A well known newspaper publisher launches a Tonga's newest radio station says he hopes the talk based network will help people become more politically engaged in the build up to November's general election.
Transcript
A well-known newspaper publisher is behind Tonga's newest FM radio station and says he hopes the talk based network will help people become more politically engaged in the build up to November's general election.
Kalafi Moala says the station Le'o 'o Tonga or the 'the voice of Tonga' went live last week and can be heard in Tongatapu and 'Eua on 88.1 FM.
He told Jenny Meyer about the new station.
KALAFI MOALA: It is an FM radio station and our emphasis is to make it a talk station. We'll have a lot of interviews, news will be a major feature of the station and then having a lot of talk shows, talk back and so on.
JENNY MEYER: So I guess you'll need to engage with people, what's been the response from locals to the new station?
KM: Well the response has been wonderful. As you know we've got about eleven weeks before the election, our general election for parliamentary elections. And so we've had a number of candidates that have come in and we've interviewed them. And so yeah there's been a lot of good response from around.
JM: And do you think that that might help people to become more involved with the build up to that election? I guess it's the second election where things are moving more towards a more democratic system rather than the older system of nobles being more dominant?
KM: Yes I think definitely, I think the radio will assist very much. There'll be a lot of programmes discussing issues that we're facing and different candidates who will come in on the radio and share their vision and their reasons for running and what they expect to do if they get in. And so these are the kind of things that are going on.
JM: Are there any other advantages do you think to having another radio station on the spectrum there?
KM: The main thing of course our station, we're like our newspaper, we're pretty much committed to trying to push for the cause of full democratisation of our system so we're very much a pro democracy station. I think in that regard we expect many people to listen in and there'll be a lot of discussion of issues; political issues, social issues. And because we are mostly a talk radio type of a station we are expecting I think that it will serve a real purpose of giving people information and so on.
JM: Good luck with it. What's the frequency and how can people tune in if they are interested?
KM: It's called the Le'o 'o Tonga which in Tongan that's 'the voice of Tonga' and FM station 88.1
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