JU to launch FM channel

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, March 1, 2007

There’s good news for those who can’t stop riding from FM wave to FM wave and still wish there were more. Come June, a whole new wave will rise and hit the air from Jadavpur University.
The fare will contain the usual mix of everything from classical music and Hindi and Bengali film songs to Bangla band hits and rarely heard numbers picked from private albums. But unlike other FM stations, it will have one-hour counselling sessions every week where students can phone-in and ask questions. There will also programmes on pollution control, women’s studies and airtime for folk culture with programmes by students of Bengali, English and Comparative Literature. Many students proposed radio plays.
“We certainly cannot be a commercial radio but we will present very interesting programmes. Almost all our departments have come up with interesting ideas,” said Prof. Nilanjana Gupta, director of media communication and culture, JU.
“The studio will be housed in Gandhi Bhavan, which is being rebuilt for the purpose. Interesting seminars and other programmes will be broadcast live through this channel,” she said.
To be launched at an initial cost of Rs 20 Lakh, the community radio station will educate listeners within a 10 km radius covering Sonarpur, Salt Lake, Tollygunge, Park Street and Chowringhee and redefine infotainment for them.
“We wanted to start it three years ago. But there were problems of getting the logistics right and the getting Centre to allot an FM frequency. Now that the I&B ministry has relaxed its terms and wants to give licence to more and more community FM radio stations, we are going ahead,” Gupta said.
Financed from the Centre’s Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) fund, the channel will meet its running costs with revenue from ads aired on behalf of the state and central governments as well as local business houses.
The university has asked students to come up with a ‘catchy’ name and a slogan that that will sum up the project’s goal. The university is doing a listeners’ survey among students within the station’s reach. The findings will determine the final shape of the programme content. Music will not be problem. Saregama-HMV has agreed to let the station play its numbers for free. The university is also talking to other big record labels. As for hosting the programmes, some former students who have made it big as RJs will train up the current crop of students. Webel will provide the technical support. All you will need to do is just tune in.
mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com