[cr-india] question

[Harshal Chhaya]

Nikhil, 

National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
in the US have been using methods similar to the ones you describe. 

A small part of their operating costs are covered by a grant from 
the government but the rest of their budget comes from corporate 
underwriters (sponsors) and listener/viewer support. Note the same
model is used for TV as well as radio programmes. The sponsors get
mentioned intermittently (there are no canned ads but some of
the mentions border on advertising). There are also regular
fundraisers - typically 4 times a year - where the station(s)
exhort the listeners/viewers to contribute. My experience suggests
that there is a considerable gap between the overall audience and 
the people who contribute. Still, this is a model that has been 
somewhat working for a couple of decades and may be worth trying 
out.

One thing to note is that NPR and PBS are far from community
projects. They get part of their budget from their audience but
they are just like any other broadcaster. In fact they oppose 
low power FM and community radio. Of course, this doesn't mean
that we can't learn from them.

Regards,
Harshal


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