Crank-charged radios bring programs, often religious, to rural places without electricity

"From the forests of Africa to the deserts of Mongolia and the Middle East, there have never been more religious radio networks and stations broadcasting more programming in more languages to more places," reports Kevin Sullivan of The Washington Post. "While the globalization of faith has increasingly been driven by the Internet and satellite television, religious radio broadcasters are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on one of the world's oldest methods of mass communication," but often the only one available to some rural communities -- which often use crank-charging radios that don't depend on usual electric sources and cost about $50.

Many of the radios and programs come from religious groups, which "are reaching millions of people largely cut off from the world by money, distance and language," Sullivan reports from a remote part of Mozambique, where the only light at night "comes from a kerosene lantern or the moon. ... During last year's controversy over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper, some preachers on the Islamic radio airwaves helped stoke the global Muslim outrage that led to violent protests around the world." Unlike those of other religions, most Islamic stations are government-financed.

"Of the world's 314 radio stations licensed to broadcast across borders, 83 -- or 26 percent -- are religious stations, according to the World Radio TV Handbook. At least a dozen major international Christian radio networks operate in hundreds of countries and broadcast in at least 360 languages. Most are from the United States," Sullivan reports. "Trans World Radio, a nondenominational Protestant network, is among the largest." (Read more)