management resources for community media

Internews has published a new guide addressing the challenge of how to make community media financially sustainable. The Community Media Sustainability Guide: The Business of Changing Lives, covers topics such as incorporating new online platforms and using alternative energy to power radio stations, all with an eye to keeping the doors open in a sector not known for its profitability.

Read more and download the guide from the Internews website.

“Community Radio: A user’s guide to the technology” is a guide to technical parameters of community radio in India. Produced for potential community radio operators, this technical manual takes into account the intention of the Government of India to establish 4000 community radio stations by 2008.

Read the rest of this entry »

The National Federation of Community Broadcasters (USA) produced this “simple guide to volunteer management at a community radio station.”

The manual can be ordered for US$15 plus shipping from http://www.nfcb.org/publications/volunteerhandbook.jsp

Read the rest of this entry »

Produced by ABC Ulwazi in South Africa, this handbook offers guidelines on setting up, managing and sustaining a community radio station.

• Explores the differences and similarities between commercial and community radio stations, explaining the unique position of community radio in South Africa, and highlighting its role as a tool for development.

• Offers extensive guidelines on how to manage a community radio station, and outlines the roles that each employee or volunteer plays in the station.
• Explores issues relating to effective and ethical reporting.
• Shows how community radio is pivotal to educating people about their human rights.
• Details the main processes in producing programmes on a minimum budget.
• Outlines the serious issue of sustainability and offers guidelines on working toward making your community radio station sustainable.

Download it from: http://www.abculwazi.org.za/jsp/ABC_Ulwazi.jsp

Read the rest of this entry »

Community Radio Sustainability Project
Financial sustainability presents the greatest challenge to the success of independent radio stations operating in developing countries and is inextricably linked to a news outlet’s ability to preserve its editorial freedom. In these developing countries there is a critical need for gathering and sharing information about the small steps media can take to build their capacity for sustainability.

This guide is intended as the first in a series of guidebooks to equip station managers and staff with management and programming resources for their station. Each guide will include examples and case studies of how the topic has been addressed by stations in Sub-Saharan African countries, including relevant environmental factors and key outcomes.

Guidebook to Sustainability

AIBD Publication: Radio management in the small community
The publication examines the role of a manager as a key figure in the process of development, very specially in the rural smaller community stations. The emphasis in this manual lies not only on the cognitive skills required in radio management but also its utility for trainers and those who could develop case studies and real life examples for use in further training in management.

Available for purchase from AIBD