Radio Kalleone: My life for the next seven months

Editor’s note: This was written on the evening of Monday, October 20. I’ve since spent two days at work and the excitement I describe below remains, though I may not be spending all my time at the station, working also with the Kalleone brand newspaper and Culture Radio, as well as hopefully running a workshop or two in the rural areas of the country. I value my free time, you see.

Today was a good day.

I've officially been in Sierra Leone for a week and, with our training complete, today was day one of my placement at Radio Kalleone.

When people asked me what I’d be doing over here, I was able to give a general answer about working with local media to increase the quantity and quality of human rights reporting. But since situations differ from placement to placement, it was really hard to provide a very specific outline of what my days would entail.

Of the five trainers in Sierra Leone as part of my group, I’m the only one who was placed at a media house that JHR has not previously worked with, which was initially a source of excitement. That quickly changed.

On two separate occasions shortly after my arrival, when speaking with two of my JHR predecessors in Freetown, I explained that I would be working at Radio Kalleone and garnered the same response both times: “Oh … they do news?”

Then, on Thursday, when JHR intern and my new friend ABJ took us around to our various media houses, no one at the station even knew I was coming.

Needless to say, this didn’t exactly fill me with confidence. And so I was a little nervous as I made my way to the office today (the main office, not the station office we’d visited already). I tried to go in with an open mind, knowing that JHR would find me a suitable situation if this one didn’t pan out.

Man, was I pleasantly surprised.

It’s true – Radio Kalleone currently offers very little news reporting. The station is a hugely popular one, but that popularity has been built on its entertainment and sports programming (it’s named for the country’s football hero, after all). I like entertainment and sports at least as much as the next guy, but that’s not why I’m here.

Fortunately, in the next couple months, the station wants to re-brand and re-launch with an increased news and human rights focus, and they want me to play a major part in many aspects of that – from helping brainstorm marketing strategies, to programming ideas, to working with their journalists to give them the skill set to be leaders in the Sierra Leonean mediascape. If I play my cards right, they will become a leader in human rights reporting as well.

From my discussions with the station manager today, I’ve gone from extremely leery to tremendously excited. The projects they’re envisioning for me are absurdly ambitious for a six-month volunteer placement (when you factor out my three weeks of vacation).

Yet unsurprisingly, I don’t care. My philosophy has always been that it’s way cooler to shoot for something hopelessly beyond your reach than to achieve that which was plainly achievable.

Heeding the advice of those who have gone before me, I am trying to take a cautiously optimistic approach as I go forward at the station. I’ve been told often that many in the Sierra Leonean media talk a good game, but the actions don't always follow (for a host of reasons too multifaceted to get into just yet).

In fact, to give you an idea of the media standards, The Concord Times, one of the most respected papers in the country, today ran an article about Obama that was so blatantly ripped off (without credit) that the article’s lead consisted of the comment moderation jargon that appeared on the website it was stolen from:

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Literally. That was the lead.

Anyway, at this point, it’s been all talk. But the station manager seems to be very serious about this re-launch; they just purchased a new transmitter that will allow them to broadcast throughout the entire country.

And, though ambitious, from what I’ve seen in my whopping one day, his goals aren’t completely unrealistic. Either way, I’m happy to work my ass off to see just how realistic it is. Besides, who doesn't enjoy a good re-launch?

Oh, and on my way home from dinner tonight, I turned my head aloft for some stunning stargazing. Remember how clear the skies were when Ontario and New York had that blackout in the summer of 2003? Like that.

Yeah. Today was a good day