[cr-india] RAKESH S KATAREY: CR -- Reclaiming Radio for People

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

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This is Rakesh S Katarey's paper, presented at Manipal recently. 
Circulating it for those who were not there. Can the other paper 
presenters also circulate their views? We don't have to only meet in 
person to exchange ideas, do we? FN
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CR: Reclaiming Radio for People

Rakesh S Katarey, MIC, Manipal

		
The role of the state in broadcasting grew all around the world in the 1930s
and the state in many countries explicitly stated that it had the
responsibility for broadcasting within its area.

The intrinsic property of broadcasting as a centralised transmitter of
information for a mass made it politically and socially important,
increasing the interest of the state and making it susceptible to ruling
class propaganda. Simultaneously, since broadcasting was centralised, it
could also be used effectively for several cultural and educational tasks
whose form and content complemented the broad ideologial positions of the
state and the ruling class. Thus the possibility of perpetuating the status
quo through the use of radio, television and film was immense and evidence
suggests that governments and political parties never failed to shrug such
possibilities off.


AIR: A complementary propaganda tool

In India too, the inheritance of All India Radio (AIR) and its centralised
culture from its British rulers coincided with the inheritance of other
similarly centralised political, cultural and economic state apparatuses
like universities, railways etc.  The spread of radio in India thus happened
to coincide with a phase of state monopoly capitalism and private
capitalism. It developed during a stage characterised by the efforts of a
newly independent state that overemphasised a social democratic consensus of
a particular - instead of pluralist - model of development. Therefore, it
would be a fallacy to look at the role of AIR in isolation for, even in its
treatment of content for rural audiences, AIR remained steadfastly wedded to
and complemented the activities of other media arms of the state,
particularly the Films Division of India and later, Doordarshan. On the
other hand, their news offering was so vastly propagandistic that it
underlines the entire discourse on and demand for autonomy for AIR and
Doordarshan. The ideology of the times rejected the option of both,
socialist or a free market transformation of the society. And in evoking a
number of pastoral and romantic cliches of how happy the labour was with
their machines and farmers in their fields, all the three - All India Radio,
Films Division and later, Doordarshan - sought to romanticise the role of
the workers and the peasants as classes that were almost happy and content
with working in harsh conditions. Together, they suggested an eternal
soundness of society rather than depict the poor as landless, exploited,
degraded and underprivileged people undergoing extreme social hardship. The
narratives were often simplistic, suggesting easy cures and solutions to all
suffering, and were aimed at achieving some kind of a social democratic
consensus. Therefore, while AIR -like its counterparts in TV and film -
remained in the realms of public broadcasting service, it substituted public
interest by representing the wider political and ideological interests of
the ruling class, serving to improve the image of the state, and the
institutions under the state's direct and indirect control, so as to
influence the long term behaviour of the electorate.

There is therefore a need to rescue people from becoming living objects of
electoral value, subordinate to the larger power apparatuses as much as
there is a need to rescue and rediscover radio itself.
  
Sliced up for privatisation 

Over the last decade however, the space enjoyed by AIR, DD and Films
Division has shrunk, what with the entry of foreign and private local
players into broadcasting. In case of TV of course, private C&S channels
have proliferated at the expense of DD and the actual viewership of DD has
eroded. In fact, the government has had to force all cable operators to
transmit DD's signals alongwith other private channels just so as to boost
its audience figures.

As far as AIR is concerned, it has had to take a beating from both, the rise
of TV over the years, as well as private FM players in urban areas. With the
reach and relevance thus reduced, the state has very little use for either
of the two, more so, AIR. The willingness of the political class to allow
privatisation of radio waves in the country after holding on to them for 50
years therefore, has to be seen in the light of AIR's reduced utility to the
political classes as an instrument to influence.

While the stranglehold of state power over airwaves is desirably loosening,
there is enough danger in letting these airwaves slip exclusively into the
hands of the private players. Given its record in disinvestment of public
sector, the government has surprised no one with its intentions to open up
the airwaves - a declared public property - for commercial radio, while
maintaining silence on returning these airwaves to the communities
themselves.


Private FM in Urban Areas

Ironically, the stumbling block to the complete privatisation of radio today
is AIR's reach in rural India and amongst the economically weaker sections.
The private players have no use for the segments who have little income to
dispose on the goods and services they advertise. This is borne by the
willingness of private FM players to pay hefty licence fees for metro
markets instead where consumers proliferate.

The other equally strong barrier of entry is the commissioning system (15
percent of all media billings go to advertising agencies as earnings) that
governs the logic of advertising. Radio is essentially a low-cost medium
both, for people as well as for advertisers. Any commission earned by
advertising agencies on its billings therefore is low. Logically then, ad
agencies have little to gain by promoting radio advertising to potential
advertisers. In fact, the Adspend: Audience Reach ratio of Internet is far
higher than that of radio!

Thirdly, thanks to the hefty licence fees, the average running costs of a
commercial FM channel today in metros is placed at Rs.10 crore a year. With
growing competition, both listenership and advertising even on urban
channels is bound to fragment, unless there is a dramatic surge in listening
habits in the near future.

The hold of advertisers over radio content therefore can only tighten in the
coming years. Alternatively, the low quantum of ad support can lead to a
shakeout and only a few players with cross-media ownership will hold firm.


Opportunity for Community Radio

To sum up the current scenario, 

1. The state is loosening its grip over radio waves

2. There is lack of sustained profitability in running private FM radio
    channels even in urban areas, and,

3. There is a perceptible lack of interest amongst the political and the
    private players in either retaining or taking over radio in rural areas.

Together the three present a great opportunity for the emergence of a
decentralised, low-cost people's radio in the country. That the opportunity
has to come by default rather than by design is unfortunate. But the
possibility of a mass medium rescued from political and private interests
passing into the hands of the people themselves in the near future is very
real.

The sustainability of such radio is paramount to democracy. However, the
same is hyphenated to the willingness of communities to finance or run such
radio stations without commercial and political sponsorship.


Sustainable CR under Panchayats?

To begin with, Community Radio (CR) stations could perhaps be set up and
placed under their respective Panchayats, regardless of the caste dynamics
that underline them in many areas. In my view, the funds to set up and run
such stations will have to be borne by the state but disbursed through
Panchayati Raj bodies. To do so, the state will have to treat CR at par with
railways, roadways and other basic infrastructure. This model, even if
imperfect, can ensure at least the beginning of a largely self-regulated,
decentralised, sustainable and maybe, democratic radio.

The strength of CR will be greatly enhanced by the possiblity of networking
with similar radio stations under other panchayats.

However, it may not be prudent to underplay the fact that the birth of CR in
India, whenever that happens, will be rooted in rural radio's current
irrelevance to the commercial and political interests. At some stage,
therefore, it is probable that the growth and development of CR may renew
interest of the two in radio. India's rural share of branded products,
particularly those at the lower end, is nearly 50 per cent and growing. At
present there are no vehicles inexpensive enough to carry the advertising
messages to most of these potential buyers. The consolidation of rural India
by CR is therefore likely to make it vulnerable to commercial interest.
There is therefore a need to insulate CR adequately and regulate to ensure
that the setting up CR is irreversible. Only then can the purpose and
character of CR become sustainable.

In view of the above, certain questions become critical:

a. Should commercial and political advertising be permitted on CR?
b. Should more than one CR channel be permitted in an earmaked zone?
c. Should airwaves be completely unregulated?
d. Should the licence fee model be explored?
e. Should public and private institutional funding be allowed?  

The answers to these questions will greatly determine both, the shape and
sustainability of CR in the future.