The Hindu : Community radio best people's medium: Advani

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 02, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Community radio best people's medium: Advani

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, FEB. 1. The country's first campus-based community frequency modulation (FM) radio station was inaugurated today at Anna University, Chennai, by the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani.

Describing the university's initiative as ``a new dimension'' added to ``the radio revolution in India'', Mr. Advani said the advent of community and campus radio was a development of immense significance.

In a highly diverse country such as India, there was no better ``people's own medium'' than community radio.

Anna FM broadcast at 90.4 MHz will be transmitted from a digital, tapeless multipurpose studio at the university's Audio Visual Research Centre. It will cover a 10-km radius from the studio, and broadcast educational and developmental programmes.

Mr. Advani, a former Information and Broadcasting Minister, said he played a role in depoliticising Doordarshan and All-India Radio and started the first experimental FM broadcast in 1977.

Although, radio turned out to be a ``poor cousin'' of the television over the last two decades, it definitely had a role in democracy, in empowering the community and in educating people. Campus radio could also be a very useful tool for enhancing teaching capabilities. ``We need to harness new methods and technologies to upgrade the teaching standards to global levels,'' he said.

``We want to make India a knowledge superpower. That we have the capability to achieve this goal has been amply demonstrated by our recent shining successes in the field of Information Technology,'' he said. No one could deny that India had entered a new orbit of development and the entire world was noticing and acknowledging the country's rising stature.

The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, said it was a proud moment for the State which ``has always been in the forefront of bold new initiatives taken for the welfare of the people, particularly the weaker sections...the affordable radio can reach communities at the very end of the development road, reaching people who cannot read and write."

Women self-help groups (SHGs) were now being given training in use of the Internet. The SHGs could form federations and a community radio could connect a few federations, to help in disseminating market intelligence, providing access to messages with relevant content for social mobilisation. Likewise fisherfolk, water users associations, parent-teachers associations could be linked.

The power of the spoken word conveyed through the community radio in an interactive mode could be very useful, she said.

To maximise the result at maximum speed, Ms. Jayalalithaa said we should work towards a convergence of the Internet with the radio. ``Radio browsing'' can lead to multiple benefits, the Chief Minister said. She urged the Centre to support the State in setting up vibrant community radio networks, inter-linked with public Internet access facilities for the best results in governance.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, lauded the Tamil Nadu Government and Anna University for taking up a pioneering project. The largest number of applications for starting community radio came only from the State, after the Government released the advertisement.

In all, 45 applications came and five had been cleared.

He said Mr. Advani had helped in fast clearance of all sanctions for getting the first community FM radio to Anna University. Community radio, in essence, would demystify the media.

It helped the common people to participate in listening, creating, communicating and broadcasting content on their own.

The Vice-Chancellor, E. Balagurusamy, said Anna FM would concentrate on providing information on education, health, science and technology, environment and community development, and also serve as a tutor for the less-advantaged groups.

The AVRC Director, R. Sreedhar, said the initial broadcast would be from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. everyday (repeat from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. the next day). Gradually it would be increased to eight hours.

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