[cr-india] first campus radio in Kerala

[Vickram Crishna]

At 4:01 AM +0000 9/1/06, sajan venniyoor wrote:
>On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 Vickram Crishna wrote :
>>>THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The first private FM (frequency modulated) 
>>>community radio station in the State was launched
>>It seems like good news, but does anyone know what is meant by this 
>>mingling of 'private' and 'community' terms in the same sentence?
>
>A substantial part of the problem with radio in India appears to be semantic.
>....
>And, come to think of it, A.I.R is not 'government run', either. It 
>comes under Prasar Bharati, an autonomous corporation under the GoI.

However, as we know and bewail, Prasar Bharati's operations are not 
autonomous enough to satisfy anyone.

The whole controversy about cricket broadcasting is one example. 
Actually, at one level, it shows how a dominant market position is 
not sufficient to ensure market preferences, since Doordarshan's 
(television, the other division of Prasar Bharati) audience delivery 
potential outstrips anyone else's by far, yet the cricket board 
thinks they should pay the same rates. Negotiation skills appear to 
be lacking at the macro level (but of course we all know, or suspect 
we know, that the real negotiations aren't about the money paid to 
the board), therefore the intrinsic value of market economies is 
compromised.

So, as 'our thing' (cosa nostra, as our Sicilian friends would say), 
held for us by the President of India, A.I.R. should in fact be a 
very community oriented service. It isn't, because long distance high 
power  broadcasting is inherently not community centric. This is why, 
at Radiophony and as individuals, Arun and I are staunch proponents 
of low power FM broadcasting. As Sajan points out, the community 
radio movement in India is fractured about nomenclature, but it is 
also hampered by this confusion about the dynamics of the technology. 
When I say dynamics, I include cost (which should in any case be 
among the most critical for widespread adoption of the technology), 
reach, access, and ease of adoption.

Factors that are common to all kinds of radio stations, such as 
training, turn out also to be rather uneven playing fields when the 
setup cost of a station is in crores instead of thousands, because 
the cost factor becomes a dominant in the minds of the decision 
makers who select trainees. The entire situation is potentially more 
democratic when this warp factor is eliminated or minimised.
-- 
Vickram

		
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