RADIO

Even though they’ve never heard of an Arbitron, Africans from Dakar to Dar es Salaam are listening to their radios as never before--there are now more than 42 million radios among Black Africa’s 392 million people. Although each government owns a radio station, listeners prefer foreign stations--the British Broadcasting Corp. and the Voice of America in particular. Western radio experts unofficially rank the BBC’s “Focus on Africa” program as the most popular program of all. Deutsche Welle (Voice of Germany), Radio Moscow and Swiss Radio International also tailor hours of programming to African needs. Even Radio South Africa broadcasts 14 hours a week of Swahili programming, though it is unclear how many people in East Africa tune in.