UNIT 8 DEVELOPMENT OF RADIO

Structure
8.0 Introduction
8.1 Learning Outcomes
8.2 History of Radio
8.2.1 International Perspective
8.2.2 National Perspective

8.3 Radio in Colonial time

8.3.1 Amateur Radio
8.3.2 State Involvement

8.4 Radio after Independence

8.4.1 Post Colonial Period
8.4.2 Time of Free Airwaves

8.5 Looking at the Future

8.6 Let Us Sum Up
8.7 Further Readings
8.8 Check Your Progress: Possible Answers

8.0 INTRODUCTION
In the previous units you have been introduced to the growth and development
of media. In fact if you introspect you will understand that history of media’s
growth is the history of the development of technology. Therefore we see that all
media rediscover themselves according to the demand and the necessity of time.

In this unit we will trace out the growth and development of Radio in the Indian
and International perspective. It will be interesting to unite the refinement of
technology in the journey of radio’s development.

8.1 LEARNING OUTCOMES

The objective of this unit is to apprise you with the historical development of
Radio as a technology as well as media. At the end of this unit you should be
able to:

describe the historiography of Radio;

explain the philosophy that defined Radio in India; and

analyse the political economy of its growth in India.

8.2 HISTORY OF RADIO 121

Evolution of Mass Media 8.2.1 International Perspective
Radio as a means of communication achieved prominence during the World
War II. It was used in military activities to communicate from one base to the
other and carried orders and commands. The technological development of
radio was regarded as a revolutionary discovery of the modern world. In 1887
German Scientist, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz demonstrated that electromagnetic waves
can be transmitted through space and his name got attached to denote the unit
of radio frequencies. Italian engineer Gugleilmo Marconi received the first trans-
Atlantic wireless signal from England to Newfoundland in 1901. In the US in
1910 inventor Lee de Forest conducted live radio broadcast from the Metropolitan
Opera House in New York and it is regarded as the landmark wireless voice and
music transmission. These random developments in various levels added to the
growth of Radio as the medium of the masses.
In the West the development of radio as the medium of dissemination of information
was taken seriously. In fact with the development of commercial broadcasting,
public service broadcasting was also taken up by the state quite sincerely. The
history of public service broadcasting is generally traced to British Broadcasting
Corporation of England. The thrust of public service broadcasting is still very
much relevant in the Third World countries. But in some countries, it has been
relegated to being the mouth piece of the state rather than the public.
With the UN project of Information and Communication Technology for
Development (ICT4D), radio has gained immense importance in the modern
globalised world. However it is important that radio adapt to the new and challenging
conditions.

8.2 .2 National Perspective

Radio came to India during the British rule in the guise of an amateur experiment.
In 1920 the Bombay Presidency Radio Club was established by express
support of Giachand Motwane. He is also credited with the honour of being
the first one to record and broadcast radio programme in India. It is noteworthy
that just a few months before the Radio Club in Bombay, British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC) was given the go ahead to launch a public service
programming across Britain by the British government in January 1927. The
state involvement started later and when India got independence the baton of
Radio was passed from one government to the other. The 1990s saw new
development and a lot of hopes were pinned on to the medium. However a
critical review now makes the picture hazy. In the next section we will try to
give a comprehensive idea about the growth trajectory in detail.

8.3 RADIO IN COLONIAL TIME

8.3.1 Amateur Radio
As mentioned above Radio in India was an amateurish experiment. The venture
of Motwane which had the call sign of 2KC lasted for only one day. Next year
in a joint venture between the newspaper ‘Times of India’ and Post and Telegraph
office another station was launched in Bombay (now Mumbai), the signals of
which were received 100 miles away in Pune. The third station by the call sign
of 2FV with the power of 750 kHz and a 1.5 kW transmitter was started in
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Bombay after two years. Bombay had a fourth station when Walter Rogers Development of Radio
Company started one with the call sign of 2AX. It was more of an Adventist
church venture.
On the Eastern region, in Calcutta (now Kolkata), the Marconi Company of
England conducted a number of test broadcast in various locations. Eventually
Calcutta Radio Club loaned a transmitter from Marconi Company and started
their radio station in November 1923 with the call sign of 2BZ. The West Bengal
government too loaned a transmitter from Marconi Company and launched a
station with the call sign of 5AF.
Similar activities could be seen in Madras (now Chennai) during the same period.
The Madras Presidency Radio Club under the call sign of 2GR started operating
in 1924 with Viscount Goshan, Governor of Madras as patron. This station
closed down in 1927 due to financial constraints and the transmitter was donated
to the Corporation of Madras, who operated with the international call sign of
VUM.
There were two other stations – one in Madras and one in Bangalore. The station
in Madras was operated by the Crompton Electric Company. Both the stations
were operating in 1926. There was also a 1 watt station which was established
by a postal official at his home in Hyderabad in 1933.

8.3.2 State Involvement

State involvement in broadcasting began when Government of India signed a
contract with a private company named Indian Broadcasting Company (IBC)
Ltd. in 1927 allowing them to begin experimental broadcasting in Bombay and
Calcutta simultaneously. It is mentionable here that this was the same time that
following the publication of the Crawford Report (2 March, 1926) British
Broadcasting Corporation was launched (1 January, 1927), which was supposed
to be non-commercial and crown-chartered. In fact by 1926, it was already being
discussed in the Government about formalising the system and structures of
broadcasting. It is said that the rules of the Radio Clubs were brought to a forced
end as IBC thought that the sale of radio licence could earn them handsome
revenue. In fact Fielden had written in his book Broadcasting in India, how the
most successful of India’s Radio Clubs, the Madras Presidency Radio Club, was
finally forced to close down in October 1927. However setting up of the first
operational transmitters in Bombay and Calcutta took one year and considerable
cost was incurred. Even the company was also underfinanced with only 42,000
pound. To make things worse, the company could not sell as many licences as
they had thought they would: only 3,594 were issued by the end on 1927. India’s
geographical reality also came in the way. It was vast and had no electricity.
Thus the company started to feel increasingly that the realities of Britain were not
to be found in India. BBC which was operating on the same commercial monopoly
agreement between 1922 and 1926 was expanding rapidly in Britain. However
IBC by 1930 had opened only two small transmitters and had issued less than
8,000 licences. Moreover programmes were also mostly in English. In fact
Secretary of State, Lord Birkenhead had written to Lord Irwin in a personal letter
that IBC should make programme for “English Speaking Population, that is to say
Europeans and the educated Indians of the cities”, totally ignoring the masses.
Thus in spite of government support, IBC turned out to be a financial failure.
Ultimately in 1930, IBC went into liquidation and was forced to shut shop before 123
Evolution of Mass Media the completion of the fourth year.
However if you look at the broadcasting activities in India before 1930, it will be
obvious that a lot of speculative business was taking place in the area, for example,
shipping of radio sets, transmitters etc. These people along with the programmers
and the public put pressure on the government and government yielded and took
over the Bombay and the Madras stations in April 1930. Government of India
decided to purchase the assets of IBC and those were placed under the control
of the Department of Industry and Labour. 1930 was also the time of ‘Civil
Disobedience Movement’ and the government could see the potential of the
newly redesignated Indian State Broadcasting Services (ISBS) being utilised in
the consolidation of the Indian state as well as of political unity. The post war
great depression also had an effect on the financial condition of the government
of India. This financial difficulties and the lack of real enthusiasm on the part of
the government to continue with broadcasting led to the closure of IBC on
October 1931.
The rumour in Britain was that the radio stations of Bombay and Calcutta might
be sold to American commercial interest. The Federation of British Industry was
visibly worried and they lobbied in the India Office against the sell-off.
Representations and agitations compelled the government to go back on the
orders on November 23, 1931; doubling the cess on the radio sets. In 1932 the
British Broadcasting Corporation started an Empire Service and it resulted in the
doubling of the sale of the receiving sets in less than two years. All these sets were
imported at that time. The increase in the collection of license fees and import
duty on the sets and components of the radio sets also resulted in the increase
of government’s revenue. However it should be remembered that though the
number of listeners increased, it still remained confined to the elite. This picture
of financial viability of broadcasting culminated in the government’s decision to
start a radio station in Delhi. Delhi station went on air on January 1, 1936.
Check Your Progress 1
Note: 1) Use the space provided below for your Answers.
2) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
1. What are call signs?
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2. Name five radio clubs in India
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3. Explain what are IBC and ISBS?
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This development was very important as Radio began to be used as an indispensible
medium of propaganda and this was directed at two enemies of the Empire: the
nascent Congress led independence movement and the alliance specifically
Germany. It is well documented in the directive issued by the Empire Intelligence
Service (1940) how radio was linked to intelligence gathering: ‘‘we need our
intelligence organisation on the spot, with headquarters in Bombay, controlled and
administered by a specially chosen Indian...It is clear that the co-operation of All
India Radio would be essential but there is every reason to suppose that it would
be cheerfully forthcoming. The organisation would also be able to produce a
skeleton service of information about Burma’’.
The first Director General of BBC, John Reith, who is acknowledged as the
father of Public Service Broadcasting, was expressing his interest in Indian
Broadcasting. He wrote to the Viceroy, Willingdon on the issue of state level
broadcasting in India. Willingdon was quite interested in the idea and in 1934 he
wrote back to Reith that he should help Willingdon to find someone to work on
a five year contract. Reith had written in his autobiography, Into the Wind, how
he himself had mulled the idea of taking up the assignment only to be negated by
the higher authorities. The man selected from BBC was Lionel Fielding, to shape
up AIR the lines of BBC. Fielding therefore was not quite happy with the use of
broadcasting for intelligence activities. But Reith and Fielding’s vision to build up
broadcasting in India in the line of BBC remained a distant dream. It was made
clear to Reith that AIR will not be modelled in the self governing style of BBC
rather it will remain with the Industries and Labour Department as it already was
since 1930.
Fielding was not happy with the name ISBS, he wanted a name which would
have an all-India personality. He coerced the Viceroy Linlithgow into adopting the
name All India Radio (AIR) in 1936. Fielden recruited the help of devoted young
people and with their help and his Chief Engineer, Goyder, he started short-wave
transmission in 1938 and gave AIR a wider coverage. Lucknow station was
started on April 2, 1938 and Madras station on June 16, same year. In 1939 the
Trichur station went on air and in the same year the external services also started.
Fielden went on medical leave in 1939 and returned briefly only to permanently
leave Indian soil by 1940.
This was also a time when other hand people like Frank Lugard Brayne, (a civil
servant in the Gurgaon district) and few others advocated the usage of radio for
the uplift of the rural community. This resulted in the establishment of rural radio
stations (somewhat similar to the concept of community radio now) in places like
the rural outskirts of the Northern cities of Lahore, Delhi and Peshawar, in Southern
Madras, Midnapore district of Bengal and princely state of Hyderabad. These
stations were eventually incorporated into the All India Radio network after 1937.
Another very interesting development was taking place during this period. Indian
Nationalist movement was at its peak and the nationalist groups started exploring
the issue of ‘illegal’ counter broadcasting. From 1940 onwards there have been 125
Evolution of Mass Media evidences of amateur radio operators setting up pro-Congress stations like the
Azad Hind Radio etc. This radio station started operating on 26th August 1st 1942
after the arrest of Mahatma Gandhi when All India Congress Committee decided
to demand British to Quit India. The station was broadcasting on 41.78 meters.
As it was a secret radio it had to be shifted many times to escape detection.
Historian Gautam Chatterjee says, “According to the old records, Vitthal Rao
Patvardhan brought a broadcasting equipment of the Congress Radio (which
Madhav Limaye called Azad Radio) to Nasik. It was kept in Sankaracharya
Math from where the Azad Radio went on air. But perhaps fearing police raid,
the transmission equipment was immersed in the Godavari River.”
“At those dark hours of new black-out, the Congress Radio went on air and
worked as an inspiration for the masses. It spread the message of secularism,
internationalism, brotherhood and freedom,” he says.
“Ram Manohar Lohia and Vithaldas Madhavji Khakar were given the responsibility
to organize broadcasting messages and programmes during the movement, he
says. Khakar was the chief organiser of the Congress Radio Enterprises and was
answerable to Lohia,” he says.
Two amateur radio broadcasters ‘Bob” Tanna and Nariman Abarbad Printer
played a key role in setting up Congress radio. Owen Williamson says:
Despite sporadic British jamming, the crystal-controlled signal of Congress radio
was audible on then-unoccupied 40-metre band throughout the Indian subcontinent,
and as far away as Japanese-occupied Burma. The station transmitted recordings
of the Mahatma’ sermons and calls for non violence, uncensored news, pro-
independence, instructions for Gandhian activists, and political declaration by the
movements’ underground leadership....(‘The Mahatma’s Hams’, http://
www.wr6wr.com/newsSite/articles/features/mahatmashams.html)
The first Indian administrator of AIR was A. S. Bokhari, who was groomed by
Fielden. He was the Director General during all the war years and all during the
independence movement and the partition too. A new broadcasting house was
built on the Parliament Street, New Delhi. On June 3, 1947, Lord Mountbatten
(the then Viceroy), Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohd. Ali Jinnah gave their historical
speeches through AIR.
Check Your Progress 2
Note: 1) Use the space provided below for your Answers.
2) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
1. Write short notes on:
a) John Reith
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b) Lionel Fielding
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2. Write about the phenomenon of pirate radio during the independence
movement.
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8.4 RADIO AFTER INDEPENDENCE

When the British left India, it was a divided India. Thus India was left with only six
Stations at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Lucknow and Tiruchirapalli with 18
transmitters (six on the Medium Wave or MW and the rest on Short Wave or
SW). The coverage area was 2.5% and 11% of the population. Radio listening
on MW was confined to urban areas.
The importance of the role of communication for national development was
underscored in India even prior to her independence. The Indian National Congress
while formulating policies for National Development for Independent India set up
a Sub-committee on Communication under the National Planning Committee to
offer recommendations for development of communication for independent India.
The report of the National Planning committee cited the following as the target of
broadcasting for independent India: “(a) Dissemination of news and useful
information; (b) Adult education; fighting rural ignorance; (c) Propaganda by the
State and (d) Entertainment” (NPC: section 13). After independence of the country
in 1947, the new Indian government announced a development-oriented agenda
of governance dedicated to the amelioration of the economic, educational, and
health conditions of the people.
With the target of Development Communication, the new government adopted the
recommendations of the erstwhile National Planning Committee as the mainstay
of its communication policies. P C Joshi in his book Communication and National
Development had written: “The issue of using modern communication acquired
high priority as a developmental resource during the Nehru era when the planners
explored the prospects of using radio as a development agent, that is, for
information and enlightening the people in the countryside and towns on
developmental issue”.
It is to be noted here that the post independence growth plan was charted by the
Tatas and Birlas by drafting the Bombay Plan also called A Plan for Economic
Development of India. It was drafted by J.R.D. Tata and G.D. Birla and was
extensively discussed in the Birla-owned journal called the Eastern Economist.
This plan had supported private enterprise and protectionist politics in support of
indigenous capital. However the state remained the nodal agency in the area of
economic growth. In 1955 was adopted the Industrial Policy Statement in the
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Evolution of Mass Media Avadi session of the Congress government. In this policy, basic and strategic
industries, including heavy industrial plants etc. were all reserved for development
in public sector. Similarly in the Industrial Policy resolution of 1956,
telecommunication, broadcasting and defence equipment was also reserved for
the public sector.

8.4.1 Post colonial period

In the First Five Year plan, no financial allotment was done for the broadcasting
sector neither any mention was made on it. But investment to the tune of 4.94
crores was done and by 1956, most of the region was covered by AIR. Second
Five Year plan envisaged wider coverage and for the first time plan document
spoke about setting up a television station with an allocation of 40 lakh. Of the
entire plan allocation of 9 crores the maximum amount i.e. 267.81 lakh was
earmarked for studio installation and additional office accommodation. Hence the
focus was on infrastructure development. And this trend continued.

However the growth had not been as fast. By 1960 56% of the population and
37% of the country’s area was covered by medium wave services. Therefore the
majority of the area was left to short wave coverage which was not clear. In fact
Mehra Masani in her book Broadcasting and the People writes that even in
1984 a reliable medium-wave service could reach only 90% of the population
and 75% of the geographical area. Which according to her means that radio was
accessible to 20% of the population which was mainly in the urban area.

We need to remember that during that time the system of collecting licence fee
was in force. A person with a radio set was required to deposit a fee amount at
the local post office to ensure continuing reception of signals. This is what we do
now to keep receiving the television signals in our sets through the Digital TV set
box. And it is still in vogue in UK as far as BBC is concerned. BBC has been
able to retain its autonomy largely because of the licence fees that they collect,
thus they do not depend on the government fund for sustenance. This system of
collecting licence fee was eventually abolished in the 1970s.

After 1968 the annual rate of increase in licences has fallen steadily and the
numbers of household with radio sets were only about 25 million. Even the
production of sets witnessed a slow decline. Radio sets were more in demand
than could be supplied during the period of 1960-70. But the demand declined
after that. But this was the time when Green Revolution in India was in full swing
and AIR had been a close companion of the revolution. It was naturally expected
that the demand will increase for the sets. But it did not happen as expected. In
spite of the slowdown in the listeners’ base the setting up of stations and transmitters
went on. As Masani had noted most of the transmitters were set up as a part of
political necessities.

It is mentionable here that, in 1962 India fought a war with China in the North-
Eastern front. This war revealed the inadequacy of the reception of radio signals
in the border areas. As a follow up the government constituted a committee on
broadcasting and Information media, popularly known as the Chanda Committee,
on the 14th of December, 1964. The committee reviewed the operation of various
media units under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It submitted a
report on Radio and Television on 18 April 1966.
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The committee felt that it was not possible in the Indian context for a creative Development of Radio
medium like broadcasting to flourish under the regimentation of departmental rules
and regulations. Therefore it recommended the constitution of a separate corporation
for radio and television. The report also suggested that both of them be given
freedom to evolve their own recruitment rules, pay and service condition according
to their varied and peculiar necessities. Another recommendation was for the
starting of a commercial service. And it was started from Vividh Bharati in 1967.

However, In April 1970, the Lok Sabha was informed by the government that it
was not the opportune time to consider the conversion of AIR into an autonomous
corporation. But, a major structural change was accepted i.e. to separate Radio
and Television and Doordarshan came into existence on April 1, 1976 under the
I&B Ministry.
Soon after the internal emergency, a white paper on the misuse of the mass media
during the emergency was presented to the parliament in August 1977. In the
elections, the opposition parties presented freedom of expression including autonomy
to electronic media as a major election plank.
After the new Janata Party government took charge, the working group on
Autonomy for AIR and DD was constituted by the Ministry of I&B by a gazette
notification dated August 17, 1977, under the Chairmanship of B. G. Verghese
with 11 members.
Important amongst the major recommendations was that of setting up of an
independent public corporation acting impartially, as Trustee in the public interest
referred to as Akash Bharati in the tune of National Broadcasting Trust. The
Working committee did not want two separate corporations for Akashvani and
Doordarshan, but suggested a highly decentralized four-tier broadcasting
organisation at central, zonal, regional and local levels.
India hosted the Asian Games in 1982 and television which was till then at a
nascent stage received a major boost. In 1984, Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime
Minister of India and he was very keen on the medium. The entire political focus
shifted to the new medium. The popularity of AIR also declined. There was a
general apathy in the government to rejuvenate the medium.
Check Your Progress 3
Note: 1) Use the space provided below for your Answers.
2) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
1. India has a very strong population which is underdeveloped; we cannot have
radio for profit.
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Evolution of Mass Media 8.4.2 Time of Free Airwaves

1990s was a very critical period for India both politically and economically. India
was suffering from internal political instability and the fragile National Front coalition
faced a nationwide crisis in the summer of 1990 over its affirmative action policies.
By autumn, a campaign by the BJP to build a Hindu temple at the site of a 16th
century mosque in Ayodhya resulted in widespread communal violence. The
government collapsed when the BJP pulled out. A new minority government failed
to pass the scheduled budget in February 1991 when it lost the Congress Party’s
external support. In May 1991, while campaigning for the general elections, Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. In reaction, and in parallel to these
developments, the economic situation worsened. By September 1990, net inflows
of Non-Resident Indian deposits had turned negative. Access to commercial
borrowing had become more costly, and by December even short-term credit
was restricted. Foreign exchange reserves fell to $1.2 billion in January 1991. By
the time a new government took over in June, reserves could cover only two
weeks of imports. India was close to defaulting on its sovereign debt for the first
time in its history. And thus India negotiated a $1.8 billion loan from IMF
(International Monetary Fund) with conditions. The condition applied by IMF
resulted in the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which pre-empted the
involvement of the state in state expenditures in many welfare sectors including
health and education. Neoliberalism had entered India with full force.

PRASAR BHARATI:

Prasar Bharati Broadcasting Corporation of India (BCI) Act was enacted with
the objective to confer autonomy on Akashvani and Doordarshan, thereby
ensuring that they function in a fair, objective and creative manner. The Prasar
Bharati Act provided a direction and pointer, which should govern the
broadcasting policies.

In fact, the demand for autonomy for AIR and TV dates back to mid-sixties,
when the first ever expert committee (the Chanda Committee) went into the
issue.

The Prasar Bharati Bill of 1989 is largely based on the Verghese Report (1978)
and the Prasar Bharati Bill (1979) that was introduced by the Janata regime
in Parliament in May, 1979. While the Prasar Bharati Bill favors the creation
of a broadcasting corporation through an act of Parliament. The Verghese Report
clearly wanted broadcasting autonomy to be a part of the Indian Constitution.
This would be necessary to ensure that no future government would tamper
with the freedom and independence of the corporation. The bill manages to
sneak in a representative of MIB as a part time governor. This is not the ‘full
autonomy’ the Verghese Committee had in mind. The bill of 1979 became an
Act in 1990 with approval by all political parties in the Lok Sabha and Rajya
Sabha.

The first step the ruling Congress Government took in response to the ‘invasion’
130 by cross-border satellite television was to set up the Varadam Committee (1991)
to re-examine the Prasar Bharati Act of 1990. The Ram Vilas Paswan Development of Radio
Committee was set up for this purpose in 1995. It submitted a 104 page working
paper with 46 recommendations on public and private electronic media,
newspapers, news agencies and films. The committee had hammered out consensus
on National Media Policy. Some of the recommendations were incorporated in
the Broadcasting Bill introduced in Parliament in May, 1997. The Nitish Sengupta
Committee (1996) was constituted in 1996 to have another look at the Prasar
Bharati Act and to suggest amendments. It submitted its report in August of the
same year.

The Prasar Bharati Bill remains a dead letter with the successive governments
never being serious about autonomy for the official electronic media. The
government is more interested in revenue but without proper service condition or
focused programme presentation earning revenue can only remain a dream and
Prasar Bharati a mirage.

This was also the time when the Supreme Court of India gave a ruling declaring
airwaves as public property which came in 1995. This translated into the radio
sector being opened up to private players. Now a handful of big business houses,
with non media and media interests have dominated the FM radio market. The
then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had announced the licensing of 295 more
radio stations in 2013-14. It is interesting to note that private FM channels are
mainly urban centric and plays 24X7 film songs. News is not allowed to be
broadcast yet.

Another offshoot of this order of the Supreme Court was the opening up of the
airwaves for Community Radio. Several non-governmental organisations and
media-activist groups campaigned for nearly a decade for the right to set up local
radio broadcasting facilities to support their community development work. They
also networked to further the cause of community radio in the country. This
network, soon after the announcement of the community radio policy, came together
in January 2007 to constitute the Community Radio Forum (CRF) of India. CRF
has espoused the mandate to support and promote the setting up of community
radio stations in India and to lobby for policy changes that would amplify the
progressive nature of the community radio policy and further simplify and
democratize the licensing procedures.

The Bangalore-based communication campaign group, ‘VOICES’ convened a

gathering of radio broadcasters, policy planners, media professionals and not-for-
profit associations in September 1996 to study how community radio could be
relevant to India, and to deliberate on policies appropriate for such an action. A
Declaration calling for the establishment of community broadcasting was signed.
A suggestion that AIR’s local stations should allocate regular airtime for community
broadcasting was put forward. Requests were also made for grant of licences to
NGOs and other non-profit making groups for running community radio stations.
Subsequently, UNESCO made available a portable production and transmission
“briefcase radio station” kit to VOICES to do experimental broadcasts of
programmes for a hands-on learning experience towards the objective of setting
up an independently-run community radio station.
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Evolution of Mass Media A UNESCO sponsored workshop, hosted by an Andhra Pradesh NGO, Deccan
Development Society (DDS) from July 17-20, 2000 in Hyderabad issued the
‘Pastapur Initiative’ on community radio that urged the government to take its
intentions of freeing broadcasting from state monopoly to its logical conclusion, by
making media space available not only to private players but also to communities.
This landmark document urged the government to create a three-tier structure of
broadcasting in India by adding non-profit community radio to the already existing
state-owned public radio and private commercial radio.

The spirited campaigning for communities’ right to access the airwaves and
innumerable representations by organisations, academicians and individuals resulted
in the MIB organising a workshop supported by the UNDP and UNESCO in
May 2004 in New Delhi to design an enabling framework for community radio
in India. The workshop brought together a large number of community radio
enthusiasts, academics, NGOs and policy makers, who worked out a set of
recommendations for a new community radio policy, one that would allow
community groups to run their own radio stations. When the Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India (TRAI) issued a consultation paper later that year, they arrived
at largely the same formulations for community radio.

In July 2004 MIB prepared a draft policy based on the May consultations.
Subsequently, community radio groups in India launched an online petition
campaign, urging the inclusion of the right of communities within the community
radio policy and thereby ending the discrimination against rural and poor
communities. In October 2005, the draft policy was referred to a group of
ministers, who took about a year to give its approval after deliberating upon
several contentious issues such as advertising, news and information, licence fee,
and spectrum availability.

These intense advocacy efforts and passionate debates about community radio
broadcasting for the social sector finally capitulated into an inclusive community
radio policy approved by the Union Cabinet in November 2006.

As of 2012 there are 125 functioning Community Radio Stations in India. Of

these 125 stations more than 90 are Campus Radio station located either in the
campus of educational institute or Krishi Vigyan Kendras.

By the end of March 2018, there were 238 functioning community radio stations
in India. Out of these, 135 were campus radio stations located in educational
institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and State Agricultural Universities.

The post 90s time has seen a very interesting trajectory. The most important
feature of this time as far as media is concerned is the growing presence of the
private sector in media, where state’s role has been diminished to being an
‘enabler’. Even the state media apparatuses, Doordarshan and AIR have been
following the revenue model of the private media houses.

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Check Your Progress 4 Development of Radio

Note: 1) Use the space provided below for your Answers.

2) Compare your answers with those given at the end of the unit.

1. News is not allowed to be broadcast in Private FM Channels as well as in

Community Radio. Do you think it is justified? Explain.

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8.5 LOOKING AT THE FUTURE

The future of radio in India seems to be a bit hazy. While state owned AIR seem
to have lost the way in the dense forest of governmental apathy, the only flourishing
arm of radio seems to be the private FM channels. Community Radio is yet to
find a grip in the country with governmental control making it quite tough to
survive.

With rapid digitisation and internet access the next gen is getting more and more
hooked to satellite radio. But the role of AIR and Community Radio cannot be
brushed off in a country like India. A serious political will is necessary to catapult
the medium from the fake inertia that it is suffering from at present.

8.6 LET US SUM UP

We hope that by now you have understood the way radio had grown in India.
From an amateurish attempt to the governmental project it had seen numerous
ups and downs. Post independence when our first Prime Minister visualised
radio as a medium of propaganda, he also simultaneously opined that radio is
the medium which was important for dissemination of information to the poor
masses. But with the growing politicisation of radio, it has been left as a state
propaganda mechanism of the ruling party. On the other hand the space for
private radio has been opened up unbridled albeit without the independence of
broadcasting news. Thus radio has survived and will survive as India remains a
class divided country. 133
Evolution of Mass Media
8.7 FURTHER READINGS
1. Political Economy of Communication in India: P.N. Thomas (2010), Sage
Publication.
2. Broadcasting and the People: Mehra Masani (1976). National Book Trust
of India.
3. Pinkerton, Alasdair, (2008), Radio and the Raj: Broadcasting in British India
(1920-1940), JRAJ, series 3, 28, 2 (2008), pp. 167-191 c-doi: 10.1017/
S1356186307008048 The Royal Asiatic Society.

8.8 CHECK YOUR PROGRESS: POSSIBLE

ANSWERS
Check Your Progress 1
See 8.3.1, 8.3.2
Check Your Progress 2
See 8.3.2
Check Your Progress 3
See 8.4.1
Check Your Progress 4
See 8.4.2

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