THOHOYANDOU – After hardly five years of existence, Univen Radio has just received a top award from the national Minister of Transport. The radio station was awarded "Transport Community Medium of the year" during a function held in Caesars Palace, Gauteng last Saturday.

Univen Radio was chosen by the independent media monitoring organisation, Media Tenor, which was commissioned by the department of transport to analyse all transport related stories published in selected publications between February1, 2001 and April 30 this year.

Other categories in this function were transport journalist of the year, transport daily newspaper of the year, transport weekly newspaper of the year, transport broadcast medium of the year, transport community newspaper of the year, transport story of the year and the Ministerial Award.

The station also received a trophy and R2 000 cash from the department.

In his comment, the station manager Mr Mmbangiseni Masia said he was excited about the honor from the national department. "Indeed we are excited about this honor. This is a major achievement to us as a young community radio station. This is a clear indication that we are on the right track in delivering our mandate as a community broadcaster," said Masia who also added that much better things are still on the way.

An official celebration function was also held in the campus on Wednesday. Since it was established in 1998, more than six of its DJs were recruited by the national radio stations like Rendani Sikhwivhilu, Mulalo Ramarumo, Wanda Jennifer both now with Phalaphla FM, Richard Mashimbwe and Mike Manyimela with Munghana Lo nene, Simon Ramafalo and BK Matewe, who was the Public Relations Officer for Ria Stars