Radio in Monrovia

Incomplete guide to the FM dial in Monrovia. Haven’t found any AM stations. Outside Monrovia, the pickings are slim. Out West in Grand Cape Mount on a recent Saturday, we couldn’t find one station on the FM dial.

• Sky Radio 107FM (Newish R&B and hip-hop, reggae, and local information. Definitely the station of choice for taxi drivers and young people. The DJ’s do lots of shout-outs. Strong signal all over town. Lots of commercials for phone companies.)
• BBC (103-ish on the FM dial.)
• UNMIL (UN Mission in Liberia) Radio 92FM? (Some excellent stuff, some irresponsible stuff, lots of pro-govt content, lots of civic education, interviews with various government officials explaining the process, trying to be/appear transparent, lots of coverage of the Taylor trial process, strong signal, overall better than expected.)
• Love 105 FM (“Your stress-free music station.”)
• Radio Advent (Christian, new, haven’t heard it. They broadcast live local choirs on Sunday mornings.) 93.7FM
• STAR Radio (A vital local information station with shows like “Ask the Expert” for social and personal problems, random shout-outs, tons of announcements of births, deaths, missing persons, etc, and this cool show called “I Remember”, where they interview old people to get random stories about the past. On one show, called “The Visit”, they go into to a home, business, or institution and just ask someone to show the reporter around. The episode I heard, they toured a community college. Right now they are playing messages from displaced people who are looking for relatives and friends. Who funds this station?)

As for smaller stations, the US NGO MercyCorps tells the Ledger that they’ve helped to set up more than twenty low-watt stations all over the country, some of which are on the air more often than others. Their budgets are extremely small. These stations cover mostly local stuff in far-flung villages. They have an association called Association of Liberian Community Radios (ALICOR). Full disclosure, since writing this, I have taken a short-term contract working with MercyCorps and ALICOR.