Listen in at 9 pm tonight for the second episode of Bogotá Nights, a live English-language radio show from The Bogotá Post.
The Bogotá Post team has launched its first ever radio show, “Bogotá Nights,” which will take place via Facebook Live every Thursday evening from 9-10pm.
The show is broadcast by Debate Opinión, the radio channel of news agency Federación Nacional de Prensa (Fenalprensa), who approached The Bogotá Post to collaborate on producing audio content in English.
The show is hosted by Oli Pritchard, Deputy Editor of The Bogotá Post and a teacher of journalism, media, and English at Bogotá’s Universidad Externado — who has lived in Colombia since 2012 — and Brendan Corrigan, a broadcast journalist, blogger, and podcast host who has called Colombia his home since late 2011.
Pritchard and Corrigan aim to present an unapologetically realistic and nuanced view of Colombia to their listeners, covering the week’s developing news, as well as topics such as tourism and travel in Colombia, sports, and common misconceptions about the country.
“Colombia is many things, but it’s never boring,” Pritchard said.
The first show, which was broadcast live on August 27, discussed the coveted economic reopening scheduled for September, reflecting on Colombia’s five-and-a-half month quarantine and its economic and mental health impacts in the country’s capital, where both hosts are based.
Thanks to the Facebook Live format, audience members can interact with the show and ask questions, as well as watch the hosts live on camera while they broadcast — a format that both hosts admit they are getting used to.
Although they had originally designed the show for an audience of mainly foreign immigrants in Colombia, Pritchard and his co-host were pleasantly surprised to see a mixture of Colombian and foreign listeners tuning in to the first episode, largely reflecting the demographics of The Bogotá Post readership.
“There’s a lot of questions being asked by the foreigner community at the moment,” said Pritchard, explaining their doubts over topics such as flights and visas that have sprung up over lockdown.
And regardless of the pandemic, he believes that now is a great time to be discussing Colombia via radio. “Colombia’s currently a lot higher in international interest than it has been since I’ve been here,” he said. “Over the last three years or so it’s been an absolute sea change.”
“I’m happy to tell more people about the reality of the world, whether that happens to be through a radio show or through print articles,” Pritchard added, explaining that for him and the editorial team behind it, The Bogotá Post is a labour of love. “I just have an overwhelming compulsion to tell stories.”
To listen to them, as well as those of his co-host Corrigan, listeners can tune in on Thursday evenings to “Bogotá Nights” via Facebook Live on the Debate Opinión page.
