Ujima Radio Part 1

Good afternoon Mahu, thank you for sparing me some time. So this is just a follow up from the interview that we did. I was just curious and CRF are curious to see what, Changes you need in the studio, so it'd be great to see the changes and what you need the funding for. Alright, well, the funding, like I explained in our first conversation, um, was to, um, create a new Ujima so we keep up to the times, um, so we become resilient.

That's the word because you're the CRF. So this is our main studio. So, at the end of all that work, this is the second part.

This is like there's the heart and there's the brain. So we call this the heart, right? And the brain is that side, and I'll show you that in a minute. When this is finished, everything here will be different.

The only thing that might remain, we will have a disc similar to the one we have now, but it will be a more modern disc. All the things you see on the wall, which are soundproof things, all that will be different, because it's going to be soundproofed in a much better way, OK, so the quality of it will be much better. What we won't have in here is these, we won't have old decks because nobody uses them anymore.

So we have actually purchased we have purchased now to what DJs would call controllers up to the art, state of the art controllers. So that's what they'll be using. So all this area will be different.

So when and how would that impact the. Staff, the, the, uh, presenters and the community, well for the music-based presenters, the quality of the music will be much sharper, much better, and they will have access to, as I said, theatre, they have equipment, there's only a few people use vinyl, that isn't very much used like before, so all this area will look different, all this will go. There's not going to be that, and what you'll have instead of these monitors is the ones that's that way and it's touch screens, so you won't have mouses and all that, all that will go, right? You won't have them things anymore.

OK. So when you walk into the studio, the whole look of it and the ambience of it will be completely different, and this is the main studio. On the other side, we have a studio B which we'll walk to now.

Studo beat would be like the second heartbeat. All right, so if you walk through the main corridor, thank you. I you in that corridor.

Um, When we, we will shut down Studio A for a week and then we will refurbish Studio A. Whilst that is happening. Yes sir.

We will be using Stud B and that's, that's called Vcepa is doing something. Yes, um, he's just, so this is the Studio B. So this is the one that we use for pre-records mainly.

And if we're very close to the A, we do the live from here, refurbish that one, and then we come to this one. So we'll have R A R B. OK, alright, so that's the plan.

So all this will look completely different. So that will enable broadcast to keep going on, informing the community. Yes, excellent, great.

And in addition to that, the people will do the carpentry work. Will be people who are part of CUYN who will, who are the landlords so they will know the specification, what we can do and can't do so they're on board and then here. Some of the work has been done in here, yeah.

All that will change. So we'll have a what we call like a museum. So when you come to Ujima, all of this will be different.

The office that trophy thing will have a trophy area. We'll have a new mission statement. We all of that will be different.

The whole office will be transformed with some of that. And then last but not least, this little room is what I call the brain. In this room, which nobody is allowed to go in, is all the computer stuff that runs the station.

So if electricity goes or anything, we always broadcast and that is from funds that we'll fund to purchase new computers that run the station. So this is where the tech team, this is the belly of Fujima, this little room. Is currently locked.

I can't go in it because none of the tech people are here and they don't allow you. That's right. So, everything you see on this is what they do to talk about how things should operate.

OK. So we know our backup system. So Ujima can never go off here.

As soon as something goes wrong, it automatically kicks in. So even in an emergency, you would be able to inform the community. We're never.

That's because of the new computers and the new stuff. So one of the delays was getting this right because we felt if you do refurbishment, you might as well get it right. There's no point you getting new stuff with old things.

So that's what Sierra funding has enabled us to do. Make us up to date and as modern. OK, excellent.

Thank you. Anything else you wanted to add? No, well, just as I said, you know, we're, we're, we're moving, as I said, to a media house, and you know we have had to learn and we have learned from other media houses how to keep up with terms. Um, yes, I just want to add.

That without that funding we would not have been able to do it. OK, excellent. The funding has enabled us to keep up with the times and it has allowed us to have some element of continuity as a broadcaster.

OK, excellent, um, one last thing, you wanted to explain, um, I don't know how relevant this is, I think it's relevant, but you wanted to explain the, the name Ujima Radio. Ujima. Is a Swahili word, uh, which means collective work and responsibility so we're saying, um, it's one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa and there are 7 principles Ujim as one so it speaks to collective work and responsibility.

So we're saying it's for all of us, so we know what all the communities, communities, yes, so we know our strap language which says ujjimaredo we are you. Right, so our mission is to uplift, elevate, right, empower, entertain, and educate people about African heritage people who might not have known as much as they should, and you will know from experience they are often described as in and out of reach. We want to say to the world, we have provided a way for you to reach that particular community, so it's our collective work and responsibility.

To make sure that continues. Brilliant, excellent, and the community resilience fund will enable you to continue this great work. It has enabled us to continue the great work because we're, we're using it already through the brain that I just described.

So it's not like something will happen. It is already happening, so it's just the last bits of it that need to happen. We did promise CRF that once everything is complete, we're going to organise an open day.

And they will be the first people to come and see what their funding has done for us. That's fantastic. I'm sure they will take up that invitation.

Uh, thank you so much, Madu. Have a really good afternoon. Thank you.