African speech based Colourful Radio celebrate one year anniversary

Colourful Radio was set up in 2006 by Kofi Kusitor, founder of blackbritain.co.uk and renowned journalist Henry Bonsu, who was sacked from the BBC for being “too intellectual”. Colourful Radio is aimed at a national and international listenership and has been hailed for its professional and informative approach and the fact that it provides its listeners with the diverse, quality of programming that is often lacking in mainstream radio stations such as BBC London and LBC. Described as a ‘black Radio 4’, Colourful Radio has achieved widespread community support in the year since its inception and currently has a weekly audience of 70,000.

In an interview with the Independent newspaper, Henry Bonsu who is also Head of Talent and a presenter at Colourful said: “this is the first ever British black-led radio operation that has focused on speech instead of music. People have been crying out for this for years. And we've made it happen.” He has also highlighted that despite attempts to engage with and advise them otherwise, mainstream radio and television continues to fail African audiences in Britain.

There has been a particular buzz of excitement and anticipation regarding the forthcoming DAB presence of the station which will allow the station to become more accessible to a wider audience of millions. The much needed station provides a diverse output that educates, informs and entertains listeners. Bonsu recently stated that; "One of the biggest problems in our communities, especially in this country, is lack of information. I am an information junkie and as African Caribbean people we should be information junkies, because one of the things that held us in slavery for so long was lack of information.” Colourful Radio also became a content provider and podcast partner to Channel 4 Radio.