17 Feb 2015

A robust, soothing voice echoes behind the sound waves, loud but yet speaking a message which most yearn to hear.

Such is now a normalcy, especially ever since the airwaves were opened up to private owners, post Radio Botswana dominance.

Even the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) this year called for greater social inclusion of the generation under 30 years old who accounted for more than half of the world’s population.

“Young men and women are not sufficiently represented in the media, an exclusion that often reflects a wider social, economic and democratic exclusion. “To date young producers and broadcasters are still few, too few programmes are devoted to or designed by young people,” Professor Totolo of UNISECO said.

He said such deficit explained the many stereotypes concerning young people circulating in the media and over the airwaves. A form five student from Mogoditshane Senior Secondary School, Gorata Sepopa said radio had a vast impact in the lives of the youth.

From it being a source of entertainment, a guidance, an ear to listen to through dark time, influencing some young people’s career paths and most importantly creates a basis for family bounding through listening to broadcasts such as Makgabaneng.

“Listening to radio has taught me so much about interacting with other people, it equipped me with the interpersonal skills I now poses and I doubt I would have acquired these skills if it wasn’t for radio,” she says.

The only youth based radio station Yarona Fm, has risen to the occasion in terms of advocacy for the youth, a radio station by the youth and for the youth.

Bonni Dintwa, Programs Manager of Yarona Fm, says they have identified their station with the “freshest” and newest songs, targeted towards Botswana’s urban youth audience.  Its initial tag lines were “Re tshwere vibe” Setswana for “we’ve got the vibe” and “blazing GC’s most rocking tunes.” When the station went national in 2008, the tag line changed to “Live the music.”

Yarona FM is a positive, upwardly mobile forward thinking brand that encapsulates the aspirations, style, language, lives and future of the Youth of Botswana. Mr Modise Maphanyane, Chairman of Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Botswana, says that radio is considered the most accessible medium even amongst disadvantaged groups.

This serves as a platform for young men and women to express themselves, which is especially important in Africa where 69 per cent of the population is under the age of 30.

“At MISA, we take the youth’s rights to freedom of expression and access to information seriously, and are very involved in programmes to help children in Southern Africa realise these rights,” Maphanyane says.

Locally the year 1999 saw the rebirth of radio in Botswana, with more private radio stations coming to the fore to offer diversity and a voice for the youth. With two government radio stations, and three private radio station, the evolution of radio in Botswana has risen. ENDS