Recording for radio
It’s really something hearing a programme you’ve helped make live on a local radio station. It’s even more special when you know that thousands in the capital N’Djamena who’ve never heard it before are listening in and hearing the good news unpacked in an interesting and challenging way. And I’m not even a radio technician nor have I really received any training. My Chadian friends and I have learned how to record and edit on the job. True, I did used to do Quality Control in another field. Now I listen for ‘hisses’ and ‘pops’ in the recordings. It’s so rewarding doing what God calls you to do.
Radio is THE media here in Chad. The Good Book translated into Chadian Arabic is important for those who can read. But so few can. Everyone listens to radio, in the town and in the country. The Good Book broadcast in Arabic: now that reaches the parts other media can’t. Many fear being caught reading the Book, but they can listen in secretly to the Words of Life. Four men heard the programme across the border, in the neighbouring country. They listened together, enraptured. They believed together. They crossed the river to find the radio station to thank them for the New Life they’d found. They desire to take it back to their village.
It’s not easy work. The sheer heat, the technical problems that pop up, the laid-back local time keeping, frequent illnesses, etc. all frustrate the recording and editing and broadcasting. But this is not surprising. There’s a lot of spiritual opposition to this key means of spreading the Word.
Radio isn’t the end of it either. Many people in town are getting satellite TV. Moving visual images is the future communication for the young people here. Radio will always be important for the majority in the countryside but T.V. is a whole new untapped possibility in the towns.
