Star Radio, a Liberian radio station, used to be based in Mamba Point. For years their building, located off Old CID Road right before you get to Greystone, was creatively known as the Star Radio Building. Then in May 2007 it became known as the Former Star Radio Building.

Rent in Mamba Point, the “ritzy” part of Monrovia, had become too expensive for Star Radio, so they moved to Broad Street. Rent had become too expensive, at least partly, because of people like me.

In addition to housing Star Radio, the Former Star Radio Building has about six apartments that house expats. Since leaving, the area once occupied by Star Radio has been converted into office space for an international NGO and more expat housing. A few months ago I spoke with someone working with one of the agencies that helps fund Star Radio. This person was familiar with Star Radio’s budget, and said that for long-term sustainability Star Radio probably would have had to relocate to less costly office space even if expats like me weren’t tightening the housing market. But I still feel guilty, and am considering assuaging my guilt by purchasing this hoodie:

That’s right, you can now support Star Radio via their online shop. Thanks to Eve for pointing out via the increasingly active Liberia Expats Google Group that Star Radio has a new website.

On their website you can read news stories or listen to their station live. I tried listening to their station yesterday via the site for the first time. The first story I heard was about a guy who got ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), traveled to Sierra Leone and received treatment that cured him. I called my mom, an occupational therapy professor who has worked with people with ALS, to laugh about this. She rightly suggested that maybe Sierra Leoneans had discovered a cure for ALS that us Westerners have not yet found.

Anyway, the website has extensive original content including photos of Liberian senators and representatives. (Check out Sen. Jewel Taylor [image 12], Charles Taylor’s ex-wife who last year had the best attendance record in the Senate, and Sen. Prince Johnson [image 17], a rumored poro leader who killed former president Samuel Doe.) The site also has a moderately active discussion board.

And if you would like to buy me this hoodie–let’s be honest, it can be hard to afford this stuff when you don’t have a paying job–I’m a medium.