The Southeast Asian country of Cambodia borders Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam comprises an area the combined size of New Brunswick and the island of Newfoundland. Cambodia has a population of nearly 17 million people, whereas the two Canadian provinces have a mere 1.3 million inhabitants.

An estimated two million Cambodians were killed during the violent and ruthless dictatorship of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge in the mid-to-late 1970s. To stop Khmer Rouge border raids, Vietnamese troops occupied the country, and established a pro-Soviet state that created additional issues – until a peace treaty was signed in 1989.

While FEBC International has been broadcasting via shortwave into Cambodia from the Philippines since 1953, it wasn’t until March 2002 that the Cambodian government granted the radio ministry a license to establish an FM station in the nation’s capital city of Phnom Penh.

In early 2014, a new Canadian-made ten-kilowatt Nautel transmitter was placed in service that reaches almost two-thirds of the country’s population. In late 2016, a relay station was launched in Kampong Thom province – which covers provinces previously unreachable.

While nearly 98 percent of the Cambodian population profess to be Buddhist, the people have been given the right to embrace other religions.

Buddhist – 97.1%
Muslim – 2.0%
Christian – 0.3%
Other – 0.6%