Liberalise the airwaves... my selfish, kinder pedestrian reasons

I remember, growing up in a small town in the Southern part of Zimbabwe. It was a small town and never had much going on to get much media coverage.

I listened to the radio every morning before I left home for school. I remember hearing a traffic report, all it said was that robots were not working along Simon Mazorodze, Herbet Chitepo or one of those fancy streets in Harare I had never been to.We dint even have robots in our town at that time! Back then I never really thought of it much, because our town was small and slow and there was never much traffic to talk about.

Then I remember listening to my favorite DJs on radio, broadcasting live from the Harare Agricultural Show. Some of my friends who had relatives in Harare used to travel to Harare so that they too could see the DJs live as well as maybe get a chance to be on radio... some were lucky, but most never got the chance.

We also had our own agricultural show in our small town. It was a highlight and if you were in boarding school, the headmasters would make an exception and allow you to go and enjoy the agricultural show. We had many talented DJs, one of my uncles was very popular in the town for his music prowess and he and his friends would set up their equipment and play music as students and youths gathered around and listened. Still I never read much into how different this could have been and how these talented young men could have actually made a career out of their music.

As fate would have it I eventually left the country. My first destination was Durban. There we had radio stations for Durban, one of my favourites then was called Mgagasi 98.4fm. It was in Zulu and talked a lot about what was happening in Durban and eThekwini. I didn't read much into it as well, because I figured South Africa has resources and they can afford this luxury of community radio stations!

A few months back, I visited a very small and remote town in Madagascar called Fort Dauphin. It is smaller and much poorer than the town I grew up in and to my surprise, they too have their own radio station. It is nothing fancy, probably doesn't have the best equipment in the world but it is theirs. The other week, I listened to the DJ celebrating a modelling contest which had taken place in a small bar in the town. It felt like it was something extra-ordinary, but it really wasn't, it was a community hanging out and using their radio station to celebrate their successes, no matter how small. I started thinking about the Miss Muchekes, Miss Masvingo, Miss Flamboyants which took place in my town of birth. I thought of how some of us who had strict curfews never really got to know who won even though we desperately wanted to know because there was a breakdown in communications platforms in my town.

The small radio station in Fort Dauphin employs individuals who might never have stood a chance in the competition in the capital city. Young and old people get a chance to share their stories with people who might care to listen because they identify with their struggles and successes.

Looking back now, I feel deprived and wish that I too had had a community radio station where we could have heard our own voices. I look at my uncle whose DJ dreams were still-born because he failed to break into the limited spaces available to broadcast in the national radio stations. I also think about the many young people who aspired for space in this profession but never got the chance. I think about the many voices, the many beautiful stories which remain untold in my small town, because they were perceived as irrelevant in the capital city!

My reasons are not political, hell three quarters of the people I meet are not even that much interested in politics. They just want to listen to a radio or watch a television program which they identify with! Liberalise the airwaves for the small people, in small towns like me, small people with small businesses who might not afford prime time advertising on national radio, but who would love to advertise their produce to their neighbours. Liberalise our airwaves so that we hear about Hay Robertson St, Haurovi P. Chinamano St. and Building Brigade St. which  I could  identify with in my home town!

These are my selfish reasons, why Zimbabwe should liberalise the airwaves. I hope someone out there understands and that one day this dream will come true for all small  communities in my beloved nation!