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Victoria in Kampala tries on Brian Lehrer Show T-shirt

I love radio, you know, really love it. You just don’t get the stories across quite as effectively in any other medium. I’m from Ireland, a place with an oral tradition where radio is part of life. I came to the US and found a career with a passionate bunch of public radio heads that love story-telling just as much as I do.

So what’s the story with Uganda? Well today, folks, I can confirm that Uganda is indeed Radio Country. There are about 120 radio stations in Uganda. This happened suddenly due to the liberalization of the media markets under President Museveni in 1989.

Now there are still fairly strict media rules which I’d like to get into more in another post. Suffice it to say, there are some things that when printed or broadcast are not appreciated by the government. When we met with President Museveni - do you like how I just threw that in as if I meet with a head of state every Sunday evening? - he said there needs to be media rules, as Uganda is a young democracy. Museveni referred to Rwandan radio broadcasts that incited hate and divisiveness and, according to him, helped enable a genocide. The President believes it’s imperative for Uganda to remain united and the media should not have the power to divide the already tribal population. That comment could be chewed on for a while... hopefully we will have President Museveni on to chat directly with with Brian about it. I will post on our Museveni meeting in detail soon too.

OK, here’s lay of the media landscape. Uganda has only 3 major dailies: New Vision, the government-run newspaper, The Monitor, its main rival, and Bukedde, a local language (Lugandan) daily. Their combined circulation is less than 100,000 copies per day. That’s 100,000 to a population of about 30 million!

Those figures really say something about the capacity and power of print media. According to my extraordinary guide Sam, the printed word reaches decision makers, the politicians and big business; radio, on the other hand, with 120 stations, will reach the ordinary person, the banana grower, the cattle keeper and so on.

So, radio is the real medium of the masses, while print is the media of influence. It’s been like that “since eternity,” to quote Sam on how the media share and divide their roles.

He told me it’s been very difficult to have 3rd and 4th daily newspaper – attempts don’t last more than a year and there are only a couple of surviving weekly publications.

Traveling around the country, I’ve seen plenty of radios.

Here are a few of the radio “outposts”

In a humble thatched hut in a traditional village,

Yes, I too noticed the Businessweek tucked into our village headmaster's hand. I can only guess that my fellow fellowshipper, David Rocks provided a copy, there weren't too many newsagents in that part of the world.

On the edge of the Budongo rainforest

(bottom right hand corner)

and maybe most surprisingly in Kasubi tombs where the former Kings of Buganda are buried,

Here's our beloved radio perched over the kingdom's beloved stuffed pet cheetah!