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Oblate Radio Liseli

The Western Province is the least developed in Zambia and it is evident in the bad road network and infrastructure.  Some of the towns like Kalabo are completely cut off from the rest of the country especially in the rainy season when the plains are flooded and the only way to make contact with the rest of Zambia is through water, which takes three times longer than on dry land. 

This is the province where The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate have their parishes.  This means that the oblates usually take long journeys to reach out to the faithful.  Therefore, discussions on how to best evangelise the remotest parts (outstations) of their parishes began.  This is because the weekly visitations did not seem to suffice the needs of the parishioners as some outstations would only be visited twice in a year.

The idea of setting up a radio station was born in December 2000 during the Annual Delegation Assembly at which the Oblates identified five key areas they wanted to be involved in. These being:

i.                    Participation in the Social Justice ministry (Catholic Commission for Justice Development and Peace - CCJDP)

ii.                  Formation of Lay Leadership in Oblate parishes

iii.                On-going spiritual formation

iv.                HIV/AIDS involvement through Home Based Care

v.                  Involvement in Multi-Media

The radio station was seen as one that would go beyond boundaries and physical challenges. 

The Pioneering Team immediately, comprising of Fr. Freeborn Kibomwe, OMI, Henry Malumo, David Chibanda and Ignatius Chiputa, embarked on an audience survey in order to see clearly how the Oblate Radio Station was going to reach the intended audience.  They also found out what kind of programmes people from communities would love to listen to and what lessons they would love to be taught on the catholic faith.

Others pioneering members are Mr. Aketata Batunda - first Production Manager, Mr. Cliff Simona - first Public Relations and Marketing Officer, and Sr. Immaculata Sililo, HC - Parish Communications Committee (PCC) Coordinator.

During these survey visitations, the first team introduced Listening clubs and Parish Communications Committees (PCCs).  These PCCs included three members from each Small Christian Communities - two of whom must be youths and one representative from each lay group per parish.  The parish councils and the parish priests approved these committees.

Sr. Immaculata, a member of the Holy Cross sisters, put in a lot of hard work in establishing the PCCs.  To date, the PCCs are the link between the Oblate Radio Liseli and the parishes / listening clubs.  They work hand in hand with the radio staff to produce programmes and to record music from choirs. 

The equipment was ordered and a site was located at the St. John’s Secondary school ’s Old dormitories.  The Bishop of Mongu Diocese, in consultation with the Christian Brothers, the custodians of the site, donated the building to Oblate Radio Liseli.

It was a perfect location as it stands at the highest point in Mongu; 50 meters above the plains, so the radio tower, though measuring 100 meters, stands 150 meters above the plains!

On 4^th May, 2004 , Oblate Radio Liseli launched its first test broadcast. There was excitement and jubilation among the team and a few weeks later on 21^st May during the feast of St. Eugene de Mazenod at the start of the Oblate week, the team had a  March past to commemorate the first ever test broadcast of Oblate Radio Liseli.

During the test broadcasts, the station was allowed to be on air for 8 hours daily; 6am-10am in the morning and 4pm – 8pm in the afternoon, and to play music only.

On 21^st August, 2004 , the radio station was inspected by the Communications Authority who later sent an inspection report to Honourable Mutale Nalumango, then Minister of Information and Broadcasting.  However, test broadcast continued until the 3^rd of November, 2004 when the full broadcast license was issued by the government of Zambia .

On June 11, 2005 , Oblate Radio Liseli was launched and officially opened by Superior General Guillermo Steckling, OMI and Honourable Dr. Sipula Kabanje, then Western Province Minister.  From then onwards, plans to have repeaters in Lukulu, Senanga and Kaoma in order to increase coverage started. 

The radio station covers the whole of Mongu, the provincial capital, and most parts of the Western Province and one repeater transmitter has been installed in Lukulu to increase coverage.

The vision to have a multi-media facility for print and video production still remains.

Programming

From the audience research that was conducted by founding team in the early days, the radio station settled for religious, developmental, cultural, educational and musical programming.

Considering that Oblate Radio Liseli is a Catholic Community Radio Station, a good number of religious programmes are on schedule. These Religious programmes have been locally produced or syndicated.  Syndicated programmes are items that come from other radio stations / organisations within or outside the country.  In this case, the radio station gets these programmes mainly from a Catholic Network Organization called EWTN in the United States of America .

These religious programmes have a permanent slot everyday. They are mainly teachings on the Catholic doctrines and are done in English.

The locally produced programmes are mainly Catholic and are meant to help evangelize the local community. The local community produces these programmes in both English and Silozi.

Developmental Programmes also come in different categories including agriculture, health, civic, and musical to mention just a few. Among the most outstanding ones are Kanzuma Ka Balimi (farmers’ basket). This particular programme tries to relate agriculture to HIV/AIDS, culture, religion, the youths, and meteorology.

Cultural Programmes presented at Oblate Radio Liseli try to promote and preserve the local culture by explaining some of the cultural practices.  A good example of such programmes is Situndo (history).  In this programme Mr. Inambao Wambingi, a voluntary presenter talks about the history of the Lozi people.  Each week delves into cultural lessons that range from the backgrounds and reigns of the kings (Litungas) in Barotseland to the history of towns in Western province.  Whenever he talks about the history of a town, he will give the listeners why that town is known by the given name. 

Other programmes that Mr. Wambingi presents are Bupilo Bwa Linyalo (Marriage life) where he gives lessons on marriage in a traditional context.  These programmes have received a lot of positive responses from the community.

When it comes to cultural programmes, the community is encouraged to present them as they would carry weight.  However, the challenge to the radio station has been to ask the community to continue presenting programmes on a voluntary basis for a long time.  This is because there is fear that the presenters would at one point get tired and drop the programme without explanations.

Since radio Liseli acknowledges the need for sound education in every society, they have gone into a partnership with Quality Education Services Through Technology (QUESTT) and the Ministry of Education in making education accessible to all through daily radio broadcasts of Learning at Taonga Market.  At Taonga Market, pupils gather at a designated point where there is an instructor and a radio.  The teacher always gets teaching guides and instructions from the broadcast.  The classes are conducted every morning at around 9:00 AM , when the programme is on air.  Taonga Market is an informal school and is usually done in the open space…under a tree or otherwise as improvised by the organizers.

Literature in English is a programme where books recommended by the Ministry of Education are read and analyzed on air in order to help pupils taking Literature in English at high scchool. The Radio station also localizes the programme content by bringing the Literature Programme in Silozi.  The Silozi programme is called Liseli Mwa Libuka (learning from a book) and it is for general consumption.

The musical programmes come in different formats and are directed at various groups of people: secular and religious. These programmes are meant to evangelize, inform and to promote local artist in Western Province .

There are also sponsored programmes where corporate institutions pay for airing of a given programme.  An example in this category is the Good Governance programme sponsored by Media Institute in Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia Chapter.   These organisations are given a choice to either sponsor an existing programme or make a fresh one.

Oblate Radio Liseli broadcasts are done in both English and Silozi. The two languages are well segmented at almost 50% each.

Equipment

Radio Liseli studios have state-of-the-art pieces of equipment.  All programmes are played either from CDs, Mini Disks or directly from the computer. All these programmes once produced and aired, are well archived for future use or reference.

Also, there are two recording studios though one is currently being used. Both studios are spacious and can accommodate fairly a large number of discussants.

Jack Joyce Media Community

From 2001 when Fr. Freeborn Kibombwe, was asked to lead the Pioneering team for the launch of the radio staion, he was stationed at St. Lawrence Community in Limulunga which is about 20 Kilometres away from the station.   As Director of the station, he had to drive to and from the station daily.  Eventually, it became too much moving back and forth.  Therefore, the search to purchase a house began. 

After discussions with the community, it was decided that the media Community be named after Fr. Jack Joyce, OMI - former Zambia Delegation Superior (1989 to 1995), because he was a great missionary to Zambia . 

Fr. Jack was known in the field of spirituality and alcohol related programmes. He gave retreats to many religious, priest and lay people, he also helped groups and individuals who suffered from alcoholism as he was a recovered alcoholic and truly became a powerful minister to the grace and power of God.  He openly shared his experience and struggle on Zambian National Broadcasting Cooperation (ZNBC) programme called “Frank Talk”.

However, it was also fitting to honor Fr. Jack Joyce in something practical and visible by naming Media Community House after him because he reached out to a lot of people throughout the country.

Today, the Jack Joyce community also serves many oblates as they rest, to do business and when in transit.

The Jack Joyce Community was blessed by the Provincial of the United States of America Oblate Province, Fr. Louis Lougen, OMI, when he visited the Zambia Delegation in 2006.

Oblate Radio Liseli Today

Besides the Director and his Assistant, Radio Liseli employs a Programmes Manager, Marketing Executive, Accountant, PCC Coordinator, Head of Technical department in administration.

The station also employees about ten people in the news and production departments.  These include reporters, announcers, presenters and producers.

 

 

 

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