Radio Pasifik Back With Satellite Plans

SUVA (Pacific Media Watch): After several months' silence, the University of the South Pacific's community radio station, Radio Pasifik, has returned to the airwaves with a revamped format and style, thanks to a major resurrection effort by radio journalism lecturer Dr Mark Hayes, the university's information office reports.

Broadcasting on 88.8 megahertz at the far left of the FM band in Suva, the five-year-old Radio Pasifik is operated by second and third year journalism students, volunteers and other students who present news as part of their course assessment.

Dr Hayes says the station's "alternative" content is a "pleasantly unpredictable" mix of music and cultural content.

"We play a lot of music the other stations don't touch," Dr Hayes said.

"Radio Pasifik won't shout at you, it won't try to sell you anything, and it won't bore you witless with the same old presenters and tired music."

The station currently broadcasts between 10.00am and 2.00pm weekdays, but plans to expand its broadcasts once more presenters are trained.

"Ideally, Radio Pasifik would be on air from 6.00am to midnight seven days a week, with many more languages, more regional music styles, specialist music shows for jazz, blues, "world music", or classical enthusiasts, as well as current affair style shows on the environment, diversity, or whatever, provided it's not catered for on mainstream radio," Dr Hayes said.

The station is currently being overseen by a management group with representatives from the university's regional Journalism Programme and the Media Centre who are developing a management model based on codes of practice adopted by several Australian university-affiliated or sponsored community radio stations

Planning is also underway for Radio Pasifik to broadcast to USP regional centres via USPNet when the satellite is not being used for teaching, and rebroadcast satellite feeds from the World Radio Network, an affiliation of international broadcasters like Deutsche Welle and Radio Australia before and after local programming.

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