Radio 5 hosts Freedom Fone Fighters in Arusha

Bart Sullivan is affectionately known as 'Captain' by the team of ICT officers who work at Farm Radio International's regional offices in Ghana, Malawi, Ethiopia and Tanzania. In my eyes, Bart earned his stripes today when he pulled off an audacious first for Freedom Fone and Farm Radio at Radio 5, a busy commercial radio station in Arusha's Njiro suburb. All round nice guy, Bart is also sharp and innovative... and as this story shows, very persuasive too.

Yesterday Bart popped in on Radio 5's management and gave them a bit of background on Freedom Fone and Farm Radio International. He mentioned how valuable it would be for the 8 participants in our training workshop to gain experience in 'pitching' Freedom Fone to the staff at a radio station.

Their response was amazingly enthusiastic.

11 of us were received by the station's General Manager, Mr Jimmy, and their radio consultant, Mr David Rwenyagira. After an introduction to Radio 5's programming and future plans the 2 men led us through a guided tour of the impressive premises.

Mr Jimmy's tour of Radio 5

Thereafter our team split into 3 groups and conducted parallel presentation sessions in different parts of the building. All of the teams had a good cross section of the studio's staff which including the owner, producers, presenters and marketing staff.

Radio 5 staffers ask questions about Freedom Fone

Our ICT officers were very stimulated by the experience and by the end of our visit Radio 5 staffers seemed well convinced that Freedom Fone could be used to improve many aspects of the stations communications with its listeners.

Vedaste from Rwanda thoroughly enjoyed his experience at Radio 5