Eligibility to apply for a Community Radio Station:. As per the policy of the Government, an organisation desirous of operating a Community Radio Station CRS must be able to satisfy and adhere to the following principles:.
Regarding the content, the two important provisions made are as follows:. The CRS license thus given by the government entitled them to operate a watt Effective Radiated Power radio station, with a coverage area of approximately a km radius.
A maximum antenna height of 30 meters is allowed. Community Radio Stations What to study? For Prelims: What are Community radio stations. What are CRS? Challenges to the Community Radio: Lack of journalistic and technical skills and thus a consistent demand for training. Community Radio derives its strength and popularity from community participation. In practise participation is harder than it seems, because it is labour intensive, requires the right attitude, skills and mobile equipment.
Without proper management skills, as well as some knowledge of financial management and income generation, it is very hard for Community Radio to survive without donor funding. Community Radio is by definition relatively small and often situated in locations where basic services, like a constant supply of electricity, are lacking. Absence of a clear regulatory framework in which Community Radio operates.
An official of the state-run Bharat Electronics Limited, Mr. Rajamani, points out that low-cost radio stations are becoming affordable in India too. One low-cost station with a transmitting power of up to 50W that reaches a target audience of square kilometers would cost between Rs 1 to 1.
Basic equipment for recording, mixing, editing, and a feet high antenna would cost a little more. Radio has already proven its relevance to Indians. Recent government studies suggest that radio in India could potentially reach up to There are approximately million homes that have radio-nearly double the number of homes that have TV. Eashwar says. In a recent ruling, India's Supreme Court declared the airwaves public property to be used for promoting public good and ventilating plurality of views, opinions, and ideas.
In the context of delivering its crucial judgment, the Supreme Court of India looked closely at the evolution of the broadcast laws in Europe and the U.
The rights of the listeners and viewers, and not of the broadcaster, is paramount. Oddly, there were no special laws to govern broadcasting in India except the Indian Telegraph Act, a British colonial legislation that dated back to This law scarcely fit the purpose, since it was developed before the radio was even invented. India has been poised on the brink of broadcasting autonomy for at least three decades. Yet, media policy and implementation continue to remain in the hands of the government.
Because of this, Indian radio has grown impressively, but has remained inaccessible to large groups of nonaffluent segments of the population, despite sporadic efforts at innovation.
India has been unable to chart out a well-formulated communication strategy to support broadcasting development and there have been lopsided priorities while defining the state's role in the media. Recent economic policy changes in India introduced foreign technology, capital, and the advent of satellite television.
This has reoriented broadcasting towards commercialization and the formerly powerful All India Radio has been relegated to a distant second place. Recently, India has been making efforts to revamp its age-old broadcasting laws. But shaping a new broadcasting policy is turning into a tough job. For the last five years, there has been a hotly argued debate over the social, political, and cultural impact of the electronic media in India.
She blamed government's domination of radio for this. Meanwhile, broadcasting lessons are being learned from some of India's neighbors. Tiny landlocked Nepal, the Himalayan country that is home to some of the world's highest peaks, is showing the way to south Asia by setting up its first community radio station.
Official restrictions have not hindered the arrival of Radio Sagarmatha, the first non-governmental FM station in Nepal. It broadcasts from a transmitter set up by non-governmental organizations NGOs with support from the United Nations.
The Nepal Forum of Environmental Journalists NEFEJ , headed this project and is planning to develop Radio Sagarmatha as a prototype station and training and resource center that will expand radio into the rural areas of Nepal.
Radio Sagarmatha launched its own test transmissions in early June after getting a license from the Nepali government-a herculean effort. Over a dozen other applications are believed to be pending with the Ministry of Communication and Information in this Himalayan kingdom, but analysts in Kathmandu feel it is unlikely that there will be more private radio stations because of the enormous bureaucratic obstacles one must overcome. Presently, Nepal only has two FM stations both operating from Kathmandu.
Radio Sagarmatha's watt transmitter has just joined the government-run FM station in Kathmandu. Both stations cover the Kathmandu Valley, an area of around square kilometers. Radio Sagarmatha is an unusual experiment in other ways. Average life expectancy is 55 years. Environmental problems have been a concern in Nepal for quite some time. Population pressures on the land in these rural areas have caused erosion and deforestation to reach alarming proportions.
Low productivity, unemployment, and poverty are some of the concerns staring in the face of the country. Its backers hope that the Radio Sagarmatha experiment will boost pluralism in the broadcast media in the South Asian region, where the scene has largely been dominated by large, sometimes-monolith official organizations. India hopes to follow this example to improve the economic and social well-being of the country's rural inhabitants, as well as to improve the communication between these communities.
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