Varsity launches first community radio - ‘Radical’ wave to debut in the Northeast on 90.4 FM by the end of this month ANUP SHARMA On Air
Guwahati, Oct. 11: Northeast will soon get its first community radio station, 15 years after a movement began to legitimise this “radical wave”, overturning the Supreme Court’s ruling that “airwaves are public property”. Initiated by the Krishna Kanta Handique State Open University, the first community radio station christened Gyan Taranga (knowledge waves) is formally set to go on air by the end of this month. Gyan Taranga can be accessed at 90.4 MGZ frequency on the FM. “We started the experimental broadcasting of Gyan Taranga from January end this year. However, it is only recently that we completed all the paperwork of the project and are going to launch formally by the end of this month,” said the in-charge of the community radio service of university, Ankuran Dutta. Community radios like this one usually broadcast issue-oriented programmes, targeting those poorly served by the dominating media. “We received the Letter of Intent from the Union ministry of information and broadcasting in 2008 for Gyan Taranga. However, the other required documents like frequency allocation, Grant of Permission Agreement arrived only recently. We are expecting another important document, Wireless Operating Licence, to reach us by next week,” said Dutta. “In India, we have only 40 community radio stations so far,” he said. The first community radio in India was started by Anna University in 2004. “We have already formed an advisory committee in the university to run the affairs of the Gyan Taranga. Initially, we are going for fresh broadcasting of two hours — from 5pm to 7pm followed by repeat broadcasting the next day from 6am to 8am and noon to 2pm,” he said. “We have already recorded about 170 audio programmes to be broadcast in Gyan Taranga. While 50 per cent of the programmes will be related to education, the rest will be on community related issues,” Dutta added. “While the educational programmes of the university will be aired, we have also prepared some programmes on issues like health, hygiene, entrepreneurship, agriculture and many others which are aimed at benefiting the community,” he added. He said the university has also taken up steps to open other community radio stations at the different study centres of the university across the state. “We are going to start two another community radio stations — one each at the university centre in Lakhimpur Girls College in Lakhimpur and at Gargaon College in Sivasagar,” he added. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101012/jsp/northeast/story_13044936.jsp -- Nookaraju Bendukurthi Ph.D. Scholar Department of Communication S N School of Arts and Communication University of Hyderabad Gachibowli,Hyderabad-500 046 Andhra Pradesh,India Ph:09989306757 Join the Community Radio Forum. For membership details, please go to www.crforum.in
