Article | Community Radio

Community Radio in India:

In search of a sustainable Revenue Model

Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee

What is Community Radio (CR)?

Community radio is a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. It caters to the interests of a certain area, broadcasting content that is popular to a local audience but which may often be overlooked by commercial or mass-media broadcasters.

Three Characteristics of CRS

1. Unlike the other two kinds of radio broadcasting, CR has active participation of the community in the process of creating news, information, entertainment and culturally relevant material, with an emphasis on local issues and concerns. In India it is binding to have certain percentage of content to be produced by the community. The community can also actively participate in the management of the station and have a say in the scheduling and content of the programmes.
2. It is essentially a non-profit enterprise. In these days of highly commercialised broadcasting, the ethos of community radio remains independence and a responsibility to serve the community, not the advertiser. As the station is owned and managed by the community, it also maintains some responsibility in the running of the station.
3. Community radio programming is designed by the community, to improve social conditions and the quality of its cultural life. The community itself decides what its priorities and needs are in terms of information provision.

How is it different from Govt. controlled and Commercial Radio?

The three major characteristics of CRS make it different from both Govt.Controlled and State Controlled Radio in one hand and the Commercial Radio from the other.

CRS by definition is owned and managed by the community, which it serves. It is by nature and by legal norm ‘Non-Profit’. It, of course, needs to earn revenue for running the station. But the primary objective cannot be ‘profit’. It is in this that differentiates CRS from Commercial Radio. The other major difference is in objective. Service and altruism are the objectives of CRS, where as profit and entertainment are the major objectives of Commercial Radio. The objectives of CRS. The objectives could be:

• Providing a voice to the community to engage with governance and to talk back to itself. To provide a sense of déjà vu by participation.
• Preservation and promotion of local culture
• Empowerment of the marginalised

Difference in objectives shape the approach to the programmes and eventually the contents become different.

History of CRS

The term Community Radio was first coined by Rachel Powell in 1965. In a leaflet titled Possibilities for local radio which was published by Birimingham Universities Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies.

The first Community Radio Station in South Asia: Radio Sagar Matha was established in Nepal in May 18, 1997.

CRS in India

The campaign to legitimise CR began in the mid-1990s, soon after the Supreme Court of India ruled in its judgment of February 1995 that "airwaves are public property." This inspired groups across the country; however, only educational (campus) radio stations were originally permitted (under a number of conditions).

Anna FM was India's first campus "community" radio station. Launched on 1 February 2004, it is run by the Education and Multimedia Research Centre (EM²RC); all programmes are produced by Media Science students at Anna University.

On 16 November 2006, the government of India implemented new Community Radio Guidelines, which permitted NGOs and Civil Society Organizations to own and operate community radio stations. The first community-based radio station 'Sangham Radio' in Pastapur village, Medak district, Andhra Pradesh, licensed to an NGO (as distinct from campus-based radio) was launched on October 15, 2008[1].

The growth of CRS in India has been slow. However, it pace has picked up with time and with increasingly favourable Government policies.  By early May 2015, there are 183 CRS in India in operation.

Prospects: Encouraging

The prospects of CRS in India looks encouraging, thanks to favourable Govt. Policies, though there are still bureaucratic bottle necks and huge paper works. The Educational Institutions and NGO sector seem to be enthusiastic considering the number of applications for setting up CRS across the country. By early May 2015, there are over  applications for setting up CRS.

With up gradation of ICT, the cost of setting up and running a CRS  is coming down. Thanks to digital tech, and Internet, producing programmes have become technologically easy and less costly.

However, there are challenges
In fact there are 2 major challenges before CRS in India

1. Content (What to play for the listeners?)
2. Revenue Model (Where to get money from to set up, and more important than that, run the station?)

Content: 2 Models

Worldwide, there are two models so far content is concerned for CRS.  The models are not mutually exclusive. There could be heavy overlap.

One stresses service or community-mindedness, a focus on what the station can do for the community. The other stresses involvement and participation by the listener. These two models could be put in what I call ‘Need-Want Matrix’. CRS content programming could include need-based programmes to want based ones. However, it must adhere to its key characteristics. It must take the middle path between the Govt. controlled radio and private owned profit-focused radio.

Revenue: Where is the money?

CRS can earn revenue from the following five sources:

1.      Advertisement (5 min. per hour programming as per the present rule in India)

2. Community Funding (through subscription/donation/Corpus)
3. Govt. Funding/ Assured amount of Advt.
4. International AID Agency Funding
5. Any other source (Event organisation, Event Coverage, Content monetisation, Merchandise and Stationary, Membership)

To get Advertisement from local market, the CRS has to be the premiere local ad solutions provider. For that it needs to have a big listener base, better still a dedicated listener community. Here are some ideas to increase listener base:

¨  Involve community in programme production.

¨  Introduce listener rewards program that serves core listeners similar to frequent flyer clubs, grocery reward cards

¨  Phone-ins and on-air competitions

¨  Link with mobile

¨  Social Media Integration

¨  Create a dedicated listener community. Organise listener meet to consolidate the community

¨  Provide local information on demand. Create database of local govt. private offices, educational institutes, hospitals, Banks, etc. Also restaurants, bands and events.

¨  Hyper-local neighborhood news attracts desirable local demographics

¨  Make content available across multiple digital platforms

Community Funding: Some ideas

¨  Fixed per house subscription

¨  Donation

¨  Event Organisation

¨  Event Coverage

¨  Bottom of the Pyramid advertisement (low value, high volume)

Govt. funding/ Advertisement

¨  There is some amount through Union Govt. Welfare Programme/Scheme propagation. This could be increased through constant lobbying.

¨  State Govt./Local Bodies may be approached to release more advt. through CRS

Other Sources

¨  Content Monetisation

¨  Database Monetisation

¨  Event coverage/organisation

How to economize expenses?

¨  More participation by members of the community in content creation

¨  Content sharing

¨  Using low cost technology

¨  Innovation

In India the potential for CRS is very bright. However, creating quality content and getting/earning money to run it on a sustained basis is difficult. Difficult but not impossible, as many CRS across the country are showing by example.

One advice for people who want to set up a CRS: Don’t consider starting a CRS as a money spinning enterprise.  It will never be one. Don’t also consider it as an instrument of power for yourself. There are other ways to gain power than running a CRS.

Consider starting CRS as an instrument for social upliftment, positive change and empowerment of the marginalised.  The potential of community radio to bring about social change is not a matter of mere observation but, an empirically proven fact based on quantifiable and statistically analyzed results.

CRS can be an excellent tool for preservation of age old musical tradition.  It can help in archiving the oral history of a land and its people. CRS can be a great social institution.

Get on with CRS if you are serious and passionate about building a social institution.

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(Excerpted from Dr. Chatterjee’s address on the occasion of the launching of Community Radio Association of Odisha on 23 May 2015 in Bhubaneswar)

The author can be contacted at: mrinalchatterjeeiimc@gmail.com

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[1] The Deccan Development Society (DDS), an NGO working in Zaheerabad area of Medak district in Andhra Pradesh, set up a community radio station with assistance from UNESCO in 1998. In the absence of a licensing policy, programmes produced by members of the community were narrowcast through tape-recorders in the village sangams (autonomous groups of women).  This CRS - Sangham Radio  finally went on air on 2008 as India's first rural community radio after securing a license under the new community radio policy.