RX Radio, an award-winning radio station housed in the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, has announced it could soon face closure without public support.
The station is presented by children with chronic health conditions, their friends and siblings. Their listeners are children, youth, the hospital community and the public in general.
RX Radio says that it is its mission is to spread positivity, create awareness around health conditions, share important news stories and provide entertainment around the clock to comfort its many listeners in hospital wards and public spaces in South Africa and around the globe.
“We hope to inspire self-confidence and allow our reporters to dream beyond their circumstances and have kept hope alive for countless patients who have tuned into RX Radio,” adds Noluyolo Ngomani, station manager at RX Radio.
According to the station, as individuals commemorate Disability Awareness Month — an occasion that greatly aligns with RX Radio’s mission, it shared that it is facing a predicament; a shortfall in funding that could take them off the air, for the first time in five years.
RX Radio says that it needs raising R2.2-million by the end of the year to secure its operational costs for the next 12 months and take care of its team, which consists of four full-time staff members, an intern, a mentor, and volunteers who work behind the scenes to make the magic happen.
With the launch of a crowdfunding campaign on BackaBuddy, RX Radio adds that it hopes to receive donations from its loyal listeners, philanthropists, open-hearted members of the public and compassionate corporates, which will allow the station to be more sustainable for generations to come.
RX Radio broadcasts 24 / 7, providing live and pre-recorded programs (including shows, music, podcasts and radio diaries) to its young listeners.
Since 2016, RX Radio has trained 135 children and young reporters between the ages of four and 18, who are curious about the field of radio broadcasting. For example, Talitha Counter, an 18-year-old reporter who contracted Meningoencephalitis as a baby. Counter joined RX Radio as a reporter when she was only 12 years old.
Counter says that she is a proud RX Radio reporter and the first young reporter living with a health condition to be inducted as a Bright Star at the South African Radio Awards, which will be taking place on Saturday, 26 November in Johannesburg.
“RX Radio has taught me leadership and communication skills in terms of being able to handle my show and knowing how to interact with guests. In my first training at RX Radio, I was taught that listening skills are essential in the radio industry and that paying careful attention to your guests is needed,” she added.
“I applied the leadership skills that I was taught at RX Radio in school as well, because I am a prefect, RCL and the deputy head girl. I want to pursue radio as a career because ever since I started at RX Radio, I found my passion. Radio allows my voice to be heard.”
Since the launch of RX Radio’s crowdfunding campaign, over R13,000 (US$763.29) has been raised through contributions from 16 donors hoping to keep the station running.
Individuals can support RX Radio on BackaBuddy. Alternatively, individuals can donate via Snapscan.