MUMBAI: Mumbai University’s community radio, Must Radio, has been off-air for the last four months. While the media reports suggest that the varsity authorities are looking at acquiring a new transmitter as the old transmitter is non-functional, we at Radioandmusic get you the true story behind this pending action.
The CRS (Community Radio Station) was launched in the Mumbai University campus with the aim of airing education, health, culture, languages, peace, harmony, agriculture and growth related shows. However, this idea of educating the varsity students went haywire few months ago, as the Must Radio transmitter stopped working. However, this isn’t the first time that the varsity radio has faced an issue. It has been dealing with constant issues and the main cause has been ignorance. The university authorities have always been slow at acting upon the issue related to Must.
Must Radio transmission executor Pankaj Athawale says, “The problem is that the University as a whole is collapsing. It has issues in context to teachers, students, administration, results and much more. The functioning and procedure of the University are no less than a Municipal office. Our situation is a culmination of all collapse happening. The reason behind the delay in transmission is University again. The laid back attitude with no action has led us to this situation.”
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Athawale has been associated with Must since, its inception, thus he has seen the rocky path that it has been through in the past years. He has been trying his best to keep the station in function by paying for constant repair expenditures from his pocket, an amount that’s later reimbursed by the varsity.
“Initially the problems were at a lower level. Later it started increasing but things were still manageable. I have been voicing out these issues for three to four years, to have a change in procedure, but there is no response. The overall issue with Must Radio is that no one has ever objected anything. The university has always supported. But it is okay to say it philosophically but you need to get some things done,” emphasises Athawale.
Now the station is waiting for the administration to take a call on the transmitters. If repaired the cost will be around 50-70 thousand while replacing the new transmitters will be an expense of around 2 -3 lakhs. If taken a call soon, the station will be on-air within 10 days.
