Community radio, rural radio, cooperative radio, participatory radio, free radio, alternative, popular, educational radio. If the radio stations, networks and production groups that make up the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters refer to themselves by a variety of names, then their practices and profiles are even more varied. Some are musical, some militant and some mix music and militancy. They are located in isolated rural villages and in the heart of the largest cities in the world. Their signals may reach only a kilometer, cover a whole country or be carried via shortwave to other parts of the world.
Some stations are owned by not - for - profit groups or by cooperatives whose members are the listeners themselves. Other are owned by students, universities, municipalities, churches or trade unions. There are stations financed by donations from listeners, by international development agencies, by advertising and by governments. (Wavesfor Freedom Report on the Sixth World Conference of Community Radio Broadcasters, Dakar, Senegal, January 23-29,1995)
The historical philosophy of community radio is to use this medium as the voice of the voiceless, the mouth piece of oppressed people and generally as a tool for development. (AMARC Africa and Panos Southern Africa, 1998.)
Community radio is defined as having three aspects : nonprofit making community ownership and control and community participation, (ibid) It should be made clear that community radio is not about doing something for the community but about the community doing something for itself, i.e. owning and controlling its own means of communication.
In Latin America, there are approximately one thousand radio stations that can be considered community, educational, grassroots or civic radio stations. They are characterized by their political objectives of social change, their search for a fair system that takes into account human rights, and makes power accessible to the masses and open to their participation. They can also be recognized by the fact that they are non-profit. This does not prevent them from growing and seeking a place in the market.
Community and civic radio is defined by the community of shared interests it represents and by the coherent political -cultural, communication and business objectives of these same interests.
Community radio means radio of the community, for the community, about the community and by the community. There is wide participation from regular community members with respect to management and production of programs. This involvement of community members distinguishes it from the dominant commercial media in the Phillippines that are operated for PPPP - profit, propaganda, power, politics and privilege. Serving the big P (people or public ) is a token gesture mainly to justify existence in the government bureaucratic licensing procedures. Stations are collectively operated by the community people. Stations are dedicated to development, education and people’s empowerment. Stations adhere to the principles of democracy and participation.
Over the years, community radio has become an essential tool for community development. People can recognize themselves and identify with community radio, in addition to communicating among themselves. Community radio is a cultural broadcast mechanism that adapts perfectly to the context of French Canadians. Its airwaves reflect the cultural reality :songs, music, writing of the French - speaking population it serves. Community radio stations are the best standard- bearers of our culture.
Community radio is low cost, easy to operate, reaches all members of the community in their own languages and, as a local, grass- root media, it maximizes the potential for development to be drawn from sharing information, knowledge and skills within the community.
The History of Community Radio in India
India does not only have a long history ofradio broadcasting, one can also find vestiges of a history of Community Radio as well. Under British colonial rule, amateur broadcasting started early in three Indian cities way back in 1923, when the Indian Broadcasting Corporation was set up. During this time, community radio appeared in different forms: decentralized, rural, local, and merely experimental.One of these experiments in rural broadcasting was conducted in 1932 by Rural Reconstruction Commissioner Frederick Brayne in Lohore. Based on the experience of this effort, Charles Strickland, former Registrar of Indian Friendly Societies, suggested the setting up of district radic stations for rural development in a presentation made to the East India Society in London in 1933. These stations should use small transmitters, broadcast folk songs and folk theatre in local dialects and provide news on agricultural issues. Not many of these experiments survived and if they did, they were soon to be swallowed by the then established national broadcasting service and lost their valuable social goals.
In 1935, the designation Indian State Broadcasting Service was changed to All India Radio, a name still used for the state - run monopoly broadcasting organization. The alternative name for this semi - commercial operation of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting mainly used within India since 1957 is Akashvani From only six stations at the time of independence, All India Radio’s network had expanded by the mid 1990 s to 146 AM station plus a National Channel, the integrated North-East Service (aimed at tribal groups in northeast India), and External Service.
It was not until 1956 that another milestone in the development of community radio was reached: in this year, Farm Radio Forums were set up in 150 villages across five districts of the western Indian state of Maharashtra. Based on a Canadian model, it was a collaborative effort between All India Radio and UNESCO. These worked as follows : with the support of community leaders and field workers, selected village farmers would meet at an appointed hour, listen to the radio broadcast collectively via a community radio set and then discuss the content. This was moderated by a convener. The programming was to “ place emphasis on the practical aspects of rural life, and stimulate lively discussions among the listeners without raising controversial political issues” (Mathur and Neurath, 1959 : 22 ). The problem consisted in the farmers only being entitled to making occasional suggestions. Hence, they had only small influence on the anyway uncritical content. The structure of the experiment itself was based on the approach that rural needs were best understood by those outside of the milieu and necessary information injected into these less developed regions would be most suitable for the lives of the inhabitants.
During the Green Revolution in the 1960s, there was a sudden, ubiquitous need for information. Agricultural practices in India had largely remained unchanged for generations. Traditional forms of agriculture with a strong component of subsistence farming had been the norm. With the coming of new techniques and technology that later propelled the Green Revolution came the imperative of introducing fundamental changes into these basic practices. In response to the need for information, All India Radio began in 1966 to broadcast for farmers (Page and Crawley, 200l:p328). Though programming for farmers remains important in the organizational objectives of All India Radio even today, at best the small district stations continue “broadcasting in local languages and re-broadcasting national that these supposedly rural, community oriented programmes are thrown at the audience with almost no “consultations between the people and the producers of the programmes, and no cooperation between the producers and the change agents in the rural areas who know and understand local conditions ” (Moemeka, 1981:p66)
In India, the campaign to legitimise community radio began in the mid 1990s. However, in a ruling given in early 1995, India’s Supreme Court declared that “airwaves are public property”. Due to that some groups across the country got inspiration, but to begin with, only educational (campus) radio stations were allowed, under somewhat stringent conditions.
Anna FM is India’s first campus ‘community’ radio, launched on 1 February 2004, which is run by Educational and Multimedia Research Centre, and all programmes are produced by the students of Media Sciences at Anna University.
On 16 November 2006, the Government of India notified a new Community Radio Policy which permits NGOs and other civil society organizations to own and operate community radio stations. Under the new policy, any not-for-profit ‘legal entity’-except individuals, political parties and their affiliate’s criminal and banned organizations can apply for a community radio license. Central funding is not available for such stations, and there are stringent restrictions on fundraising from other sources. Only organisations that are registered for a minimum of three years old and with a ‘proven’ track record of local community service can apply. License conditions implicitly favour well- funded stations as against inexpensive low power operations, several of which (e.g. mana Radio in Andhra and Raghav FM in Bihar) ran successful on shoe-string budgets before the imposition of any community radio policy programmes to local audiences” (Page and Crawley, 2001:p329 ) and therefore can hardly be called community radio stations. One fundamental problem remaining is The licence entitles them to operate a 100 watt (ERP) radio station, with a coverage of approximately 12 kilometers radius. A maximum antenna height of 30 meters is allowed. Community radio stations are expected to produce at lest 50% of their programmes locally, as for as possible in the local language or dialect. The stress is on developmental programming, though there is no explicit ban on entertainment. News programmes are banned on community radio in India, as also on commercial FM radio. Five minutes of advertising per hour is allowed. Sponsored programs are not allowed except when the program is sponsored by the Government at the Centre or State. (Community radio - Wikipedia,the free encyclopedia)
Government’s Policy Objective:
The government expects a number of benefits to flow from the successful operation of community radio stations across the country. Some of these expectations are :
1. Enhancing participation of people in the development process.
2. Capacity- building, especially in rural areas, through education.
3. Providing opportunities to people to upgrade their skills and enhance their creative talent.
4. Creating rural networks for cottage and village industries.
5. Strengthening Panchayati Raj Institutions.
6. Bringing within easy reach of the rural population, topical information in areas of agriculture, social welfare, education, health and environment.