Radio Fry Fry

Transforming lives, restoring hope, and serving every community through storytelling and sharing real-life experiences.

Project Information

Project Status: Active
Start Date: Jan 2022
End Date: Ongoing
Countries: Sierra Leone

Resources

#TheListeningRadio

One of the challenges in addressing systemic poverty and inequality is the limitation of not being able to be everywhere. Radio, however, enables community-led outreach and programming to extend right into the privacy of people’s homes or into their commutes and travels, to build hope and promote a better way of living that audiences can choose to tune into at will.

Radio can also be a powerful voice for reducing discrimination against minorities as well as persons living with disabilities and other marginalized groups. That’s why World Hope is launching a national faith-based radio station called ‘Radio Fry Fry’ in the center of Sierra Leone, with hubspots in the provincial areas so that hard-to-reach communities can have direct face-to-face contact with the radio station.

The ‘Radio Fry Fry’ brand is very unique in its context as it resonates and depicts its local meaning of ‘togetherness, authenticity, affordability and accessibility. The brand acknowledges diversity and caters indiscriminately to people of all walks of life regardless of gender, social strata, age, and religious orientation.

The station will provide content and airtime for commercial programming in order to be sustainable and utilize Gender Sensitive Indicators for Media (GSIM). The station will also serve as a regional resource for reaching the rural communities and several surrounding cities with important information and messaging related to anti-human trafficking or gender-based violence, health and hygiene, diversity and inclusion, and more.

According to the United Nations, radio is “a low-cost medium specifically suited to reaching remote communities and vulnerable people, offering a platform to intervene in the public debate, irrespective of people’s educational level. It also plays a crucial role in emergency communication and disaster relief.”

Project Goals

To establish a national sustainable faith-based visual radio station that is unique, promotes inclusion and diversity in experiences, and brings people together through sharing stories and serving every community we reach. Within three years we hope to have an audience reach of 750,000.

Expected Outcomes

Increased hope within rural communities
Community and social impact content that is local, relevant, and inclusive to Sierra Leoneans
A safe listening platform for all to listen, watch, emotionally connect, and learn through others’ experiences.
Gender equity and opportunities for women and girls to contribute more to radio discourse/ in the media.
Radio Fry Fry becomes completely self-sufficient and independent

Sources of Revenue

The sources of revenue for the station may include, but not be limited to:

Airtime for paid live broadcast and Public Relations packages with businesses, local artists, and governmental bodies
Advertisement slots for jingles, brand placement and mentions, sponsorships, and social media
Production of pre-recorded content such as programs, jingle, documentaries, promotional videos, skits, and dramas
Visual paid live streaming on our webpage and social media platforms
Partnerships in exchange of services such as barter system, sponsorships, revenue share etc
Promotional programs paid for by NGOs

It is expected that in the second and third years of operations, revenue from advertising, donations, and paid programming will increase by a substantial amount each year while expenditures remain relatively constant. By the end of year three, the Station should be primarily self-sustaining.

Programming

Our niche as a visual radio station adds uniqueness, gives our station a presence, and allows each audience to feel personally connected and engaged to our content via multiple channels including analog and mobile radio, website, social media, and group chats. The broadcast approach is to use a contemporary broadcasting style of playing 50 percent music content (Sierra Leonean, African and Western) with a touch of Glo-cal idents that includes having local, relatable, and authoritative voices. Our content is divided into different categories such as Fry Fry Regular (flagship in-house content), Fry Music, Fry Fry Christ (faith-informed media), Fry Fry Special ( undocumented interactive community programming). Our proposed content strategy is to generate listener demand and engagement.

Partnership Background

Our partnership and collaboration approach is to co-create in-house radio content with local businesses that reflects their identity, that promotes their brand, and is reflective of the goals and content structures of Radio Fry Fry. To build great customer relationships, our radio is willing to partner on a barter, sponsorship, social venture, or revenue share system that will minimize internal fixed and variable costs, generate long-term revenue, build brand associations and social networks/connections.

How It Works

Radio Fry Fry is owned by World Hope Social Ventures (WHSV), a US-based investment affiliate of World Hope International. WHSV funds commercial operations that contribute to social and economic wellbeing in several countries around the world.

Programming is managed by a General Manager and the station’s headquarters is in Freetown and there will be four regional studios in Bo, Kenema, Makeni and Kono to start and with plans of expansion in the second year of operations.

A symbol of unity and faith-based development, it will be set up as a sustainable community radio station that promotes diversity, inclusion, and peace. It will build hope by producing and airing content that brings people together, embraces every person as a valued creation of God and encourages non-judgmental attitude against our differences; giving listeners the opportunity to be heard and to share experiences.

Radio Fry Fry is a faith-based radio station with the objective of bringing people together and a vision of being the most valued listening partner. Its mission? Transforming lives, restoring hope, and serving every community through storytelling and sharing real-life experiences. It aims to do this as a trusted listening partner that strives to not only listen but advocate for social equity and transforming lives through engaging and empowering content.

81 percent of Sierra Leoneans have access to a radio and 47 percent listen daily, with Fry Fry’s message airing into a majority Muslim context and extending to rural regions that would otherwise be challenging to reach.

Radio Fry Fry also bridges the gender gap that exists in other media modalities within Sierra leone and allows both men and women to equally access radio communication. In a society where women are not encouraged to address important daily issues they face, Fry Fry provides a safe outlet to bring voice to these challenges.

Radio Fry Fry provides a platform to reach people regardless of gender, race, religion, political alliance, and income level.  Fry Fry’s message focuses on empowerment, safety, celebrating diversity, and overcoming marginalization.  The goal is to unite people through compassion, listening, storytelling, and more. Fry Fry’s content strategy focuses predominantly on 50 percent music, 30 percent commercial for revenue generation, and 20 percent for in-house production/content.