From Aloysius Laukai in Buka

We have finalised everything and the new station is on air on at full power. We are getting 500 plus texts a day from listeners and are very popular on Buka Island.

Our equipment arrived in Buka and was installed in April. We started test broadcasts on 3 April and covered the death of the first Bougainville President, Joseph Kabui, in June. We continued testing whilst awaiting technicians to upgrade our transmission power from 200 to 300 watts.

Big winds destroyed our telescopic mast at the end of June and we stopped test broadcasts. We sent our transmitter to Port Moresby for repair and started broadcasting again on 200 Watts until last weekend.

Technician arrived on 13 December and worked on the mast and the studio putting us off air on Sunday and Monday. We have been broadcasting on full power since Tuesday 16 December. A request has been sent to Pangtel to inspect our setup and hopefully we will do the much awaited launch in the New Year.

For funding we have secured a lot of sponsors from our local companies and including the Autonomous Bougainville Government which has allocated 50,000 kina in next year’s Budget.

We will continue to update you on our progress and would like to thank our supporters including, Keith Jackson, Martin Hadlow, Phil and Marie Charlie, Abel Caine and Nifo at Unesco Apia Office and the German Embassy for assisting us in starting this station on Bougainville.

We have proved to the public of Bougainville that having a Community FM can help in the restoration of services on Bougainville. We did live broadcasts lately to cover World Aids Day and starting Monday we will cover the counting in the Bougainville Presidential by election.

We have three trainee reporters from the Divine Word University and two graduates at the station. We have also covered many events including the Bougainville Law and Order Forum last week. Our local news comes on at 6.30pm Monday to Friday. Radio Australia has promised to give us a satellite dish to get its news.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Aloysius Laukai is station manager of New Dawn FM