Dear Friends and Supporters of Sagal Radio:
I am sorry to report that Sagal Radio’s offices and recording studio at 4151 Memorial Drive, Decatur, were completely lost in a fire early this morning, January 28. Our broadcast studio on North Decatur Road was not affected. Most important, there were no injuries to Sagal staff or to anyone else in the building that we shared with other tenants. At this time, we do not know the cause of the blaze. The DeKalb County Fire Department will make that determination.
Sagal will continue weekend radio transmissions on WATB-AM 1420. Our website remains up but, unfortunately, the fire destroyed our capacity to stream programming via the Internet and to make programming available via cell phone. I will work from a temporary office provided by Sagal’s longtime supporter, the Emory University Center for Community Partnerships, in downtown Decatur. My email remains [email protected]. As always, I will spend much of my time in the Clarkston community.
We have two priorities at this point. One is to continue to provide the voice for new Americans that Sagal has been for 15 years, a voice that has perhaps been muffled but surely not silenced. The other is to rebuild our capability to serve our audience and our community better than ever. Sagal has overcome challenges in the past and, certainly, the immigrants and refugees served by Sagal are not strangers to hardship.
As you know, Sagal Radio Services was founded in 1998 to address the information gap for Atlanta’s immigrant and refugee community – with the mission of giving voice to new Americans by helping them become self-sufficient, informed, and active members of their communities. To overcome the cultural barriers in existing media and meet the needs of the refugee community, Sagal Radio established a source of native-language and ethnically relevant educational, informational, and entertainment broadcast and digital-print communications.
Producing content in six languages – Amharic, Bhutanese/Nepali, English, Karen, Somali, and Swahili – Sagal Radio has become a popular and trusted source of programming in the refugee and immigrant community.
We solicit your thoughts, prayers, and continued support as we meet the challenges and embrace the opportunities in the process of rebuilding Sagal Radio Services.
Sincerely,
Hussien Mohamed
Director
Sagal Radio Services Inc.