MUMBAI: Serving the special interests of different communities on
an indirect platform, community radio (CR) stations play a very
important role in India.Though the government has been working towards
the progress of CR, the failure in implementing several decisions has
led to a major loss.
With around 125 CRs currently operational in the country, the
government had formulated many decisions last year to help fund them as
most of the stations are non-profitable and earning revenues is one of
the major issues restricting their survival. The government had
announced a fund of Rs 50 lakhs and also approved to provide
advertisements from DAVP to the stations for a period of one year; but
broadcasters say that these decisions are yet to be implemented and the
money has not reached them yet.
Speaking with Radioandmusic.com, Jaago Mumbai station head
creative & programming Nitin Makasare said, “The year was pretty
neutral for most community radio stations. Though some relief was
provided by the government through the CR fund and the DAVP ads, the
money for both has not been released yet so its been of no use to us. We
even went to Delhi, met the government officials and worked on the
requirements, but it is yet to be processed by the government.”
Inspite of a hand-to-mouth existence, Jaago Mumbai has managed to
fare pretty well in 2012. The channel gained with its visibility
increasing and even on-ground activations helping in engaging more
listeners. Also with most mainstream brands and companies looking now to
associate with the stations for campaigns and initiatives, the content
and reach of the station is substantially growing.
“The station is developing and growing slowly. Some help has come
from the government since we are non-commercial functioning platforms,
but we still need more help from them and unlike in other countries, it
is very much lacking in India. If you have funds its easier to manage,
but otherwise we are all surviving through a hand to mouth existence,”
he commented.
Some of the major challenges still haunting the space include
power and finances, apart from the government’s laidback attitude. While
the commercial radio stations have high power transmitters (10kw and
above), community radio transmitters are very low power transmitters
(100watt of effective radiated power) which results in a marketing
problem for most CR.
Being very constrained in finances, the stations also face a manpower problem being able to afford only 5-7 members in the internal team. Community radio
broadcasters state that while in 2012 they faced a financial crunch,
2013 is set to be another tough year with no funds coming in.
Echoing the grievances, Maksare highlighted, “The issue of finance
and transmission still remains. We rarely managed to sustain ourselves
last year and this year will be another tough one for us. Things need to
change quickly and the government should help us. Right now, we are
only trying to take care of our finances to survive the first quarter
and only after that will we be able to come up with new strategies to
sustain ourselves for the rest of the year.”
(Source : Radioandmusic.com)
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