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27 Aug 2011 · community-radio
Now, listen to Gurgaon Ki Awaaz sitting anywhere in the Net-enabled world. Our icecast link page is made possible by the collective efforts of Gramvaaniand Nomad India Network and the support of the Radiophone project. Click here to listen to Gurgaon Ki Awaaz: https://radio.gurgaonkiawaaz.in [Note: This post was last updated in November 2019 to reflect the new link]
Continue reading →06 Feb 2010 · community-radio
On Thursday, February 25, 2010, Gurgaon’s only community radio station celebrates three months of round-the-clock broadcasting to a community that has remained voiceless throughout the transformation of Gurgaon from a sleepy cluster of villages 20 years ago to a much vaunted “Millennium City”. The only civil society-led community radio station in the entire National Capital Region, Gurgaon Ki Awaaz is a platform for and by marginalized community groups in Gurgaon, especially communities living in villages in and around Gurgaon, migrant workers and inner city residents for whom the gloss and glamour of malls and glass-fronted office buildings is simply a testament of the uneven development that has taken place in this town. Broadcasting in Hindi and Haryanvi, the radio station is run by a team of community reporters, the bulk of whom are from these very target communities within Gurgaon. The station has been set up and is supported by The Restoring Force (TRF), an NGO that works in government schools in Gurgaon district, primarily in the area of infrastructure enhancement (such as toilets for boys and girls, and drinking water supply in school) as well as career counseling for high school children. TRF is also actively engaged in projects that light up villages using solar lanterns.
Continue reading →30 Mar 2009 · community-radio
So early on in the process of starting a community radio station, it is evident to me the transformation it is capable of bringing into communities and individuals. Here’s a story from “Media For Freedom” that is testimony to the power of CR. Lucknow: 32 years old Kanshiram undergoes a complete transformation as he goes behind the microphone talking to his listeners on the Community Radio (CR). Formerly a bus conductor who used to ferry passengers to and fro from the remote village of Lalitpur, today he works as a radio jockey (RJ) at the newly set up community radio station here. “I can’t believe I am now a RJ broadcasting and anchoring radio programmes. It gives me an immense sense of satisfaction that I am doing something for the society. What makes it even more meaningful is the fact that I get to see the real issues through my work and and also provide solutions for it.”
Continue reading →11 Jan 2009 · community-radio
I’ve been hearing about Ideosync’s CR project in Lalitpur for a while now, but a news story finally suggests that they’re close to getting on air. Here’s the full story. Village Community Radio will give voice to people’s issues 10 January, 2009 “Community radio is the real voice of the people, it is a communication service that caters to the interests and needs of a certain area, its culture, craft, cuisine and above all social and development issues,” said Mridul Srivastava, the station director of ‘Lalit Lokvani’.
Continue reading →16 Dec 2008 · community-radio
According to Elise Nordling, “The primary function of radio is that people want company.” Assuming that to be true, what kind of company do people normally want? Who do you and I like to talk to? To listen to? To someone who speaks our own language, perhaps. To someone who understands our world, and our lives, and the joys and sorrows and challenges that go into living each day. A mirror that we look into, sometimes admiringly, sometimes critically, but a mirror nonetheless.
Continue reading →23 Nov 2008 · community-radio
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.
Continue reading →19 Nov 2008 · community-radio
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.
Continue reading →19 Nov 2008 · community-radio
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.
Continue reading →14 Nov 2008 · community-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.
Continue reading →03 Nov 2008 · community-radio
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.)
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