Koch FM broadcasts at a radius of 2km on the frequency of 99.9, with a potential audience of about 500,000 people. The station broadcasts in Kiswahili and English from 6am to 10 pm daily. It plays reggae and local music, and airs local news. "Our news are specifically packaged for people living in the ghetto. What is news to us may not necessarily be news in the mainstream media," says Koch FM managing editor, Otieno Wandei. Beyond governance issues, Koch FM looks at environmental, gender, social, and other issues that are of concern to the community. There are also programmes for women run by a local female reporter. All programmes aim to be entertaining and educational. The station also works closely with local performing artists by broadcasting their items and holding outdoor live performances.

The radio station is supported by 25 men and 35 women aged 18 - 28 and has nine male and female presenters, all of whom grew up in the slum. The station has one technician, a graduate of Kenya Polytechnic, who grew up in the slum. Koch FM's managing editor, Otieno Wandei, says they hope to attract commercials to be able to run the station. Most of the equipment was acquired through donations from organisations and individuals. The local community has also supported the radio stations by donating seats, tables, utensils, and books.

In January 2007, 3 journalists from the United States and 2 East African celebrity breakfast show radio hosts visited Koch along with a European health worker who had some projects going on in the area. One of the US journalists had brought her minidisc recorder with a microphone; she showed the youth some interviewing techniques in a very funny and informative way. She also talked about how to be a good storyteller when it comes to working as a radio host. A key part of the training she offered was how to interview people who had experienced something terrible such as rape - "you must think as a journalist and psychologically must try to put yourself in the same situation, but at the same time remember that you have no reason as such to know how exactly it feels to have had this kind of experience when you are talking as the voice of your listeners". Another of the American journalists brought the Code of Ethics and talked through the principles and gave examples. He also gave the participants some "exercises" by asking what the team would do if a member of a political party invited a journalist from Koch FM to a meeting, and facilitated snacks and transport. One of the participants commented, "We got some good discussions, and everybody agreed that it would be better to go to the meeting by own means and skip the bribes to have the chance to be a independent voice of the people."

Koch FM has also organised on-the-ground activism to support its radio work. For example, in response to the political violence witnessed in Kenya after the disputed results of the December 27 2007 general elections, Koch FM gathered community members to create peace messages and jingles, which they regularly played on air. The team mobilised people to donate food and clothes through radio appeals; they then distributed the donations to the over 500 families that were camping at the Star of Hope Academy in Huruma. In collaboration with other pro-peace initiatives, Koch FM mobilised, organised, and undertook a call-for-peace procession in Korogocho and Ngomongo. Apart from peace slogans, songs, and chants, Koch FM distributed handbills and T-shirts with peace and reconciliation messages.

Youth, Peace.

Korogocho is one of the over 25 slums that are estimated to provide shelter for more than 60% of the Nairobi City's population. The 60% occupies just over 1.5% of the land. Korogocho hosts a dense population of about 100,000 people and is the third largest slum in Kenya after Kibera and Mathare. Korogocho is characterised by overcrowding, lack of basic infrastructure such as roads, inadequate essential services such as education and health, substandard sanitation, and widespread violence and insecurity. Unemployment is rampant, particularly among youth who lack education and life skills to fit in the dynamic job market. Most of them are desperate to make a living and end up engaging in illicit and illegal trades.

It is in this context that insecurity has emerged as a serious problem in Korogocho. Raphael Obonyo, a manager with Koch Youth Club and a member of the team that launched Koch FM, claims that that rape and defilement cases are on the increase in slums, and there is an urgent need to find a solution to the vice. For example, 16 rapes were reported in the slum on New Year's Eve 2000. "Those committing these crimes are in our midst but we dare not report them because they would hit back viciously," he says. Based on this incidence of rape, Obonyo's team started the Miss Koch Initiative to make men see women as fellow human beings and to respond to rising cases of sexual abuse in the slum. The initiative seeks to provide a platform for Korogocho youth, particularly girls, to participate in socioeconomic and political matters. In addition to Koch FM, some of the initiative's achievements are establishing an education fund for girls and a community resource centre. The initiative won the Mayor's 2004 Award, while the winner of the Miss Koch 2003 was declared the Eve Young Woman of Year in 2004.