Launch of Radio Station in Cameroon Fulfills 8-Year Dream

December 2, 2011

Launch of Radio Station in Cameroon Fulfills 8-Year Dream

December 2, 2011

(Dec. 2, 2011 - by Harold Goerzen) For eight years local believers in the remote town of Banyo in the West African country of Cameroon had been planning and praying for a local Christian station to go on the air. Saturday, Nov. 5, that dream became a reality through a cooperative effort with HCJB Global.

Joseph Kebbie (seated), training coordinator
for the Sub-Saharan Africa Region, provides
tips to staff members at the new station.

"When we got this station on the air, I saw a lot of joy among the local people and I almost shed tears," said Liberian missionary Joseph Kebbie, training coordinator for the mission's Sub-Saharan Africa Region.

The station's building is across the street from the Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) hospital which may be the first medical ministry in Africa to launch a Christian radio station with help from HCJB Global. A Banyo-based organization called Transformational Ministries also helped with the installation.

"What a great picture of the 'voice and hands' of Jesus to the community of Banyo in the hills of northern Cameroon!" exclaimed Jeremy Maller, projects coordinator. "This is the only radio station in the entire area that is providing listeners with Christian content."

Joseph Kebbie (left) and
Jeremy Maller.

The two men's excitement was evident to Regional Director Lee Sonius in Accra, Ghana, when he heard that the test broadcasts had begun. "I could tell that Jeremy and Joseph are sky high," he said. "I know the feeling well, having been in the same situation a number of times. It is a thrill to be on hand when the switch is flipped on the transmitter and the airwaves come to life with the gospel message!"

The station, called Radio Sawtu Jam Jamanu (Radio Voice of Peace for This Generation) is on the air four hours daily, broadcasting news, community-based shows and Christian programming in three languages: Fulfuldé, English and French. The 600-watt FM transmitter was shipped from the HCJB Global Technology Center in Elkhart, Ind.

Staff members took turns behind the microphone, announcing that programming was ready to be heard. "They began asking people in the community to call in and let them know they were getting the station, and the calls started coming in," Maller explained.

More than 50,000 people are within listening range of the station in Banyo, a town in northern Cameroon near the border with Nigeria.

Engineer Jeremy Maller (center)
helps with the installation.

"To test the reach of the signal, one of the radio staff members took me on a motorcycle to the next town with a small handheld radio that could be found in any local market," Maller continued. "We were not getting our hopes up that we would be able to hear the station well, but when we reached that community we were happy to hear Radio Sawtu coming through very well."

In March 2011 Maller traveled to Cameroon to meet with the prospective radio staff and do a site survey. In the months leading up to the installation, the radio team in Banyo began preparing the studios and raised the tower.

"Joseph and I then traveled to Banyo at the beginning of November to help with the installation," he said. "It took more than a full day of travel to get to Banyo after a flight from Accra to Douala, a bus ride to Yaounde and then a flight to Banyo on a six-seat, single-propeller plane."

"When we arrived on the dirt airstrip, we were greeted by the local community members as well as the radio staff and two missionaries who had been supporting the process of establishing the station from its beginning eight years ago," Maller related. "At one point the missionaries were ready to concede that the government would not grant the license. But some local believers took over the effort and helped push the process the rest of the way to allow the station to go on the air."

The station encountered many obstacles along the way. "One challenge they faced was putting up a 60-foot radio tower without any equipment to lift it," he explained. "Instead of using heavy machinery, a group of local Cameroonians gathered around the tower and literally pushed and pulled it up into place!"

HCJB Global will continue to be available to provide technical support, and "subsequent training will definitely follow," Kebbie said.

"It was so good to be part of a project like this," he added. "It's more than just history, it's telling His story-the story of God's love."

Source: HCJB Global

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