dmu-media

I would like to say all welcome to Debre Markos University and surrounding Community Radio station to visit us on DMU website.

Debre Markos University and surrounding Community Radio FM 97.7 is a radio station which is established under the university to serve the community within and around the university. The Radio is issued under Broadcasting Proclamation No 533/07 Article, 28 radio broadcasting license and registered under No 33/2007 with ownership of community radio and allotted frequency of 97.7.

Our Community FM 97.7 got a broadcasting license from Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority in June 2015. It started broadcasting in June 2016.

Debre Markos University and community Radio produce and broadcast their own programs and participate in operating the station. It is community space for people to meet and collaborate the university staff and surrounding community. It’s fun, engaging and empowering. Participants find it extraordinarily satisfying, not just to make radio in this unique fashion, but to also help transform community life. It’s the town square of the digital age in our community.

Our Radio gives citizens an opportunity to fill the voids left by the consolidation of radio station ownership among a handful of big media corporations. Some types of programming are simply not profitable, yet the people of a community still value them, and without community radio are left simply to yearn for them and mourn their loss. The radio has initiated the youth to actively participate in the programs. Besides, it serves the community as a platform to over its feeling, opinion and views. Debre Markos University as a major stakeholder uses the station to disseminate its philosophy, to inform and to educate the community.

Debre Markos university and surrounding Community radio  will inform, engage, entertain, and empower the citizens of our community. Our programming will meet community needs that are unmet by corporate media. We will explore issues in greater depth and with more respect for diverse perspectives.  Debre Markos University and surrounding community radio will be extraordinarily inclusive and local. We’ll celebrate the best of our community and strive to improve the rest. We are a voice for justice and a platform for the marginalized.

our community Radio Stations are owned, and driven by the communities they serve. No one can make money from Community Radio. In our community radio station, young and old, with all abilities, backgrounds, and interests, can come together to make a difference to their community.   The communities they serve, and the groups and individuals within those communities, gain a voice with which to be heard. They gain diversity in the programming available, and they gain a forum for sharing experience, discovering fresh perspectives, and supporting community activity.

In our Community radio volunteers are trained and given a central role in radio production, operation and program development. students of the university also get a chance to participate. Stations remain responsive to community needs and consistently seek input from listeners.

General Objectives our community Radio:

The general objective is to provide accessible and up to date information in order to promote and realize the holistic socio economic development of the community of Debre Markos and its surrounding area.

Specific Objective:

• To use radio broadcasting to increase access to information in Debre Markos town & its surrounding, and raise awareness in a number of critical and cross-cutting issues such as agriculture, education, health, business & entrepreneurialism, environment, climate change, human resource development and good governance.
• To install modern, digital and satellite FM radio communication resources to serve the educational and development of the students, farmers, educators, and people of the Debre Markos & its surrounding area.
• To create and deliver audio-based educational materials, academic activities and research outputs to both the internal and external community of the university.
• To enhance the training of university students and the academic staff as well as local population through educational, informational and entertainment audio programs.
• To protect and promote the culture, language and other values of the local community.

Our community Beneficiaries

• The local farmers and the general public residing in Debre Markos & its surrounding areas including primary and secondary school students and teachers.
• The students and staff of Debre Markos University.
• Governmental and non-governmental organizations so as to use the medium as a communication outlet for disseminating information pertaining to community development, agriculture, health, micro-enterprises and marketing, environment, climate change and early warning information, etc.

1. Community Participation

The community participates in different ways:

• By letting them produce the radio programs themselves
• By outreach programs (interviews will be conducted in the community)
• People can call in to the radio programs
• By establishing listeners groups which will be asked for their comments and cortical review
• By installing recording equipment in outreach centers so the people there can also produce radio programs and conduct interviews
• By asking people in the street their opinion on a certain theme

Expected Results and Outcomes

Within one year after operation, it is expected to tackle the following socio economic problems of the area by increasing the awareness and bring the behavioral change in the community:

• 90% of the inhabitants of East Gojjam Zone know about the existence of radio at Debre Markos

• 85% of the inhabitants of East Gojjam Zone have at least once listened to radio Debre Markos
• All frequent listeners know that it is possible for them to participate in the radio programs
•  50% of the radio-producers will be female
• 60% of the local NGO’s will participate in radio programs or buy advertisement space
•  60% of the frequent listeners will have a realistic view of their risk of being infected with HIV/AIDS.
• There will be a raise of condom use among frequent listeners of 50%
• 90% of all frequent listeners, including those in the rural areas will use soap to wash their hands, 40% will cook outside the house when they have poor isolation inside, 70% will be aware of the problems of hygiene with a lack of garbage disposal
• For frequent listeners the use of bed nets will raise to 90%
• Among frequent listeners, there will be 90% awareness about the risks of Female Genital Mutilation, the number of girls being mutilated and early marriages will diminish with 50%.
• Among frequent listeners the awareness of psychological problems like depression and trauma is decreasing by 50%
• 40% of the people who cannot afford medical treatment or check-up will use the radio call-in programs as a first line for their problems.
• 70% of all frequent listeners will aware about the problems of environment (like deforestation, soil erosion, and other environmental degradation) and their solutions.

• Mission:-

To produce creative and engaging programming for communities whose voices are underrepresented in the mainstream media.

• Vision

 A cooperative society rooted in social justice values where media operate in the interests of people and where creativity flourishes.

• Values

Participatory:

We value and solicit the input of members and the community.  We work to reduce barriers to ensure accessibility and full participation of all the communities we serve. We value the knowledge and skills that community members bring to the station. We support skill-sharing through learning, sharing and teaching in order to encourage growth within the station and throughout the broader community.

• Co-operative

       We value open and respectful dialogue and seek to build bridges of co-operation among the diverse communities we serve. We believe in fostering a healthy, sustainable environment within the organization.

• Social Justice:

We challenge systems of oppression by promoting progressive social and economic change, and equal opportunities and outcomes for all.

• Independent:

We are firmly committed to our independence as a member-owned community station in a world of media steeped in corporate domination. We remain free of commercial and corporate interests.  We value and celebrate that we are community-owned alternative media.

• Community-based:

We are rooted in volunteerism and diversity.  We exist through the support of the communities we serve.

Broadcasting time:

When it functions with its full capacity it will run for 14 hours per week but now it broadcasts from  morning 12:00 am to 4:00 am and 10:00 to 2:00pm evening.

Programs: news, entertainment, and education

 

Board members:

1. Ngussie Mitku; Board chair
2. Ato Haimanot Getachew; Secretariat
3. Prof Misganaw Gashaw, Member
4. Ato Eyilachew Getachew, member (from student union)
5. Ato Asaye ……., member (from teachers’ Association)
6. Ato Tilanhun Yalew, member (from the Community, Merchant)
7. Ato Eyobel Abebe , member

Personnel:

1. Haimanot Getachew, A/manager of the station
2. Genet Molla, A/Editor-in-chief of the station

Reporters:

1. Yewulsew Diress
2. Tenagnework Asnake
3. Rahel Asmare
4. Demeke Bogale
5. Muluken Wale

Technicians:

1. Ato Yilkal Bayilie
2. Sewhareg Desalegn (Technician and secretary)

Student reporters:

We have student reporters who are voluntarily working at the station since one of the objectives of the station is to give students an opportunity in the real broadcasting environment in order to develop their skill.