Radio Univers






Radio Univers, 105.7FM, is located on the Legon campus of the University of Ghana. Legon, specifically East Legon, is an upper-middle class area, and is also just down the road from the prestigious East Airport Residential Area.

When you reach the entrance of the university, you pass by a long pond full of lily pads and swampy grasses. About 50 metres from the road is a tall, arching gate, painted white like the buildings found all over the campus. The road laid out before you is long, straight and on a slight gradation. You can see quite far up that road, which is full of department offices and student residences. There is nowhere that you can look with a diversity of vegetation; the crowning examples are the towering palm trees (taller than any building in eye shot) and broad baobab trees that take up as much space as some of the departmental offices.

Rather than go straight, to get to Radio Univers, you turn right from the gate. On the left is a large and open field of red dirt, with one big tree and some park benches. On the right side is a row of one-storey offices. The third of these buildings, in faded letters, is marked as the “Communication Studies Department”. Usually parked in front of the structure is a bright blue Volkswagen Beatle which is both uncommon and as weary looking as the letter.

Between buildings are pathways about six feet wide. Passing through this walkway, you find Radio Univers in the second opening. You pass underneath a tent that has a table and a photocopier underneath it. The next step brings you to a row of plants that ensure that you only use the step to climb up on the patio.

Before you will be three doors. The door on the left is an air-conditioned office portioned into two. This is where the few paid staff work. The two TVs in the room are always on. The internet available on one computer which is working most times, but is almost always being used.

The door to the right has a couch that no one sits on, a fridge full of water sachets, and a sink. The door at the centre is where the studio is. You open the door into the lobby, where there is airconditioning, a TV (usually on), and a radio playing the live sounds of the station. To the right is a set of windows that allow you to peer into the long on-air studio. To the left are a number of cubby-holes used as offices that house the production and the transmitter.

Much of the news is written under the tents outside, as weather is not too much of an issue at this time of year.

Across the street, just past the tree and the park benches is another large bulding. ON the ground floor is the station’s news room. This room is also airconditioned, and always has the TV and the radio on. There are two long tables and about 20 comfotrable wood and cushioned chairs. The walls are lined with piles of binded Ghanaian newspaper volumes dating back to the early nineties. Many of the piles reach eye level. The room also has six computers that don’t seem to work at all, and one that does.

The staff is made up of about five paid members: the accountant, the librarian, the news editor, the program director, and the administrator. You can tell them, as the walk with photo ID cards clipped to their shirts. The bulk of the work is actually done by the team of twenty or more station volunteers in operate, to some degree, in all functions of the station.

This is home for the next two months.