Radio Univers : The Story of Ghana’s Pioneer Campus-Community Radio Station

Abstract

There is a paucity of academic literature on Radio Univers 26 years after it first took to the airwaves as Ghana's first authorized campus-community broadcaster. Drawing mainly on direct observations and interviews, this paper accounts for the origins of the station, and the role it has played in Ghana's mediascape, not only in contributions to the public sphere and local music industry but also the opportunities it has created for self-expression and capacity-building for volunteer broadcasters. With meager resources, Univers has developed a reputation for producing quality media practitioners. This paper concludes that going forward, it would be beneficial for Univers and other campus broadcasters if a dedicated broadcasting law is passed in Ghana and the nation's broadcasting regulatory regime is updated.

The role of community radio in information dissemination towards youth development in Ghana

“…Importantly, participants of the study asserted how engaging the youth-centred programmes aired on the two community radios were. The two stations were therefore providing the needed platforms for the youth in the communities to engage in their community's social as well as economic development (Odartey-Wellington et al, 2020;Nangooba (2020). This finding is also in support of findings in Portugal, where college students through their associations employ community radio as platforms to contribute to development (Midões, 2021).…”

“…The results from the interviews show that majority of the participants have acquired significant knowledge towards their academic, business, health and social developments through the youth-centred programmes aired on the community radios. The findings of the study attest to the fact that the experts and guests who served as resource persons to the youth centred programmes aired on the two community radio stations provided useful and timely information towards the developmental needs of the youth (Abdulai et al , 2020; Odartey-Wellington et al , 2020).…”