Touted as the country’s first community radio and cleared rather hurriedly in February 2004, barely three months before the Lok Sabha election, Anna Radio was to be the BJP’s centrepiece in its high decibel India Shining campaign in Tamil Nadu. However, with just two hours of content and no blueprint to conquer the airwaves, it was hardly the dramatic poll trigger the BJP had envisaged. But what was seen as a political decision then turned out to be a milestone in the area of community outreach. ‘‘It’s been a challenging 18 months (since Anna FM’s launch). But I think we have passed the test,’’ says Dr R Sreedher, Director of Anna University’s Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMRC) and the man behind the rather low profile achievement. Relaxing in his office in the sprawling Anna University campus in Chennai, the 55-year-old academician has enough reason to feel pleased. Anna Radio at 90.4 Mhz (Megahertz) has now stockpiled 1800 hours of content. According to Sreedher it reflects the voice of the community, recorded as it was by ‘‘innocent (with no commercial motive)’’ producers. The programmes are indigenously produced. There’s no news, no advertisements, no film-based programmes and no programmes violating Intellectual Property Rights or broadcast guidelines. ‘‘It is the smallest radio station (8 ft by 5 ft) and the most cheaply maintained one at that, at just US $1,000 (about Rs 45,000) a month,’’ he says. A 50 watt transmitter (with a 30-metre-long antennae), another one on standby, a computer, control panel, earphones and microphones complete the small array of equipment in the tiny station, which holds about three people at a time. The reach of the 50-watt transmitter is in the radius of eight to 10 km and 10 hours of programmes are broadcast every day from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. The focus areas are education, health, environment, women’s issues and community development. Every Saturday evening there are live phone-ins from two slum colonies (Kannigapuram and Kotturpuram), about 2 km from the University, to discuss day-to-day civic or social problems including drinking water shortage, bad roads and transport. The phone-ins are a great source of excitement for the women in Kannigapuram who wait eagerly for Saturday evenings. • Anna FM Radio at 90.4 Mhz has 1800 hours of content • Community radio focuses on education, health, environment, women’s issues and development • Vasundhara Vahini, Baramati, Radio Jamia, Delhi and Open Knowledge Network, Chennai all follow suit. When the government first threw open the airwaves to private players in 2002, there were few takers. There were no community radios in the country and no models to fall back on. One frequency was preserved for education in 40 cities and the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) was given the task of coordinating the licensing process.Sreedher was the first, along with IIT Kanpur, to apply for a radio license on behalf of Anna University. As advertisements were not allowed, educational institutions were not exactly thrilled. IGNOU’s 2003 experiment with ‘Gyan Vani Radio,’ on a ‘cooperative model’ with a 10-watt transmitter, had proved an utter failure. It was a 15-month struggle to get Anna Radio on air. Despite representing a government-run institution, his application was tossed from one ministry to another. ‘‘Fortunately, we crossed all the barriers without any major hitches by December 2003.’’ But when it came to actually equipping the station, Dr Sreedher realised nobody manufactured a 50-watt transmitter. Bharat Electricals was given the job of making the transmitter. ‘‘It cost us just about Rs 10 lakh to set up the station.’’ Soon the station was in operation and the content rolling out. Within six months, Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCO granted recognition to Anna Radio as a training centre for station managers. Soon after, the station trained 60 participants from 11 countries. Several universities have since followed EMRC’s footsteps—VVIT’s Vasundhara Vahini at Baramati in Maharashtra, Delhi-based campus station, Radio Jamia, Open Knowledge Network of M S Swaminathan Foundation and a host of other campuses across the country. With the Centre considering Sreedher’s request to increase the power of transmitters and allowing five minutes of advertisements (a definite source of revenue), institutions are likely to play a greater role. Anna FM may be way below in the popularity chart. Nevertheless, it hopes to make a mark following the principle that the true spirit of a community radio is to make programmes with the cheapest resources available and getting a community to decide on the content. ‘‘We don’t want TRPs (Television Rating Points) and RRPs (Radio Rating Points). If we can transform the life of 600 women, then we have achieved a lot. If six leaders come out of the community, then it is bound to have a cascading effect,’’ said Sreedher, who will shortly leave EMRC to join IIT Rourkee, where too he hopes to start a community radio.
