What is it that has captured the imagination of the rural farmers in Zambia, the gold miners in South Africa and the game wardens in Kenya?

What does the small shopkeeper in Dakar, the wheelchair bound tailor in Harare and the aging tribal leader on the Zambezi have in common?

They each rely on their local Community Radio to let them know the latest price of paraffin, the availability of printed cotton or the name of the latest elected official responsible for keeping a mighty African river clean. Community radio was first used in Latin America when a Catholic priest’s assistant, Jose Joaqin Salcedo Guarin, in Sutatenza, Colombia, was asked to conduct the weekly sermon but instead used the time to get the local farmers to discuss their concerns.

Trying to find a way that the information could be distributed to the other farmers in the region intrigued him. The solution he stumbled on gave birth to the first ever use of radio as a tool for social change. The first broadcast took place on 16 October 1946. Community radio was born. The Power of Culture – Radio Africa website