23 Nov 2008  · community-radio

The next step

We’ve taken the next step. Ideosync is going to be TRF’s technical partner in setting up the community radio station, and handhold us at least for the first six months to get us ready for broadcast. Beyond that, we have to find a way to raise funds.

We begin work soon on doing the woodwork for the studio and procuring the transmitter and the studio and field equipment. Then Ideosync does two induction workshops (one in each of our target schools) to build a team of students who can be trained in programming.

19 Nov 2008  · community-radio

Will it be Lalu on radio next?

At the risk of being taken seriously, I look forward to the day I can hear Lalu Prasad Yadav, our right honourable Railways Minister, coming on in between some truly ribald Bollywood numbers playing on an FM channel and saying, “Humka bhote dijiye! Phir mat boliyega ki yeh rail-gaadi nikal gayee.” (Vote for us. Later don’t say that you missed the train.")

But the flip side of the goverment giving the in-principle go-ahead to political ads on FM channels could well be a hijacking of the airwaves.You can read the full story that was published in Mint on November 19, 2008 here.

19 Nov 2008  · community-radio

Radio for the visually disabled

An excellent idea has just come downstream from Sajan Venniyoor. He suggests that we utilise the radio for making print available to the visually disabled. This would include everything from school textbooks to novels, short stories, plays and poems, to articles and features in newspapers and magazines. I like it. It’s simple, do-able, and has the potential to extend in other ways.

Since recordings will anyway be done, visually disabled students could be offered these “textbooks” as CDs or audio cassettes. Magazine articles and newspaper features could lead to on-air discussions and round-tables.

14 Nov 2008  · community-radio

Reading through radio

I’m thinking of that child left behind. The one who cannot follow a lesson because she cannot read what the teacher has written on the blackboard, even though she has faithfully and correctly copied it all down in her notebook. The child who cannot ask a question in class, because she cannot read her notebook, hence can’t put a finger on what exactly it is that she does not understand. This is the child who does not know how to read.

03 Nov 2008  · community-radio

Gems in the sand

Another round of surveys, in yet another school. I really look forward to them. I’m never sure what I’ll find. Never sure how the children will do the surveys. I’m never even sure how they’ll react to my introductory spiel.

This time it was Shashi, a boy in class 9 (fairly small-built, unlike his somewhat bigger classmates), who caught my attention. The expression on his face while I was talking, the way he was poring over the questionnaire had anyway caught my eye. Then, he called me over to explain a question: In the last seven days had they read, heard or seen any news item that they thought was significant? I’d barely finished my sentence, when he piped up, “The Assam blasts.” I repeated “In the last seven days… Were those blasts in the last seven days?” “Yes,” he said, firmly. I thought back to the newspaper front pages of the last one week - yes, the blasts were current news. When I admitted he was right, he said, almost proudly, “Mein kabhi galat nahin likhta.” (I never write something wrong.)

24 Oct 2008  · community-radio

Radio for those left behind

We’ve just finished the first half of our needs assessment survey in a government school in Gurgaon. As batches of children, both boys and girls, sat in the Edusat room in this village school, I could soon identify the children who were having the maximum difficulty in reading the questionnaire, and writing their answers. Even when these answers were just a tick mark, or a simple yes or no. Sheer habit made them check with the student next to them - what had they written? Was their answer right or wrong? No matter how many times I assured them that there was no right or wrong answer, that it was okay to hate a subject, or all the subjects, that it didn’t matter if they read the newspaper or not – the children still looked around with anxiety. It was as if six years of schooling (these were children in class 6 and older) had robbed any capacity for making their own decisions, their own choices.

17 Oct 2008  · media

Tejeshwar Singh Memorial Fellowships

An excellent opportunity for those looking seriously at how media is shaping our society, and how society is shaping media, is the Tejeshwar Singh Memorial Fellowship that will support such an endeavour by paying scholars Rs 50,000 per month for one year, plus Rs 50,000 as travel expenses. It would be interesting to see the publications that come out of this exercise.

16 Oct 2008  · community-radio

Community radio: programming is the key

There’s no doubt about it - we face challenging days ahead. The terror of air time is about to hit us. Even though we’re intending to start slow, with four hours of programming each day (two hours of programming broadcast once in the morning, once in the evening), it’s not easy ensuring that stuff gets out 365 days a year, which it must.

We’re planning on some core programs, around which we will add programs that are done on the fly, or as the children develop more story and programming ideas. Here’s a basic list.

06 Oct 2008  · community-radio

One step closer to the Wireless Operating License

So there I was at Sanchar Bhavan today morning. I left about 45 minutes later clutching my precious SACFA clearance letter, and a frequency allotment letter. Next step, we complete our survey (which is waiting for schools to open after the Dushera break), sign the GOPA, deposit the license fees, and get our Wireless Operating License - The License. Three months later, we better be ready to beam it up. So, we’re looking at end-January to launch Gurgaon’s very own community radio station.

05 Oct 2008  · comment

Terrorism has no religious affinity

Finally, someone has spoken out against the strident, unrelenting branding of all terrorism being Islamic, and all Muslims being terrorists. According to a news report in The Times of India, Sharad Pawar asks a very pertinent question: “Why are only Muslims on the media’s and society’s terror radar? Why not Hindu terrorists like the Bajrang Dal? Read the full story here.

In the last few weeks, especially after the blasts in Delhi, I am deeply disturbed by the deeply etched biases in large groups representing the educated upper middle class in India. If one is to even raise the question of legal rights, there is almost an affronted response: what do you mean legal rights? “That terrorist (pronounced guilty even before being tried) gets free government legal aid.” Aah. Interesting. The same person, if he were to find himself on the receiving end of a tangled legal case, would not hesitate to hire the most expensive legal help money can buy. Why? You have free legal aid from the government, right?