Seen already the resources and I am reading them and got good responses from colleagues here. Thanks.
Hi Bus
Am great full to be part of this discussion on how to get revenue from our Radio programs especially the agriculture one. My view is to know what interest the audience in agriculture for example some farmers who are interested in growing crops both food and commercial, the presenter must put more emphasis on making research on those crops in that many farmers will be hooked to that show which can attract advertisers to advertise in that show.
In my agriculture program there was one sponsor who withdrew the sponsorship because of inconsistency of the transmission. If today the radio is off and tomorrow it is on, sponsors will not put their money in such radios, there for it advisable to have programs that are consistent on a radio station so that one earns revenue in his or her programs.
Challenges that i have seen on our radio station is that presenters are far from my audience and some time hey are not facilitated to go and meet their audience which is a big problem.
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Hello @Lindo am very great full for that resource that you have sent to us. But to some radios it is difficulty to use them especially in radio stations where they don’t facilitates their workers.For example you will find that a presenter can spend a year with out going to the field. Some radio stations they pay their workers pea nut , some of the presenters are not self driven which hinders revenue collection.
thank and be blessed
@MamaFm, I agree with you , this is the way to go. Try out @obolo’s style of generating revenue through training farmers on agricultural activities, whose products you can eventually sell to them yet youy would have used their donations to purchace the ingredients and maybe the equipment to add value to any product. So GO, Go Go…@MamaFM.
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Thank you Busi for that. There is also another way, this time it is not Listener’s Club but Friends of Radio - eg. “Friends of UBC Butebo radio”, you categorize the friendships as follows:-
i) “Family friends” - here the whole family is targeted
ii) “Mama Friends” - these now are the Ladies/Women friends
iii) “Youth friends” - these are the youths 18 - 35 years old
iv) " Elder Friends" - Men and Women of 50 and above
v) “Friends” - Ordinary friends
These are regular listeners who commit themselves to contribute a certain fee annually in their categories with the lowest be 10,000/= Uganda shillings an equivalent of about 2.7 US Dollars… They make pledges and fulfill them. Instead of paying the fee annually some decide to pay monthly so long as accountability is there.
The presenters’ job here is to mobilize people, make use of that microphone and tell people that they need to join you in raising funds, use persuasive language to make them see the need to make contributions.
You can even use jingles that talk about the importance of contributing. This way a station can make a lot of money.
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We run the training programs bi-weekly.
Announcements are made prior to the dates, for registration to be done ahead of time. This would help us know the number of participants and plan accordingly.
There is no age limit because these can be done part-time.
A lot goes into its preparation but if planned well, mushroom cultivation is done throughout the year since they are done in-doors.
The training alone fetches an average of Ghc5,000 ($1,000) a month. Please be reminded that there are some deductions (facilitator’s fee and refreshment).
Part of the revenue is ploughed back into the next cultivation since we have to buy some inputs to help production all year round.
We also buy from the farmers whom we have trained as the bakery company which is producing the mushroom bread need them 
in quantities.
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Thanks @Ntakirutimana
But why would the radio be on and off? Remember when you get sponsorship you have to deliver at the agreed upon times.
Wow @obolo
This is interesting, it is good when a radio station has a cash cow. This means there will always be revenue generated every month without relying entirely on adverts.
A very big thanks going out to the Farm Radio International and their entire team and sis Bisi meaning I really missed a lot in the past.
Am learning a lot. And for the first time I see a network that that is very educative all you need is how to read.
Thank you all for your contributions.
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Hello everyone,
Here’s what’s up on WhatsApp…
Odongo Wendo Boniface Shine Fm: Haaahaa Members good morning! I cannot believe maybe MTN works better for people in Central Uganda but here in Northern Uganda MTN do not sponsor farmers program even if you write proposal no response is made over that. Their sponsorship is more in commercial radios not community radios
Immaculate Leenat: @Odongo Wendo Boniface Shine Fm then something should be wrong somewhere… Change your style😁
Jaspher Okello Shine Fm: Be serious, Telecom companies are just like government, less supportive to agriculture…
Immaculate Leenat: I stand to be corrected but I think if your farmer program happens to be one of the flagship programs of the station they may do
Jaspher Okello Shine Fm: No need for correction, you could elaborate more on how you specifically managed to bring them on board
Jaspher Okello Shine Fm: Uganda’s case is a bit unique
Immaculate Leenat: Honestly I haven’t had any personal experience… What happened was that MTN really sponsored some flagship programs in my airwaves but not for farmer program despite the fact that it had heavy listenership. But that was because the program was solely sponsored by one NGO or the other(this is to say it was a project).
Odongo Wendo Boniface Shine Fm: Imma we are very unique here in Northern Uganda so don’t even make comparison
Immaculate Leenat: Unique as in … Can u explain that further please
Jaspher Okello Shine Fm: Ok, what i can say is that if may be the likes of MTN, Airtel for our case value importance of rural farmers, then they could come on board, but they look for crowd mostly in urban areas
Immaculate Leenat: But I think is due to the bad patronage of their services resulting from the poor network over there. I still stand to be corrected
Odongo Wendo Boniface Shine Fm: Their network is very strong here in Oyam District where we operate from and being the only network with clear signal. We have ever tried but no response. What do we know
Jaspher Okello Shine Fm: I would not say it is due to that, they are the Telecom giants, reaching every part of the country,
Odongo Wendo Boniface Shine Fm: True that Jasper! Are there any other network apart from MTN
Sarah Mawerere UBC: But colleagues & our dear facilitators, there is an important issue I read in the resources sent by Denis & Busi in the main Barza discussion-that know your stations’ advertising policies. For instance; here at our station we hear some person wanted his program to b sponsored by some religious sect that had controversial doctrines. And it was a gender & rural dev’t prog. The station manager declined for fear that we can’t have such sponsors! It surprised me that some radio station in some area in Uganda accepted the offer of the sponsorship! & the sponsors picked on the weekly political program of this station. That it is the best prog & time they wanted. I heard the progs running on that radio station! When I inquired from a staff of the radio, he said we can’t refuse money. So back to our farmer prog: what could b the suitable sources of revenue? Can a farmer program b sponsored by a religious sect or it requires organisations & companies that can suit farming?
Jaspher Okello Shine Fm: That is a great question, nice angle, it would be attractive and more appealing if the organization is related to farming or agribusiness
Immaculate Leenat: Warming up to respond to this:point_up_2:t2:. I don’t think there is any problem … If the organisation recognizes the contribution/impact of the program on the target audience and therefore wishes to sponsor for the continuation of the program why not. In as much as it doesn’t conflict with that station’s policies, it’s good to go with. Remember some of these happen due to demand. We also have to remember that we are not supposed to feed the audience with “what we want” rather “what they want” though that is relative. For my station in particular, it wasn’t only farmers enjoying the program. I can tell you that those outside our cycle did, and infact it enticed non-farmers to start to do a little of farming. How? cos we were basically farming on the radio which they could easily follow and replicate practically on the field. It’s rather unfortunate that some groups came around to sponsor but couldn’t at that moment. In the meantime, I think one way we can generate revenue for our farmer program is to build a network comprising all the stakeholders on the value chain to get connected with one another. A radio market slot can be open to them to advertise. from experience, I can say even the smallholder farmers will patronise. Branded Sourvenirs (using the name of the farmer program, pictures of farmers from the various communities you interact with, etc) can be designed for sale, which you may even carry along whenever you are going to the field. To some extent, we use money to get money or? I’ll be right back.
Jovine Johansen Radio Maisha: Sure. We all need money. We are not concentrate on where those money from but a we meet the requirements without contravene the Station values, policies & objectives.
Christian Maduka Ray Power Fm: We cannot produce radio contents that are against our station’s policy. It’s given that ever before we establish a new station that we have thought about the character of that station. It’s the character of our station that determines the kind of contents we create. “By their fruits you shall know them”. It’s same as deciding what we want to do before we think about how to make money from it.
Jovine Johansen Radio Maisha: Am agreeing that our first observation is Station policies. But to some cases we get some dilemmas on what to pick between money or policies.
Am doing administration job to my station, my station its core values is health advocacy.
We made a great discussion on who to advertise with & we said all advertisers & sponsors who are contrary to health are not our customer. In among was Alcohol companies but in health treatment they advise some people suffering with runatic heart desease to use Whine.
There are some Whine which is alcohol. So to hear Bear producers they can not be our source of income but Whine producers are our customers.
I have said its better to pick some to be your customer in a blueprint but not convinced to dig inside deep where those money from.
Sarah Mawerere UBC: Hahahaha. Good to hear this…hahaha
Sarah Mawerere UBC: Sweet colleagues more jokes & other stuff are posted here than the real issues for which the whatsapp group was created. What do we do?
Jaspher Okello Shine Fm: Make jokes which can generate revenue 
Christian Maduka Ray Power Fm: On second thought, Farmers and agricultural jokes and skits can be another genre of contents that can yield revenue either as stand alone or segment of a programme on radio. Joke your way into money for your station. 
Immaculate Leenat: I can relate to this… From experience
Jaspher Okello Shine Fm: Now you have brought @Immaculate Leenat back to life 
Immaculate Leenat: We had a segment on our program where we asked for some very traditional meals made of cowpea… It was really fun. Then men wouldn’t spare us with jokes on this and contributed to the fun aspect of it… We had request from the people to do more research on the meals and tease their minds. If not for the fact that our program couldn’t take anymore sponsorship we would have had at least others coming to support it.
Odongo Wendo Boniface Shine Fm: For us here we only have presenters who are farmers, you present what you know
Immaculate Leenat: There was a time when the callers asked to see in action on the farm relating it to the saying that " action speaks louder than words"… I was ready to take up the challenge and surprise everyone. I never had prior knowledge to the good farming practices but I came to learn everything from being part of the farmer program production team. Particularly from field trips and regular interaction with the resource persons
Christian Maduka Ray Power Fm: Even African proverbs that are farm and agriculturally related can be incorporated into Farmers’ Radio. What do you guys think. After all when rain fall in the morning breakfast is done twice.
Odongo Wendo Boniface Shine Fm: By the way members we could do it practically when meeting farmers. This encourages them to share experiences
Jaspher Okello Shine Fm: Don’t talk about practical, they will give you huge portion to demonstrate,
Christian Maduka Ray Power Fm: What is good for the geese is good for the gander
Immaculate Leenat: @Christian Maduka Ray Power Fm kindly explain this " when rain fall in the morning breakfast is done twice." 
Christian Maduka Ray Power Fm: It is a proverb. If a proverb is explained it will mean that dowry paid on your mother’s head is for nothing.
Odongo Wendo Boniface Shine Fm: And when the laborer is praised, his cutlass begins to cut more keenly
Christian Maduka Ray Power Fm: Because of Imma, I will explain the proverb. The meaning is related to the idea that if music bit change, the dance step changes.
+27 72 254 8109: Hmm…interesting but i would like to know how can all this help stations generate revenue, unless i missed it
Immaculate Leenat: 
@Busi N we are kind of trying out this
+27 72 254 8109: Ok and where will those be sold? Do you mean farmers will be encouraged to support those jokes and skits?
Immaculate Leenat: The more attractive the idea and it’s influence on listenership, potential sponsors may be influenced. My view though!
+27 72 254 8109: My question is, I understand the content development part, the funny money…it works on print…there is a guy who stand by the traffic light with leaflets titled funny jokes for your money- You buy the jokes cheaper and read for laughs - better than just someone begging for money. So my question is, how do we sell the jokes on radio?
Christian Maduka Ray Power Fm: Comic skits will only draw more ear lobes to Farmers’ radio as to attract more interested sponsors. Farmers Radio discuss mostly serious farm topics. Anything that can make more people to tune in to Farmers’ Radio is welcome
Jaspher Okello Shine Fm: So that they get attached to the Radio, they are also indirect marketeers, they can refer…
Odongo Wendo Boniface Shine Fm: The jokes can be sold depending on the creativity and the message in the joke e.g we have the evening show which is full of jokes for people to call in and contribute making the station have more listeners and after it calls for any organization to sponsor the show
Christian Maduka Ray Power Fm: Listeners are not paid to listen to our contents. So in thinking about alternative revenue sources for our contents, we must as well think about alternative possibilities for producing contents.
Petronillah Simwenyi: We do have a program what annoys you most when farming. Listeners love the segment. Whenever I visit in their farms they greet me ’ PS what annoy us is too much rain, or lack of fertilizer or lack of market. This segment cuts across all ages.
Emmanuel Asamoah Radio 1: I think we can’t take anything away from the fact that some people will tune off if we are to playful on air. What I believe in is a show with the voice pop (have the farmers view on the issue). Play their views on the subject, get the expert to fine tune their practice. This makes it participatory. Then allow them to engage with the expert again by allowing them to call on to the show.
A show can start with an African proverb and also ask the caller to start their comments or questions with an African proverb. Dynamism on a show is good. Always been innovative
Jaspher Okello Shine Fm: That is a better line, however, human beings are funny, they are attracted to the less important thing first, then the rest follow
Emmanuel Asamoah Radio 1: We should also consider where we want to go. We will also like to attract the young to go into Agric. We can’t continue to do the old things and still attract the youth. We can’t still continue to do the old things and still attract the educated people with the money to go into Agric. It’s complex, it needs a multi approach
Jaspher Okello Shine Fm: The mixed approach yes, some of us grew up while told to study and get a job, told to live issues of farming to the uneducated, thus living some with a bias when it comes to agriculture, some one like ‘me’ some where would not attach great values to agriculture, hopefully they are some where, with organization with potential to support Farm program, how can you go about with such a scenario,
+27 72 254 8109: I can relate to this. Here, some students have no option of choosing agriculture as a subject as some schools do not have agriculture teachers.
Farming in most of our areas is not considered as a way of life. Those who farm anything do so in their small gardens instead of the land that they used for such. If we talk about farmers, in SA it is just a smaller group compared to the population. People depend more on buying from the markets
Christian Maduka Ray Power Fm: We cannot give away creative ways to create good contents for whatever reasons. In Nigeria, an FM station in Lagos called Eko ti wan ti wan Radio Lagos has diversified into many things like Packeted Water. They use their radio to advertise it. Farmers’ Radio people let us think.
Jaspher Okello Shine Fm: It is only a small population feeding the cities, when it comes to our curriculum, agriculture is optional, some schools end up not teaching.
@everyone who participated in the above topic of jokes, proverbs etc. Thank you guys for that break, even though it had some informative motion somewhere. Those from the East say “All work without play makes Jack a dull boy!” Good that was a much needed recess… Now back to business, When I read your posts, I remembered that here in Uganda, comedies sell like hot cake - sponsors pay lots of money to stations which have those comedy slots and drama skits because people enjoy listening to them. Therefore, Like @Petronillah Simwenyi’s “What annoys you?” slot we can pick up something from this and do drama skits to include in our programs. In fact these sell a lot in Uganda.
Thank you @Busi_Ngcebetsha for the update. In fact they have it on Radio Simba though on generalized topics not necessarily farming!
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@Busi_Ngcebetsha We have rampant power cuts in the rural areas where our target audience is (Kisoro District - South Western Uganda), and at times there is no fuel in the standby generators.
Advice, Its better to make the Station number one before any expenses. To my Station we have agreed that before any expenses, we’ve to fill in the issue of Fuel to the generators and enough token to the Electricity Meters (Each staff is aware). So, this priority made us to run away out to the electricity challenges which is a big problem to most of African Countries.
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I understand and I also agree with @Jovine_Johansen_Joel fuel should be priority. No matterwhat, find ways of always being ON. Radio is what will bring revenue and if you cannot honour that you will lose a lot of potential sponsors.
Hello everyone,
Today is the last day of Week 3. This means we have today to round uo our discussions on the sources of our farmer programs and other ways we can generate revenue.
Let us give it our best!
Thank you Busi! A thank you to my colleagues here…you really shared a lot to learn! A big thank you to Blythe for the wonderful resources! And Denis thank you for the wonderful resources and matter! Let me put this week to rest and warm up for Week 4 (last week) 
.
Cheers,
Sarah.
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I side with @smawerere This week has been very educative 
. A lot of insight and so many resources to learn from to impact our programs and radio as a whole.
One thing I have learnt from this discussion is you can never know all when it comes to program and station management.
Thanks senior colleagues 
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Yes @smawerere and @obolo you have said what was in my mind too. This is a great platform for journalists and there is a lot to learn from colleagues all round Africa. There are many eye opening opportunities for radio stations to engage in and sustain their radio programs especially the farmer program like having a demonstration farm for training for the listeners, good will of listeners through their clubs and many more good ideas. Such a great three weeks of learning-Like they say learning never stops. Looking forward to week four.
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Hello everyone,
We have come to the end of week 3. This week we looked at the best sources of revenue and how to diversify revenue.
These are the questions we had to respond to:
- What sources of revenue does your farmer program currently rely on?
- Are there other ways you think you can generate revenue for your farmer program? Please explain.
- What challenges do you face trying to generate revenue?
The contributions were quite interesting. Looking at the sources of revenue for the stations’ farmer programs, there were a lot of similarities. Most stations rely on:
- General adverts
- Special services provided by the radio station to generate revenue like providing transport facilities
- Sponsorships
- Maintaining bigger listenership and having wider coverage areas as most advertisers want to reach bigger audiences
- Grants from NGOs but with conditions that their funding is used on topics within their interventions such as climate change agriculture or conservation farming.
- Programme component sponsorship where NGOs sponsor a segment of the programme that relates to their work e.g. market prices.
- A group of farmers that contribute or donate for the farmer programme.
- Training and practical work
- Friends of Radio you categorize the friendships as follows:
i) “Family friends” where the whole family is targeted
ii) “Mama Friends” female friends
iii) “Youth friends” 18 - 35 years old
iv) " Elder Friends" 50 years and above
v) “Friends” - ordinary friends
In as much as most stations relied on the above, there are no guarantees. Advertisers or sponsors may decide not to continue supporting the farmer’s programs. This results in farmer programs having no source of revenue. A number of stations in this platform indicated that they have no source of revenue for their farmer program. If they do, it does not last long.
A lot of ideas on generating revenue were further deliberated on. I will highlight the following:
- Marketing the program to potential sponsors through presentation of proposals to relevant companies
detailing facts about the program and how the companies stand to benefit. - Packaging the program to attract partners and sponsors…this can be done by having revenue
generation in mind when designing the content. - Partnerships where a company can partner by paying for airtime and in turn the presenter promotes it through talk shows. There is mutual benefit.
- Through development of farming application. Listeners can be encouraged to download the app for instant information.
- Proposals to cooperatives or companies focusing on corporate responsibility for them to sponsor quizzes and contests.
- Consistence and reliability. The radio station should never go off at any time.
- Competitions and Awards
- Holding farmers expo for a small contribution.
- Organizing farmer’s exhibitions for farmers to share their experiences and learn from experts
- Programme design to move away from traditional radio content of 15, 30 and 60 minutes. Some contents that may attract revenue may be the short and crispy made into 2, 3, 4 or 5 minutes or even more.
- Community contributions.
- Tailoring content to suit the needs of sponsors. Make the content exciting by also using jokes and comic skits.
The ideas may work or not. It all depends on the dynamics of the community. With all these ideas, radio stations still face some challenges in generating revenue. Some of the challenges that were highlighted are:
- Channeling client interest and funding from ordinary product adverts to sponsorship of agriculture program.
- Most advertisers do not advertise on informational programs.
- Partnerships do not last long.
- As a result of the economic crisis, advertisers prefer online marketing and bilboards than using a radio station.
- Some advertisers prefer televisions.
- Competition. There are a lot of radio stations fighting for the same sponsors.
- The nature of the radio station e.g. government stations are associated with the current ruling government which some people have developed a dislike! You find that even government ministries and departments have developed a dislike of the station!
- Station coverage is not wide enough and this affects income generation.
- Lack of transport for the station
- Farmers who are less supportive of media, they have the mindset that only NGOs can support local media.
The question of listenership and coverage came in as a challenge. As @MamaFm asked
"Do numbers equate to impact? I relate this to community media where coverage is not wide but the radio has a “small” audience according to the advertiser who is looking out for big BUT the audience you have is very loyal, have been changed by your programming and they are a niche audience if I may put it that way.”
Advertisers know what they want. In most times they want to reach as many people as possible. If they come to your station, they need to understand your listenership specifications and as a radio station you need to know your story, sell your audience the best way you know. That will make the advertiser understand they will not lose if they decide to sponsor you. Radio stations sell content and loyal listeners. There are different ways you can diversify your content and make it interesting.
@DenisLindo our resource person said, “For a Farmer Radio Program, in each Program Clock the following revenue source ideas can be incorporated;
“a) Farmer’s Quiz
b) Farming Clinic- (This could be both online and also in the field)
c) Farm Health Checks – As the Chief Farmer”
It is also important that a radio station may be reliable ad deliver on expectations.
Generating revenue may not be a one size fits all for all stations. Some ideas may work in one community while others may not work. For instance, in some areas community contributions may not work because of unemployment or lack of source of income. If not explained well, some people may think they are being charged for listening to radio instead of voluntarily giving support. The better way to find out what works for your station is to try the different ideas. Try something you have not done before and improve on those you have already tried.
Enjoy your weekend!
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