed to advertise.

            I did hear stories of nongovernmental organizations that had tried to put stations on the air, presumably trying to establish a community radio presence in the country.  A Peace station was one example, but the end of the story was one of internal conflict over buildings and property between the founders, and the programming seems to have become indistinguishable from the rest of the dial.

            There’s huge opportunity here and real demand, but we would be breaking pretty new and hard ground.