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Broadcasting Change in Ethiopia - A British Trainer’s Unexpected Lesson in Voice and Belonging
In this episode, I take you far from my usual home in the Balkans, back to Ethiopia in 2012, where I was invited to help launch two newly licensed university-based community radio stations at Haramaya and Hawassa Universities.
Armed with years of broadcast experience and what I thought was a solid plan, I was ready to deliver media training on presentation techniques and programme structure. But I quickly discovered that I wasn’t just there to teach, I was there to learn.
This short story explores the challenges of building radio schedules from scratch in a multilingual, multicultural setting. It reflects on working with students who had never spoken into a microphone before, and on learning how to frame a story with empathy, often through tea breaks, laughter, and shared silence when someone froze mid-sentence on air.
You’ll hear about:
The raw talent and eagerness of the students in Haramaya and Hawassa.
How we built radio programming from nothing into something truly meaningful.
The quiet power of local storytelling in shaping identity, belonging, and community.
More than a behind-the-scenes look at training future broadcasters, this is a story of mutual respect, adaptation, and the crackling energy of change on the airwaves.
Whether you’ve worked in radio or simply tuned into your local station, this one’s for anyone who believes in the power of voice, authentic, community-driven, and deeply human.
🎧 So grab a cuppa, and join me from a dusty studio in Ethiopia to the quiet rhythms of life back here in northern Bosnia.
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Until next time — stay curious.
