Broadcaster profile: Carine Ide Tchounga — Dedicated to serving her farming audience with the information they need

For the past 15 years, Carine Ide Tchounga has been providing thousands of farming families with important information and entertainment, first as a broadcaster and then a producer with Medumba Community Radio.
 
Medumba Community Radio, which broadcasts from Bangangté in the West Region of Cameroon, is the only radio station within its 200 km broadcast area. More than 90 per cent of households within the region rely on Medumba Community Radio as a source of information and entertainment.
 
Carine is the director of Medumba Community Radio. Alongside her other duties, she produces for programs a month, including Fréquence agricole (produced in French) and The rural world (produced in Medumba). She believes Medumba Community Radio is important to the community because it produces 40 per cent of its content in the local language.
 
The agricultural programs on Medumba Community Radio feature the knowledge and opinions of farmers and agricultural experts, and involve people from all walks of life. The programs are well-received by listeners.
 
“Listeners implement the advice they hear on the radio and get good results,” said Carine. “[We conducted a] survey to review the schedules — it emerged that the farmer programs are among the programs most listened to.”
 
Carine, 42, joined Medumba Community Radio after graduating with a diploma in Science in Information and Communication Technologies from Ecole Supérieure des Sciences et Techniques de l’Information et de la Communication in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
 
For over a decade, Carine has been using FRI’s resources to enhance her broadcasts, including adapting scripts and other stories for use in the local context. Carine also finishes each show with a story from FRI’s archive.
 
Unfortunately, the broadcasters are unable to go out to the field to interview farmers as much as they would like. However, they do hear from their listeners, who often call to request a replay of programs they have missed.
 
FRI’s Barza Wire also provides weekly farmer stories which help broadcasters understand some of the challenges farmers in their region may be facing.

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