MUMBAI: Community radio stations across the country are fighting for survival as generating funds has become a major issue. Even as the government is working towards their betterment, there are only a handful of stations working smoothly. One of them is Mumbai University’s MUST radio, which recently completed five years and is steadily walking on the success route.
Having a talk based format, MUST (Mumbai University Students Transmission) radio operates for 13 hours daily and has introduced fresh content through associations with NGO’s and more.
Speaking with Radioandmusic.com, Radio MUST station manager Pankaj Athavale said, “The station recently celebrated five years and it has been a wonderful journey. We have improved the quality of our programs and have become more community oriented. Now, we aim to organize more outdoor workshops to increase our presence.”
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As part of its endeavour to innovate, the station has bagged the ‘Maths on Radio’project from the department of science and technology. The project aims to popularize maths subject and encourage people to shed their inhibitions about the subject. The government has also sanctioned a grant of Rs 5.4 lakhs each for the same.
The department has also selected three other stations to run the pilot project which include IIT Kanpur, Jadhavpur University Kolkata and SL Institute Madurai.
The three month activity will feature programs of 25-30 minutes each, produced by the stations. The content will range from stories, the history of math, tricks and more in English, Hindi and Marathi. There will also be special programs on financial use of maths for business and more. The episodes will be in the form of features, biographies, radio magazines, plays, short stories, interviews and panel discussions.
Apart from the stations, various schools, colleges, university departments and community members will be involved in this project.
“We have started the broadcast of these programs and it will be repeated thrice at 9am, 1pm and 7pm. The target audience is school kids, teachers, first generation learners, drop outs and general public. These are all government supported programs and we are trying to grow from strength to strength,” he added.
Completing five years marked by success, the station claims that it does not face any financial problems unlike other broadcasters, as it is adequately supported by the Mumbai University. While publicity and transmission issues have been a major hurdle in the growth story of most stations, MUST radio has successfully overcome these issues.
Like every other station, MUST has provision for ads but are currently not utilizing it. They are waiting for the DAVP ads and government grants. The station has witnessed a three-fold increase in listenership since its inception, with a large number being non-students.
Athavale claimed, “Our station has emerged as amongst the top radio stations in the city. Apart from receiving help from the university, the station also shares content with other players across the country and has been open to students coming in and participating for various projects. We have even trained over 1000 students and officials from other CR in Nashik, Mangalore and Ahmednagar in technical equipments.”
Now, with the spectrum fee decreasing and the government taking steps to ensure each broadcaster is adequately supported on the financial front, Athavale is positive that the industry will get a boost in 2013. “There are a few which have gone off-air citing financial constraints but the truth is that they lack proper planning. Community radio stations are doing decently well now and the industry will get a boost in the coming years,” he said.
