Jamia experiments with democratisation of Radio

New Delhi, Apr 9: It was unbelievable for slum dwellers in the Okhla area of south Delhi when they listened to their own voices coming out of their Radio sets.

Radio has been the cheapest means of entertainment for the poor, but they never thought they could also be one of those who entertained them from the hightech environs of a studio.

The community radio has made it possible. Radio Jamia FM 90.4 which was formally inaugurated on the Jamia University campus recently is one of the pioneering institution trying to cater to the needs of the local people.

Station Master of the Jamia Radio G R Syed says their endeavour is to involve as many local people as possible in the creation of programmes.

''We not only call them to our studio, but also take the studio to them. The students go out to slum areas, find people who have some creative talent and make them participate in the Radio programmes and spot recording.'' Local people are also invited to take part in the discussions on problems and issues facing the community, he said.

''We were very excited when a group of students came to us and told us that we were to record a programme for the Jamia radio. We were asked to sing, give a talk or play any musical instrument, and we did it -- still not believing that the other day we would be listening to a recording of all this on our transistor sets,'' said one of the slum dwellers.

The reach of the Jamia radio is 8-10 km. It conducts dial-outs to percolate to the most impenetrable strata of the vicinity and bring their problems to light, said Mr Syed..

The Radio has a phone line (26986644) on which listeners can give valuable feedback while the programme is on air live. Listeners can also write to us, he said The tea stalls and dhabas in the Jamia area regularly tune in to Radio Jamia.''It is something created by those whom they can see everyday in the street. It gives a feeling of familarity. It is a medium which they see as their own, which is where its strength lies,'' says Ayub Khan, FM Radio anchor who lives in the Jamia Area.

''Finally success of the Radio will depend on how far we are able to involve local people and whether we are producing the kind of programme with which they could identify themselves, said Dr Iftikhar Ahmad, Director of the Jamia Mass Communication and Research Centre (MCRC) and Professor Obaid Siddiqui of the Centre.

Radio Jamia is one of the pioneer institutions to receive a licence from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to run a campus community radio. It adheres to the All India Radio code.

Radio Jamia began its trial transmission for 60 minutes on March 15 last year. The broadcast material was collected from the archives of MCRC, which included old recordings of ghazals. Regular transmissions commenced from May 26 for 60 minutes each weekly. Programmes are transmitted from Monday to Saturday between 1500 hrs to 1630 hrs followed by its repeat broadcast on the following day between 1100 hrs to 1230 hrs.

The focus is on problems and issues of the student commmunity and locals. But increased globalisation has also necessitated the need to include discussions and debates on national concerns, says Mr Syed.

Recent years have seen a strong trend towards globalisation of media. Mega media enterprise of a commercial nature have emerged spanning the globe with their programmes.

However, surveys have shown people like to watch programmes in their own cultural context. Since global media are commercial and need to attract large audience for their ad content, they concentrate on entertainment than on socio-economic issues. So, the emergence of the community radio is the result of the need for democratisation of the media.

The evolution of the community radio began some 50 years ago in Latin America.

Poverty and social injustice were the stimulus for those first experiences, one beginning in Bolivia in 1947 and known as the Miners' radio and another in Columbia in the same year, known as Radio Sutatenza.

These experiences in Bolivias and Columbia set a trend. For example, the Miners' radios in Blovia were working in the period when the ideological clash between Marxist and capitalism was taking place. Thus their focus was to unite the community of miners for better and fair working conditions.

However, it was in Europe in 60s and 70s that community radio became a vital phenomena.

In the West, pirate stations proved a catalyst in motivating governments and national broadcasting systems to introduce legitimate local radio.

UNESCO also launched an initiative in 1980 to support community radio.

Besides, technological aspects like cheap transistor recievers and low-powered and cheap transmitters have also played a role in the devlopment of community radio.

UNI