When Great Zimbabwe University wanted to offer students practical experience in radio broadcasting, it had no idea that it would end up creating a thriving station with a reach far beyond the GZU campus.

During this week’s INMA Webinar, Dr. Last Alfandika, station manager at GZU Campus Radio, shared the journey that has changed the experience not just for students but for listeners far beyond the campus — and the country.  

To provide students with radio experience, the university had to purchase new equipment. However, once the purchase was made, Alfandika said, the equipment provided by the university was so nice the department didn’t want to use it just for practice, “so we asked the university if we could go on air.”

That created new hurdles: At the time, Zimbabwe didn’t have a law allowing a university to register and operate a radio station. Rather than giving up, Alfandika said, the department looked at how to change the regulations.

“We started a campaign to reform the media law,” Alfandika said. “We started by inviting the minister who was responsible for media and information to see and marvel at our station.”

Then, they reminded the minister that none of the work they were doing was being heard because they weren’t allowed on the air.

Their lobbying efforts continued and paid off in 2020, when a law for campus radio and community radio licencing in Zimbabwe was passed. Then, Great Zimbabwe University Campus Radio finally went on the air.

On the air and online

The fully student-run radio station is one of about 10 community stations that were licenced. Early on, Alfandika said they made some revelations that changed their approach.

The first challenge was the limited range of the broadcast frequency; the second was that listening habits among young people have changed.

“We were facing challenges due to reach,” he said. “We also were facing competition from online platforms — WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, and the like.

“What people used to do with the radio a long, long time ago was now different, especially with our young audience, which were our primary audience. We realised that their listening habits were actually evolving.”

Strategising on the best way to overcome these challenges, GZU Campus Radio went online and began broadcasting content in real time, which opened the door to a wider audience.

“There was another audience we had not thought about,” he said. “A number of Zimbabweans had travelled across the countries. They’re living in South Africa, they’re living in the United Kingdom, they’re living across the globe. And to our surprise, [that was] the first audience to reach us.”

Understanding the broader audience, the station expanded its programming: “We started to do programmes with the local financial institutions and we further integrated our radio with other social media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. And we started to link these platforms with our livestreams and promote our links on these social media platforms as well.”

Capturing the youth market

While catering to this unexpected audience, the station still wanted to ensure it created content that appealed to its original student audience.

“Using our young presenters who are also part of these audiences, we started to create content which was suitable for them [and] added podcasts using our radio equipment,” he said. “We prerecord some audio content in our studio and embed this content on our social media platforms so that they can download or stream on demand from our platforms.”

Alfandika said this was a great idea, as many students missed the live programming because they were attending classes and lectures. Allowing them to download the programme of their choice at their convenience boosted listenership.

“After we have produced some programmes throughout the week, at the end of the week, we select the best programmes and rerun them in our podcast,” he said. The “Campus Crash” programme compiles the most-liked or most followed programmes of the week and packages them for students.

“We also package local events to cater to all these students who may have not had enough time to listen to our radio programmes during the week.”

Getting social

Social media platforms have also contributed to the station’s success. WhatsApp is most popular because it has the largest reach and delivers the station to a rural audience. The station has even created WhatsApp groups covering different locations to discuss events and issues happening within those areas. Those groups, in turn, provide news and information that the station can share with a wider audience.

Younger users — particularly students — prefer using Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok:

“We use these platforms to promote livestreams and our podcast,” Alfandika explained. “We have a dedicated social media team, which creates posters [and] runs campaigns to make sure that our programmes reach the wider spectrum of our audience.”

TikTok is used to share short, engaging behind-the-scenes videos and put a human face on the presenters.  

“This is the platform that we use to show that after all they’re also human beings,” Alfandika said, noting that everyone faces their own challenges at home. TikTok allows them to share that.

“When they are on the radio, they put up a brave face and face the nation as if they’re happy and everything is well so that they keep the people entertained and engaged. So the TikTok platform actually brings the face of the radio to the wider audience.”

Increasing engagement

To further boost audience engagement, GZU Campus Radio has put a live radio player on the main university Web site, so anyone who visits the GZU site can listen to it just by clicking the link. It also includes information about the university, such as where the library is or how to access other university services.

“This has worked effectively to drive traffic to the university Web site in another way,” he added. “Whilst some are going for the radio, they end up also navigating the Web site; whilst others are going for the university information, they also ended up listening to the radio.”

Additionally, Alfandika said they have identified business organisations, platforms, and influencers that can extend their reach to new audiences and have partnered with them to cross-promote GZU Campus Radio’s content.

“Radio listenership has changed,” he said. “Radio is no longer the old radio that we used to enjoy. [Today’s youth] have their own things they want to listen to, their own interests. So this is the idea behind having the radio and all these platforms … being run by these youngsters who understand their colleagues, and who understand the right information that their colleagues will want to listen or enjoys.”

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