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.

Twelve highly motivated Nepalis from different parts of the country have just completed a two-week forray into the wonderful world of community radio.  For most, this was the first time they’d laid their hands on a computer let alone made a radio programme.  Yet by the end of the workshop, all of them had successfully scripted, interviewed, recorded and edited their first radio programmes which were then broadcast via a Feba Chrysolite “suitcase studio”. » Continue Reading