Our First Stations

While there is no shortage of radio in Uganda, it is broadcast from towns and can easily have a million listeners.  The only advertisers are national (beer and telecommunications), the rural poor never participate in programs. 

In June 2015, after over a year of code and hardware development, we launched four stations in rural Northern Uganda.  Our stations are focused on communities of a few thousand to ten thousand people.  Because we use a "call out" method, where callers aren't charged for participating, many more people feel comfortable joining in to talk shows and asking questions. Local program hosts use only their own phone to participate, and aren't charged. Because the RootIO cloud purchases all the phone credit, we get a massive discount, and costs to the community are trivial.

Our Next Stations

We are currently seeking partners and proposals for scaling RootIO.  FM is regulated tightly by many countries, so the configuration of communities, regulators, topography, and other factors may or may not allow us to expand to a particular location.