[cr-india] TRAI Open House in Delhi - first impressions

[Arun Mehta]

we need to meet to stop going round in circles.

> As Baijal has pointed out, defining 'rural coverage' is notoriously 
> difficult. Even AIR's Local Radio Stations, with 6 kW transmitters, cover 
> a considerable rural landscape even though they are situated in smaller 
> cities and towns. If you remember, TRAI has recommended that commercial 
> FM stations should be permitted 50 kW transmitters. And TRAI wants 
> every town with over 1 lakh population to have a commercial FM channel.

One FM channel means nothing. Each community requires different programming. If defining rural is difficult, let us drop the term, say "deprived area" in FM terms, as all those places having less than 25% of the possible number of FM stations. To start with, the whole country is a deprived area, but that might change. What we are saying, that where the spectrum is grossly underutilized, there should be no spectrum charges, nor license fees. We are, after all, providing a public service.

> 
> >I think the TRAI is amenable to the newspaper model. Many of the 
> participants at the meeting seemed to support the basic stand. 
> 
> What exactly is a newspaper model? And how would it work in the context 
> of radio, especially since commercial FM has been prescribed a 
> radically different broadcast model? 

I believe you can register your newspaper at any post office. Why can't we keep it that simple? Just because they have messed up licensing for commercial radio doesn't give them the automatic obligation to mess up community radio licensing as well.

> 
> >If a justification is needed for why we want preferential treatment as 
> compared to commercial radio, it is this: we serve a socially useful 
> purpose. We disseminate the kind of information government often wants 
> and needs disseminated. More importantly, we allow the voices of the poor 
> people to reach back.
> 
> Forgive me for saying this, but the Government's perception of the 
> potential of CR (and the voices of the poor) is somewhat different. Most of 
> us would remember this quote from a former Secretary, I&B: "As of today 
> we don't think that villagers are equipped to run radio stations. 
> People are unprepared, and it could become a platform to air provocative, 
> political content that doesn't serve any purpose except to divide people. 
> It is fraught with danger." 

Mr. former secretary should be acqainted with Article 19 of the Constitution (if not sacked). And asked why such subversives are allowed to start newspapers. Why do we have to pay any attention to such crap? I don't believe the TRAI thinks this way, and right now, we are talking to TRAI.

> >So, could we please discuss definition? Under what circumstances would 
> one say, this is community radio, or this isn't?
> 
> How do we define CR in terms of carriage, other than by putting numbers 
> to various technical and commercial parameters? TRAI is the regulator 
> for carriage, not content. 

TRAI regulates carriage, yes, but that is not the issue here. But to give preferential treatment to community radio, TRAI needs to know what a community radio station is. The difference between commercial and community radio is fundamentally in the content. TRAI just wants a working definition to throw applications into two piles.

Please take a look at the definition I sent in my earlier post, does it work for you?

Arun