DR. SHAKEEL AKHTER clarifies the concept of Community Radio and also highlights the challenges he faces in ensuring greater participation from community members. Meet the Broadcaster Par Excellence transmitting brainwaves with SAAD BIN ZIA.
DR. SHAKEEL AKHTER has a truckload of broadcasting experience. At Central Information Services his first posting was in troubled-torn Kashmir. He has not only seen but lived the militancy at its peak in Srinagar. He chose ‘Broadcasting Literature in Urdu’ for his Ph.D. After serving for a close 15 years in different capacities in All India Radio, he joined Jamia Community Radio as Producer in 2007. Since then the Community Radio has grown by leaps and bounds and has successfully carved out a niche for itself in the community. It is only due to his untiring efforts that the transmission time has been increased and a variety of programmes have been introduced essentially keeping in mind the interests of the listeners. At the moment he is busy pushing the Jamia Community Radio to scale new heights.
How can the concept of Community Radio be defined?
As per the Policy Guidelines for setting up Community Radio Stations in India issued by the Government of India in December 2002 the basic objective of the Community Radio broadcasting would be to serve the cause of the community in the service area of the permission holder by involving members of the community in the broadcast of their programmes. For this purpose the community shall mean people living in the zone of the coverage of the broadcasting service of the permission holder. Each applicant will have to specify the geographical community or the community of interest it wants to cover. The permission holder shall provide the services of his CRS on free-to-air basis. Actually, Community Radio is a type of radio service that caters to the interests of a certain area, broadcasting material that is popular to a local audience but is overlooked by more powerful broadcast groups.
In fact, the concept of Community Radio has different connotations in different parts of the world. For example Community Radio services in the UK are operated on a not-for-profit basis. The Community Radio outlets are owned and controlled by the communities themselves. Whereas in the U.S. Community Radio system differs slightly i.e. although the Community Radio stations are non-profit, community-based operations, however, they are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission for broadcasting in the non-commercial, public portion of the FM band. As regards the programming the modern-day Community Radio stations broadcast a variety of content that caters specifically to a particular community and is not necessarily covered by larger commercial radio stations. Unlike in India, Community Radio stations in Europe and America are permitted to carry news as well.
Essentially, how did you find Community Radio different in terms of organisational structure, programming, policy matters, etc?
All India Radio is a very large organisational set-up with more than three hundred stations spread all across the length of our country. It covers 90 per cent of the population and 92 per cent of the geographical area of the Indian Territory. It ranks among top two or three major broadcasting organisations in the world. There is a three tier broadcasting system in All India Radio. Its External Services Division falls under one of the largest services in the world. In fact, Urdu Services of the External Services Division is the largest service much ahead of various other international Radio Services such as Voice of America, BBC, etc. It broadcast programmes 24×7. No broadcasting institution in the world but for the All India Radio boasts of a distinction of running the external services for 24 hours a day. Since, at All India Radio a very huge area is covered, therefore, to reach out to audience is a very challenging task because we have to observe the issues of remote area from a distance.
In spite of being such a large organisation, it lacks innovation rather it has turned virtually into a dead sea. It is like a huge ocean but unfortunately, somehow or the other, this ocean seems to be stand still, staff is also not motivated due to lack of promotion opportunities, stagnation in services, etc.
On the other hand Community Radio caters to the needs of the people within a particular region. In my opinion Community Radio is a good example of ‘narrowcasting’. Here, we cover the population residing within the 10 kilometre aerial distance. We include in our transmission programmes that are in the best of the interest of the population living within this specified area. These programmes may range from music, education and training, to healthcare etc. In the Indian context the concept of Community Radio goes very well with the concept of democracy i.e. “it is by the people, of the people, for the people”. Here the programmes are community centric only. For this purpose the members of the community are called in free of cost to present their programmes. For example, at this time of the year the summer is setting in; so we may call a doctor who gives a brief talk on summer diseases, their preventions and cure.
Could you please shed some light on the salient features of the programming of Jamia Community Radio?
Here, at the Jamia Community Radio I am the Producer. My responsibility here is to supervise not only the contents but also the transmission. I have prepared a Fixed Point Chart for better and smooth transmission. We have three hours of live broadcast with a repeat broadcast for three hours. I ensure that in these three hours of transmission the programmes are a nice blend of various types that satiates different tastes of the listeners of our community. Apart from Muslims, who constitute a major chunk of our listeners, other communities such as Punjabis [are our target listeners]. Bhojpuri Linguistic minorities also reside in this vicinity. Therefore, we broadcast not only Urdu/Hindi music but Punjabi and Bhojpouri songs as well. But I would describe them as ‘sugar-coated pills’.
It’s not like that we broadcast Ghazals only, rather in between the two Ghazals we broadcast public interest/public awareness programmes. We have divided all of our segments in this manner. These segments are based on healthcare, education zone, career guidance, women, morality/ethics (Fikr-o-Nazar), admission guidance, Jamia Nama. I can safely claim with full conviction that Jamia Community Radio is fully devoted to the development of the community.
How has the programming of Jamia Community Radio evolved and transformed since you took over as the Producer?
When I joined here as Producer in April 2007, the live transmission was just for two hours with a repeat broadcast of two hours i.e. a total broadcasting of four hours only. Within a few of months of joining I increased the broadcast timings from two to three hours with a repeat broadcast of three hours i.e. a total broadcasting of six hours. Contentwise also I introduced a variety of programmes. Some of the programmes started by me are Fikr-o-Nazar (a programme based on morals and ethics), Jamia Nama, a youth enrichment programme called Jamia Kay Ubhartay Sitaray (Promising Stars of Jamia). Through this talented students of Jamia such as good singers or good debaters who otherwise do not get a chance to show their talents are given an opportunity at Jamia Community Radio to perform.
Another programme is Yeh Janna Zaroori Ha (You Must Know It). It is nutrition based programme that gives detailed information about our nutritional needs. Batein Qanoon Ki (Legal Matters). It is a Law awareness programme that provides knowledge on various legal issues in a simple manner. In Literary Discussion programme the literary problems with special reference to Urdu literature are discussed. A review on latest on the selected Urdu books is also done. Yet another programme fully conceived and executed by me is Builders of Modern India. In this programme we choose a person who has played an important role in creating a modern India. Hum Se Puchiye is a programme introduced by me on health tips. We also broadcast a weekly sports programme on Sports Review. Besides, we are collaborating with various NGOs to broadcast programmes on socially relevant themes such as AIDS, cancer, malaria, etc. There is a provision for weekly Community Mushai’ra and Kavi Sammelan as well.
Are you satisfied with the Community Participation? And if not why? Also what steps are you taking to increase the Community Participation?
No. Not exactly. We are still unable to get the desired participation from the community despite announcements from time to time. The reasons that I can decipher for this low participation from the community is busy life of Delhi. I personally feel that the concept of Community Radio is not suited for the metropolitan cities. Rather I believe it can do wonders in smaller places by highlighting the common issues and problems of that particular area. Also in smaller places there are chances for greater community participation. But in big cities such as Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai there is a great paucity of time; hence poor community participation. One who possesses some sort of talent, wants to earn some money by selling that talent. Actually, in metros the sense of community service is on the wane; therefore, no one wants to do anything for free.
To increase the community participation we conduct door-to-door surveys. In one such survey we found some women who were eager to serve the community in any way in their free time but had no idea how to go about it. So, we handpicked them and after a brief training they are the most sought after anchors of the Jamia Community Radio. At times we directly call community members over the telephone to introduce the Community Radio and encourage them to participate. Beside this, as far as possible I also personally meet the community members and talk to them about the Community Radio.