Me, Charles and Mike at AIB awards in London

At a glittering ceremony in London last night, Feba’s “Chrysolite” studio in a suitcase was one of five entries short-listed for an Association of International Broadcasters award under the category of ‘most innovative technology’.  Well it didn’t win, but getting to that stage is a pretty good effort and the fact that it is currently running an emergency radio station in Padang following the earthquake, shows its importance to people in hard places.

The winner  was France 24 who had pioneered a way of getting news onto the iPhone.   Interesting… I thought delivering news onto the iPhone had been around a while.  Ah well…

But when it comes to innovative technology… I think all the awards pail into insignificance with this delightful bit of local improvisation - Africa’s answer to the walkman.

Ambacang hotel Padang. Pic: Toby Zerna. Courtesy AAP

As the scale of Wendesday’s earthquake in West Sumatra unfolds, a small team from FEBC, already in Indonesia for a FIRST Response trial and workshop, is heading to Padang to set up an emergency radio response.  FIRST Response is a ministry of FEB Radio International designed to set up an emergency radio station within 72 hours of a disaster.  Studies show that following a disaster, where communications infrastructure is often destroyed, radio can save lives, providing essential information and life-saving messages.  Feba deployed a FIRST Response team to Bihar, North India, during the widespread floods there in October 2008.