Community radio station, as the name suggests is one which is run by local people or organization. It is a not for profit radio station which is run and maintained by locals for the sake of sharing information and entertainment programs with each other. Unlike, FM or public radio station, is has a limited reach and small number of listeners.
Community radio station, run by locals, is one of the oldest forms of radio in India. Bombay Presidency Radio Club, a sports club in Mumbai, is the oldest community radio station in the country. Community radio stations have played an important role in providing voice to the voiceless all over the world. Even in India, there are stations like Radio FTII, Apno Radio, Radio Udaan and Radio Jamia which talks about their community and address their entertainment need. Let’s discuss a day in the working of a community radio station to understand how they address their communities.
Monitoring report of a community radio channel – 90.4
From my observation I figured out that the RJ’s of Jamia Radio speak in a specific monotonous tone and the language used by the members is urdu with a mix of certain English terms.Firstly, I listened to a program named “Hasb-e-mamool” which was hosted by Saba. The program began with her reciting a sher(couplet)and then a Naatwas played in the voice of Owais Raza Quadri.The RJ introduced viewers to the Ghazals of Malika Pukhraj and meanwhile kept on narrating about her life and her story that how she was a highly popular Ghazal Queen and also performed at the coronation ceremony of Maharaja harisingh and the tragic story that followed where she was accused to poison the Mahraja.After every ghazal the RJ kept on reciting different sher by eminent personalities like Ghalib,Allama Iqbal and Faiz Ahmad faiz.The show ended with the beautiful track “Abhi to maijawaanhu”in the evergreen voice of Malika Pukhraj.
Show with distinctive style
I also listened to a show hosted by Reshmi where she began with a typical style with the recitation of sher.For the two way interaction she announced a number on which the listeners could call and interact with her.To keep the listeners engaged she read an incomplete Misra(one line poetry) and told the audience to call her and complete it.Apart from this she played various tracks which were mostly the composition of ghazal singers, I got to listen to the melodious voices of Jagjit Singh, Kishore Kumar, LataMangeshkarand various other artists.
