an online magazine from eyeway.org
an online magazine from eyeway.org
issue 11 
july-august 2006
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sections in this issue: by george | focus | feature | perspectives | profile | headlines
What does it take to start your own Community Radio station?
Sometimes,
no more than rupees 50, as the story of Raghav Radio Mansoorpur 1 illustrates.
Raghav Mahto, who has learnt to repair radios, set up the station with a very low investment. A low cost transmitter, some hand-made microphones, and regular tape and C.D. decks – Raghav Radio Mansoorpur 1 was up and running with just rupees 50 of direct investment, and became wildly popular in a 15-kilometre radius. Though Radio Raghav was mostly about entertainment, it also broadcast locally relevant information, and was definitely a community radio set-up -- with the full support and encouragement of the local community, and their many phone-in requests. Raghav and his friend Sambhu used to run the station and host the shows.
Unfortunately, the past tense has to be used despite the popularity and freshness of Raghav Radio, because it does not have a license from the government. The license for FM broadcasting has been given by the government to a company called BAG films.
VOICES got around the government’s draconian broadcast policy by setting up its Namma Dhvani community radio project through the local cable T.V. network in Budikote village Karnataka, so people could listen to the radio through their television sets!
Setting up a community radio station needs very basic equipment, as Radio Raghav proves. What it really needs is for the government to change its laws.
For more technical details on the electronics of setting up a radio station,
see www.irational.org/sic/radio/
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about radio broadcasting as a career?
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