[cr-india] CR takes on tsunami?

[sajan venniyoor]

A positive story, in spite of its rather misleading title. Just for the record, AIR Port Blair is not a 'community radio' station - it is a capital station, and a pretty powerful one at that. It has to be; AIR Port Blair broadcasts to the entire Andaman & Nicobar group of islands using a 100 kW medium wave and 10 kW short wave transmitter. 

There is no radio station in the Nicobar group of islands. In fact, there is no radio station in any of the other islands, though Port Blair is among the 70 cities where freqencies are available for the next round of commercial FM licensing.

Sajan.
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HOW COMMUNITY RADIO TOOK ON TSUNAMI FURY 
Bhaskar Roy
Times News Network [ Wednesday, January 19, 2005]

NEW DELHI: At a time when television networks were still disrupted in the aftermath of the tsunami, the All India Radio played a vital role as communication lifeline for the traumatised people of the Andamans. 

The AIR read out 13,000 messages of missing people on the far-off islands helping their relations to get in touch. The role radio played seems to have made the government take a fresh look at the importance of community radio in coastal areas. 

Soon after the AIR part in battling disruptions came in for appreciation, the authorities took the first tentative step towards setting up a community radio station in the Andamans. 

I & B secretary Navin Chawla got in touch with Dr Sridhar of Anna University in Chennai, who had set up the country's first community radio service on the campus, and requested him to visit the Andamans to assess the possibility of such a radio service there. 

"Community radio can be an important component in disaster management," Chawla said. 

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