91.7 KKCR broadcasts live from Kagadi in mid-western Uganda, delivering news, discussion, and rural development programming in Runyakitara, Luganda, Lukonzo, Swahili, and English. It is a station built for and with the community it serves, and you can stream it free anytime on Radio Shuffle.
Born From an Idea About Participation
KKCR stands for Kagadi-Kibaale Community Radio, and its origin story starts far from Uganda, at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where the idea that communities should have a direct voice in their own development took hold internationally. That principle found its way to Kagadi district through URDT, an indigenous Ugandan nongovernmental organization, which partnered with communities across Greater Kibaale to build a radio station around exactly that idea.
The station went on air on August 20, 2000, under the mission "For Human and Rural Development," and it became the first truly community-run radio station in Uganda. The model was deliberately different from conventional broadcasting: rural residents are trained and invited to co-host alongside professional presenters, so the people the station covers are also the people speaking on air.
A Quarter Century on the Air
That approach has held up. KKCR marked its Silver Jubilee in August 2025 with tree planting, a town cleanup, a marathon, and a football match between staff and listeners, culminating in a celebration on August 23. Uganda's State Minister for ICT publicly recognized KKCR as the country's first community radio station, and station manager Evas Atukwasibwe summed up the anniversary as a story of "voices heard, communities empowered, and lives transformed."
Twenty five years in, the station broadcasts 24 hours a day in seven local languages plus English, reaching an estimated four million listeners across more than 20 districts, with roughly 90 percent of its airtime dedicated to educational programming covering rural development, conservation, land rights, health, education, and gender equality.
What You'll Actually Hear
Expect talk-driven programming grounded in the daily realities of rural Uganda: agricultural advice, health information, local governance debates, and conservation discussion, interspersed with music and delivered largely by and for the farmers, traders, and families who make up Greater Kibaale. It is community media in the most literal sense.
91.7 KKCR is free to stream on Radio Shuffle alongside thousands of other stations from around the world. Tune in to hear rural Uganda speak for itself.