PEACEMAKING AIRWAVES
Former teacher brings calm to conflict zones with radio
Former geography teacher David Smith is the go-to guy for establishing radio stations in conflict zones in Eastern Europe and Africa to ease tensions
When David Smith secretly tuned the set his grandfather had given him at age six to Radio Moscow at night, he had no idea how far his obsession with radio would take him. But after teaching secondary school geography in Zimbabwe in the early 1980s, he was offered a month-long training session at the Johannesburg bureau of then Transkei’s Capital Radio. "That month turned into, well, the rest of my life," he tells the Financial Mail. Now, 35 years later, Smith has become the go-to guy for establishing radio stations in conflict zones in order to ease tensions. The Montreal native is now more at home in the African bush than what he terms "the Québec bush". In the early 1990s, the UN asked him to set up a radio station in Yugoslavia, then tearing itself apart in a brutal civil war. "I set up a radio station in Vukovar in Croatia on the border of Serbia ... It is still on the air, now a Serbian community radio station called Radio Dunav." Before long, he was setting up Radio Ndeke Luka...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.