She traces the history of community radio in South Africa, noting that radio in South Africa under apartheid was used as a propaganda tool, and says that the earliest forms of community radio can be traced back to Central America.
Bosch describes two kinds of community in a rhizomatic fashion. One is the people who work at the radio station and who all contribute to its operation without regard for formal authority. The other is the audience, which was traditionally seen at the oppressed black community of the Cape Flats region of Cape Town, but that has grown and now includes more white listeners.
One interesting thing she notes is that while the goal may be communication "with" and not "to" or "at" an audience, the people who actually have time to work at the station are more affluent people.
Bosch also offers some interesting perspective on what the term "community" means in South Africa:
Those who mobilized against the apartheid regime also used the term community prolifically. The popularization of community as an oppositional term came out of the Black Consciousness (BC) Movement of the 1970s (Thornton and Ramphele).
But, since apartheid, there has been resistance to categorization, and this is manifest in the diversity of music and, the suppose, listeners on this station. In South Africa, categories have been used to oppress, so definitions of community evolve out of this and the resistance to be categorized. This is something that needs more thinking. Community, Bosch concludes, defines "the dispossessed."
In some ways, the desire seems to be one that many strive for in community: One that joins or unifies a diverse group of people.
