Radio Netherlands Worldwide is sending two complete mobile radio stations to the Chilean broadcaster Radio Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Maria’ (RUNFSM), which has worked closely with RNW for many years. This will enable two partner stations in the coastal region of Maule to resume their broadcasts as quickly as possible. The region was seriously affected by the earthquake on 27 February.
RNW Director-General Jan Hoek says “We’ve noticed that the restoration work in Chile is focusing on the cities and motorways. So we’re in a position to help our radio partners in the smaller coastal communities.”
Our colleagues at RUNFSM will decide in the coming days which of the affected radio partners will temporarily receive the mobile radio stations. Jan Hoek added that “the sooner the two stations can resume their broadcasts, the sooner our independent journalistic voice can be heard again in the region.”
The mobile radio station, often called radio-in-a-box, is specially built to be used temporarily in countries where radio stations are forced off the air by natural disasters. Each station is less than a cubic metre in size, and is equipped with an FM transmitter, mixing desk, microphones, a CD player and a laptop computer. RNW has previously provided such stations following the earthquakes in in Indonesia (Padang, September 2009) and Haïti (January 2010).
