what is a healthy station?

By its nature, community radio is as diverse as the communities it serves.  Radio serving nomadic herders in the Mongolian Gobi desert will be very different than one serving a densely populated peri-urban township in Africa.  Roma radio in Macedonia that affirms a marginalized ethnic group is very different from Soweto Community Radio that encourages listeners to use one of several mother languages when they call the station on-air.  At the same time, donors look for some measures of effectiveness.  These organizational benchmarks are useful guides to judging whether or not a station meets the needs of its community:

• A clear mission that informs programming, advertising and outreach decisions.  Each staff member and volunteer understands this mission and uses it as a guide star. 

• A defined audience and ongoing engagement with that audience

• A clear voice (or style of presentation) that is confidently and distinctively community radio.  The station does not copy or duplicate an existing service.

• A community-wide reputation of being independent of outside influence and adhering to professional journalism standards of accuracy, fairness and balance in information programming. 

• Local content and music.

• Strong and fair leadership combined with the ability to empower the staff by engaging them constructively.

• On-going evaluation mechanisms to gauge effectiveness of programming, management and service to the community.

• Open relations between stakeholders, including board, staff, donors, advertisers and listeners who encourage creative programming.

• Financial independence.

• An active board of directors that is engaged with the station and representative of the community. 

• A written code of ethics supported and used by staff and volunteers.