[cr-india] Broadcasting from Bhimtal

[Sajan Venniyoor]

As a former public service broadcaster, used to large studios swarming with
technical staff and the occasional rodent, I had a rather unsettling
experience some days ago in Uttarakhand. I was dining at the Bhimtal
cottage of Hemant Babu of Nomad, and he was broadcasting over his internet
radio channel, *Reboot Radio *from a corner of his living room. Nameless
insects buzzed against the window panes and starlight gleamed on the
Bhimtal lake glimpsed through towering *sal *trees.

Hemant was playing *Chop Suey! *and something by Joan Baez from his
playlist when it struck 9pm, and then he was on air for the next 20 minutes
talking with someone over Skype about agriculture in the hills. His
interviewee was in Delhi.

It occurred to me a little later that a radio station operating out of a
corner table in a hillside cottage, playing Armenian-American alternative
metal bands (I just looked that up) and agriculture in high altitudes
should have seemed a little surreal, but oddly enough, Hemant at his
microphone, fiddling with a second-hand laptop and tiny M-Audio mixer,
appeared perfectly in his element.

Maybe it was the controlled substance I was smoking.

My friend Cecil Pinto has just sent me an article from The Paris Review on
the "old weird days of National Public Radio in America" ("American Sounds
<https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/07/26/american-sounds/>", Heather
Radke, 26 July '17), which makes the point that it's not just TV, but this
is probably the golden age of radio as well (though the term "radio" may be
a misnomer -- lets just say 'audio broadcast by any means'). The number of
unusual and brilliant podcasts coming out of the west is startling, and
though India is a little late to the party, we should be getting there
soon. Just run a search for 'Indian podcasts
<https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/5qtul3/here_is_a_complete_list_of_all_indian_podcasts/>'
and I guarantee you'll find something engrossing in there.

And no, none of this is happening on FM radio.

Years ago, in Bangalore, community radio activists had drafted the *Bangalore
Declaration *which stated their belief that radio, “besides educating and
entertaining people, [would] connect people with people through
participatory or circular communication, connect with organizations and
communities, and finally, connect people with government and public service
agencies”. That was 21 years ago, in the infancy of mobile phones and the
internet in India, long before there was such a thing as non-*sarkari *
radio.

I'm not sure how much of that idealistic vision has come to pass, but it's
almost ten years since the first, genuinely community-led radio in India
(Sangam Radio in Pastapur) went on air, and so much has changed on the
ground since then.

And, on radio, so little.

I think a weariness has set in among CR activists and practitioners
regarding FM radio. Far from becoming a genuinely alternative and
democratic space for connecting people with people, it has remained rigidly
within government control -- either through inducements or threats --
unable to broadcast news or opinion, unable to survive without DAVP
handouts, or that magical always-promised-never-delivered Rs.100 crore
carrot that has dangled before our noses since the last UPA government.

Maybe it's time we tried something different.

As I watched Hemant hunched over his microphone on a cool hillside miles
away from Delhi -- unlicensed, unregulated, unkempt -- I caught a glimpse
of what could be the future of community broadcasting. Or all
broadcasting... who can tell?

The fight to free the airwaves is far from over, but I'm glad some of us
are already entrenched in beachheads where the confused sounds of that
battle are heard but faintly.

Sajan
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