RADIO FM 102
THE WOMEN'S MEDIA
CENTRE OF CAMBODIA
History of FM 102
FM 102 was established on International Women’s Day, 8th
March 1999. It is located in the capital city, Phnom Penh.It
is one of the 5 departments of the Women's Media Centre
of Cambodia (WMC)
FM102 is unique, an independent, non-party political station
providing a neutral, unbiased means of expression in
Cambodia.
Mission
FM 102 mission is to use the media to raise awareness of
social issues in Cambodia and to improve the situation of
women for the benefit of Cambodia society. We also
strive to improve the participation and portrayal of women
in the mainstream media.
Station running
• Staffing
There are 15 full time and part time staff working at
the station, 14 women and 1 man.
The station director is a former journalist who worked
with UNTAC Radio during the elections in 1993.
• Equipment
- 2 computers
- 2 sound editing computers
(Sadie and Cool Edit Pro)
- 2 transmitters (100w)
- 1 recording studio
- 1 broadcasting studio
- 5 portable recorders
Contents and applications
development
• Daily schedule
15 hours a day, 7 days a week from 6am to 9pm.
• Activities
- Produces educational and entertainment
programmes.
- Broadcasts live news, bulletins and update
daily.
- Provides airtimes for NGOs to publicize
their activities.
- Offers radio advertisement slots.
* Main Programs Focus on
- Women programmes (women and Labour series,
Women and Health series, Women and Education)
- Red Light, Green Light (Youth show)
- Campaign against Child Labour
*Other programs:
- Home economics
- Women and Law
- Children's programme
- Khmer Culture, Khmer Literature
and Khmer History
- Morning exercise
- Social awareness programme
- Poetry, Agriculture, Health keys
- Spots on Children's Rights, democracy and Health
• How to gather information?
Traditional technology: (more effective)
- Brainstorming with other directors of WMC
- Monthly meeting with all staff (5 Depart)
- Weekly meeting ( FM 102 staff)
- Communication with Ministry of Information, other
ministries, IOs, NGOs, and other radios and newspapers.
- Send reporters to cover national and local events
- Use Khmer and English language newspapers as news
sources
- Send the reporters to the provinces to gather info.
- Make appointments and contact key people
- Maintain good relationships with other radio
stations, newspapers and magazines
New technology:
- Communication through e-mail (press
releases, news groups, invitations, etc)
- Collaborate with ABC Australia
- Plan to create an audio-visual Library
with Internet access
Problems with new technology:
- Language, budget, no access.
• Applications development
* Capacity building:
1- Internal training:
In collaboration with Impacts from Canada:
- Basic journalism training
- Code of Ethics and Press Law
- Radio features production
2- External training:
Training through workshops, study visits
or Conferences overseas.
* Organise research to evaluate and provide
measurement to gauge the audience’s response
and to improve our radio programme to meet the
needs of listeners.
* Advisor programme to assist with technical and
production training and to improve management.
Networks
To accomplish networking programme, we undertake a number of
different activities.
Internal networks:
- Brainstorming with directors of other departments of WMC
- Maintaining good relationship with other ministries, especially
Ministries of Information and Women’s Affairs
- Collaborating with other radio stations: National radio, FM 103,
FM 95, FM 96, Battambang, Rattanakiri and Pailin.
- Organising internship programmes, volunteers, trainees and
scholarships
- Arranging visits to the Centre for high-school students
- Receiving contribution from audience: letters, poems, articles,
verbal feedback and suggestions by phone
- Having good relation with other NGOs and IOs and providing
air time for NGOs
External network:
- Collaborating with ABC Australia
- Collaborating with VOA
- Participating the conferences and workshops overseas
Donors
FM102 currently receives support from:
- Australian Embassy (Recording studio in 1997)
- UNESCO (200W transmitter in 1999, 1 recording studio
and 1 computer with Internet in 2001)
- UNICEF (Youth programme)
- TAF (Core support and running station for 6 months)
- FORUM SYD (Running station and women programme)
- ILO (Radio campaign against child labour)
- GFW (Staff salary)
- British Embassy (1 Sadie)
Difficulties
- Conducting interviews on sensitive issues such as
prostitution, drug addiction, HIV/AIDS, child labour.
- Lack of equipment (recording studio)
- Lack of reporters
- Have no permanent technician
- Staff capacity is limited (English language)
- Electricity often cuts off
- Security and transportation systems
Future plan
- Extension of broadcast power of radio FM102 to 10 kW
transmitter in PNH and a 200W relay station in Kampong
Thom province
- Programme reviewing
- Create Library
- Staff capacity building
- Collaboration with VOA (English training)
- Collaboration with ABC (Understanding about women
living in Australia)
- Fund raising
- Sustainability strategy (advertisement, except cigarettes and
alcohol)
Conclusion
New technology is very important. It saves time and gives
us more information from overseas, but its development
is constrained by budget and capacity building on
technique and language. So International support is
absolutely needed.