FrontlineSMS:Radio trial begins!

We are delighted to announce that the first beta version of FrontlineSMS:Radio has been built, and is currently being introduced and tested in three African radio stations.

FrontlineSMS:Radio is a tailored version of FrontlineSMS customised for radio DJs, particularly for use during live-on-air broadcast. The FrontlineSMS:Radio software is built on an entirely new version of FrontlineSMS, due out next year. We are in the process of building messaging tools designed to make FrontlineSMS more versatile and more intuitive to use.

Radio Nam Lolwe in Kenya / Image: Iginio Gagliardone

The unique features of the FrontlineSMS:Radio software will include an on-air button for DJs to click on and off as they start and end their programmes and  live graphical visualisation of poll results to make  interpretation easier live-on-air.

The FrontlineSMS:Radio team has worked alongside Internews and Developing Radio Partners to identify community-level radio stations as project partners. Pamoja FM – located within the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya – was the first station to test the new software, shortly followed by Radio Nam Lolwe, in Kisumu, northern Kenya. Breeze FM, a community-based commercial radio station located in Chipata, Zambia, is now installing the software.

Our team of developers, based in Nairobi were at Pamoja FM for a training session to witness the first message ever to be received by FrontlineSMS:Radio, which was a song request from a listener for the locally popular Holy Day by Jimmie Gait.

Jael from Radio Nam Lolwe said, “The new features are really helpful for our radio programming. The live polling and the fact that each show can have its own folder means that the received texts don’t get mixed up. It feels more organised and clean. We are especially looking forward to the auto-refresh feature; in the last version we had to manually check for messages. Now the software just does it, we can concentrate on doing the show.”

We reported last month that simultaneous to this software trial, researchers from Cambridge University’s Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR) have been in the field working to investigate how audiences interact with radio stations via SMS, and how these interactions can affect their participation in public affairs. From Cambridge University, Dr. Iginio Gagliardone has been leading the research in Kenya and Dr. Alastair Fraser has also joined the team to focus on Zambia.

According to Iginio, “Our preliminary findings are showing how the interactions allowed by mobile phones, both through SMS and voice, are transforming the role of radio in Africa. Radio is already the most popular medium on the continent, but now it is also becoming a node connecting different modes of communication and different publics together: audiences are using talk shows as spaces where they can  voice their concerns, local authorities are employing radio as a source of information about what is going on in their communities, and traditional forms of decision-making, such as the baraza in Kenya, are being influenced by the kinds of debates that are taking place on the radio.”

FrontlineSMS being used at Pamoja FM, Kenya / Image: Iginio Gagliardone

The trial has been made possible by the support of the Indigo Trust, who have funded technical support and hardware provision to support the pilot phases. FrontlineSMS:Radio version of our software will pilot with about 10 stations during autumn 2011 before it is made publicly available at the beginning of next year, after the release new version of the core platform.

If you work at a radio station (or connected organisation) and are interested in taking part in the open beta towards the end of 2011, please contact Amy on amy [at] frontlinesms.com.