Radio Station Bridges Ethnic Divide
In 1997, Amna Popovac was having coffee with some journalist friends in Mostar, a city divided between Catholic Croats in the west and Muslim Bosniaks in the east. Even two years after the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina had ended, it wasn’t advisable for friends from different ethnic groups to be sitting together in public, but there they were.
The journalists were complaining about being censored by their respective state news organizations. Struck by the absurdity of having to listen to two news reports — one from the Croat side, one from the Bosniak side — to find out how many children were born or what fires had broken out today in Mostar, a single city, Amna asked her friends, “If I start a radio station, will you work there?”
 |
| “We didn’t start this radio station just to play music,” says Amna Popovac, Director of Radio Studio 88, Mostar |
Amna had no radio experience, but she was an IT engineer with a master’s degree in small business management. She wrote a business proposal, and journalist Amela Rebac developed the programming. Together, the two launched Radio Studio 88 in 1999.
Today, the station is a vibrant, independent voice in a city that is still ethnically divided. Recently, Studio 88 began targeting women ages 25 to 45. Amna believes this audience segment is open to change, noting “we didn’t start this radio station just to play music.”
To help build this audience, USAID supported a promotional campaign and a daily 15-minute show dedicated to the reopening of the famous Stari Most bridge — a 450-year-old World Heritage site destroyed by shelling in the war and rebuilt stone by stone using the original construction methods. The show focused on ethnic reconciliation and civic improvements. The program and station were promoted on TV and billboards in Mostar city, and in other frequently visited locations in the Herzegovina region.
Thanks to the business savvy of its managers, Studio 88 is commercially successful. During a recent promotion, the station helped a car company sell 26 vehicles in 24 hours. “Now we are stars,” said Amna with a grin.
Amna says things have improved in Mostar. In late 2006, Croat advertisers were among those wishing the station‘s Muslim listeners a happy Bajram holiday. That, Amna believes, is real news.
Back to Top ^ |
