[cr-india] when cash registers ring for community radio

Tue Dec 30 14:55:11 IST 2008

Parminder,

Well! it's to each according to their exposure and awareness. For me, this was an experience I quoted in the context of the original thread re: cash registers. This person's approach was normal as could be for a buissnessman. This person came from an extreme commercial end and I came from CR end with a view to explore possibilties to gether to make it commercially viable. Missing was a committment from my part re being sure about earning mega bucks through minor community spots!

And you are so right about 'development should pay for itself' . I worked with a CR in station and we endeavoured to be self-sustainble. This was by way of having radio spots, selling air time to community groups, producing programmes for educational institutions and socially conscious groups, raising money through memberships and running annual radiothon. this gave us enough to sustain a CR with 15 and more employees and many be over 300 volunteer broadcasters. we were backed by unversity consortium, which gave regular funding. So here was a successful CR which sustained itself.  As such I don't find talking about buisness/marketing as regressive as money is must for any venture. In the instance I quoted, it was about difference in committment. At the CR station I worked with for almost a decade, we faced the same issue with broadcasters. Most of them were committed to the social awareness part of it and some purely 'used' our station as a launch pad to get into better paid public and commercial radio. So all kinds of people floated thru our station but station never drifted from its committment which was ensured by well-established code of practise, guidelines. CR broadcasters national umbrella body and so on.

So that experience didn't disturb me except that I had to let go of a chance to put to pratice my CR exprience in an Indian setting. I have moved on.

sumegha

Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:35:56 +0530From: parminder at itforchange.netTo: sumegha at hotmail.com; cr-india at sarai.netSubject: Re: [cr-india] when cash registers ring for community radioSumegha Your experience, and the earlier  observations made by Sajan, are disturbing. And I hope they are disturbing enough for all of those in the CR movement to commit ourselves to understanding this phenomenon and take steps to fight it. It is not difficult to 'understand' this phenomenon  if we  realize that most of those who speak of setting up 'community' telecentres openly profess somewhat similar plans and expectations, as the person you met did. While in the CR movement one is still a bit on the defensive to take such a stand, it is considered quite respectable in the telecentre movement (speaking in general terms and not about all telecentre initiatives; our own organization supports community telecentres). This is the new 'sustainability' mantra as the primary yardstick of any ICT project. Basically what is meant to be said is that 'development should pay for itself' and governmental transfers or other kind of public funding may really not be required. Such practices have done precious little for communities, or for that matter for 'telecentres', but they have certainly been quite successful in entrenching a new ideology of business models and marketisation of development. What you see is simply an open expression of it. While one can understand the motivation and the strength of the dominant forces driving such an ideology, there also has been the problem that traditional development actors often acquiesce  in  treating  new ICTs  in a 'different'  way. I never have been able to understand what is about the new ICTs - computers, Internet etc - that lends them to be seen primarily from a 'market' rather than a 'community' angle, as community radio is seen. Is there anything essential and specific to new ICTs vis a vis the old ones which is responsible for this. I don't think so. If anything, new ICTs because of their collaborative possibilities may be even better candidates for collective and community-based appropriation. However dominant forces, seeking an early advantage, have entrenched a solid ideology around the new ICTs, and traditional development actors who were either too busy figuring out ways to meet the so many developmental challenges, or took a simplistic attitude to new ICTs as just harbingers of neoliberal globalization, have largely failed to provide any alternative, pro-development, conceptions. (Apologies for such generalizations which may be unfair to some/ many.)I keep hoping that the community orientation  of the CR movement  could  be used to communitize telecentre movement or ICTD, but the reverse looks like happening. The way forward from a CR perspective therefore may be to get more pro-active, and get on the offensive - challenge the dominant trappings and ideologies of telecentre practice and ICTD theory, to stop the damage that it seems to be causing to the CR movement. Meanwhile, I must clarify that I have nothing against markets - which are one of the principal institutions of our social organizing, nor against sustainability - a concept used since long in development practice, but in a much broader sense. The fact that I must immediately make such clarifications, or else risk being misunderstood or labeled  regressive (if not something worse), speaks volumes about the dominance of a certain ideology. Apparently, one can use terms like business models and revenue streams in ICTD without any corresponding clarifications at all. Thats all, Sumegha, the person you met did.Parminder sumegha agarwal wrote: 

Off late I was approached by one CR station owner to take up the role of PD with the station. This person rued about investment of few lakhs in setting up the station. This person's main concern was to recover the money invested ASAP. Idea was that I should not only earn my salary and also deliver lots of profit. That too with hardly having any program content worth broadcast available. Further discussions were held whereby partnership was offered and I was also asked for a marketing plan with clear timeline re: recovering revenue through advertisment. I too spent lot of time explaining the vision and scope of CR to this person. No doubt our discussions led to nowhere. txsumegha

Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:44:46 -0800From: arti at trfindia.orgTo: cr-india at sarai.net; venniyoor at gmail.comSubject: Re: [cr-india] when cash registers ring for community radio

This story is obviously the work of a highly imaginative desk editor -- especially the headline - because nothing much in the story seems to suggest that the Jamia station is going to rake in anything close to big bucks, what with Rs 50 for a 10 second ad. If they can raise enough to pay reasonable stipends to their staff, that will be a miracle.ArtiArti Jaiman Project Manager: TRF Radio arti at trfindia.org www.trfindia.org www.jaiman.org www.pitara.com--- On Wed, 24/12/08, sajan venniyoor <venniyoor at gmail.com> wrote:
From: sajan venniyoor <venniyoor at gmail.com>Subject: [cr-india] when cash registers ring for community radioTo: "CR India" <cr-india at sarai.net>Date: Wednesday, 24 December, 2008, 12:48 PM
This is the second press story in a row on how CR is going "to set cash registers ringing". (Another one had appeared in Indian Express last week: 'Community Radio Must Earn Revenue') 

Not only is the story below factually incorrect (IMS Noida tells me that they are already broadcasting ads), this media projection of CRS as a cash-cow is sending out very wrong signals. Like many others on this list, I have often been approached by dubious individuals and NGOs in search of ringing cash registers courtesy 'community radio'. Very often in Delhi -- and recently in Patna -- I've had long, surreal conversations with people who assume that CR is a kind of cut-price commercial radio station. The tragedy is that, given the loopholes in the policy, anyone can set up a network of CR stations and turn them all into low-cost commercial FM channels without even bending the law. 

Unfortunately, it is the genuine community-based group, with little or no interest in making profits, that's grilled endlessly on their revenue model and why they don't plan to broadcast round the clock. The other sort, who prepare a business plan before they think of a programme plan, set the standards of 'sustainability' that the rest of us are supposed to shoot for. 

I guess it is difficult to tell whether it is cash registers ringing or bells tolling when one's ears are stuffed with greed and ignorance.

Sajan

'This is Radio Jamia, and you can hear our cash register ringing' 
 Hindustan Times, 24 Dec 2008

Come January, Radio Jamia on 90.4 FM — run by Jamia Millia Islamia University — will become the first campus community radio station in the Capital to air commercials.

And this is exclusively meant for the benefit of local products and commercial ventures.

"Our radio reaches out to people within 10 km. This new feature will provide a platform for the local tea stall, the nondescript beauty parlour, eating joint or even a small-time soap manufacturer within the area to popularise their product or service," said GR Syed, Reader and in-charge of Radio Jamia. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting allows community radio stations to have a five-minute commercial spot every hour.

There are five operational community radio stations managed by educational institutions in Delhi, including those run by Delhi University (DU) and Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC).

DU and IIMC don't plan to introduce commercial spots in the near future. This will make Radio Jamia the first among them to generate revenue through advertisements. The station currently airs programmes for six hours every day.

Private institutions, namely Jagan Institute of Management and Jagannath International Management School, run the other two stations.

"The commercial length will be anywhere between 10 and 30 seconds and we've decided on a tentative charge of Rs 50 for the same. Currently, our volunteers and radio jockeys work without pay. We would like to start paying them a token amount with the money earned through advertisements," said Syed.

If needed, students of the Mass Communication and Research Centre will also help produce the commercials.

"They will, however, have to pay the rent for the using the university studio," said Syed.  

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=IndiaSectionPage&id=7a66cbb5-7e23-41a8-91c9-1a187b110da5&&Headline='This+is+Radio+Jamia,+and+you+can+hear+our+cash+register+ringing'_______________________________________________
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