‘A Clash of Cultures’: Pirate Radio Convergence and Reception in Africa

This chapter uses two prominent pirate radio stations, Short Wave (SW) Radio Africa and Voice of America’s Studio 7, beaming into Zimbabwe (and the wider world) from the UK and the US respectively, (via Shortwave, the Internet and mobile phones) as a focal point for illuminating how digital technologies have radically transformed the production, transmission as well as reception practices of traditional pirate radio in Africa. Like most underground radio stations on the continent, the two stations emerged as a direct response to the state’s protracted and fossilized culture of political and ideological control of the country’s broadcasting services. They were both set up by disgruntled exiled journalists who defiantly sought to wage war against the state’s tight control on the media and sustained negative responses to calls for the liberalisation of the country’s broadcast sector