Democratising the airwaves

Listening to FM radio using mini sets in an electronic goods market in Kolkata. One of the most affordable electronic devices, the radio is the most accessible medium of information in rural India. - DESHAKALYAN CHOWDHURY/AFP

Despite the launch of a gamut of private channels, the immense potential of radio as a mass medium will remain untapped as long as it continues to be in the grip of state-sponsored broadcasting.

THE end of April saw the high-profile launch of several private FM (frequency modulation) channels in Delhi, following the success of such channels in cities such as Bangalore and Mumbai. Meanwhile, on a lower key, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced `community broadcasting' licences for educational institutions to set up their own local FM stations. Taken together, can these moves be seen as a tentative start to the dismantling of the state's monopoly over radio?

While the cable and satellite revolution forced sweeping policy changes in the case of television, radio broadcasting has remained largely ignored by successive administrations. This situation is especially illogical, considering that the power and reach of radio remains unrivalled - there are still some 104 million homes with radios, twice the number of homes with television sets. This venerable medium is suited ideally to the needs of a developing society where large sections of the population are illiterate. Radio technology is simple and easy-to-learn, and producing content is relatively low-cost. Since it is one of the most affordable electronic devices, accessible to most people in rural India, radio is clearly the most democratising mass medium.

Yet, in India the medium is still caught in the stranglehold of the state-run All India Radio (AIR). India remains one of the last countries to open up its airwaves to private players. Even the tightly centralised British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which AIR is modelled on, was exposed to commercial competition as early as the 1950s.

Bandana Mukhopadhyaya, a former Chief Producer at AIR who has been working for the cause of community radio, explains: "Radio broadcasting across the world follows a three-tier system of public broadcasting, commercial radio, and community radio". All these forms have different functions and complement each other. For example, community radio often discusses the local, specific implications of state policy. Similarly, public broadcasting addresses issues that commercial stations largely ignore. John Catlett, the chief operating officer of Radio City, observed that "ad-supported commercial radio and community radio have different roles and agendas, and do not cut into each other's turf".

However, in India, AIR had taken all these functions upon itself, creating a state monopoly over radio. As late as 1990, Prasar Bharati was conceived as an autonomous broadcasting institution, which would handle the state-run broadcasters, Doordarshan and AIR. However, government controls have proved difficult to dodge and the autonomy of Prasar Bharati is more notional than real. Still, things started looking a lot better for radio after 1995, when the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgment declaring that the airwaves were public property and that the interest of the public came first. After a detailed study of the evolution of broadcast laws in Europe and the United States, the court said that a monopoly over broadcasting - either by the government, by an individual or by an organisation - was unacceptable. Therefore, in the mid-1990s AIR made its first move to share the spectrum, by auctioning radio airwaves to private FM channels all over India. While initially FM channels were allowed to lease time on AIR in selected cities, after October 1999 as many as 108 private FM channels were allowed to operate across the country. However, this policy has been guided by a purely economic rationale, so that as many as 12 stations have been licensed in some cities, with no regulatory framework to ensure programme diversity. Also, recently, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting decided to grant licences to educational institutions using FM transmitters with a power of 50 watts or less. While stations such as Radio City and Radio Mirchi have proved popular in cities like Mumbai and Bangalore, these channels are prohibited from airing news and current affairs.

Thus although commercial FM radio stations have a broadcast area of about 60 sq km, instead of rooting themselves in the overall concerns of the city, they are restricted to topics such as music, entertainment and `general information' like the traffic situation. As community radio stations are virtually non-existent in India, the state retains a vice-like grip on all crucial issues relevant to the public. Information and Broadcasting Secretary Pawan Chopra said: "News and current affairs are coveted by broadcasters only because they come with lobbying power, and not because they appeal to audiences,". However, the fact remains that as of now, AIR is the sole provider of news and current affairs on radio - a situation that is as unjustifiable as the monopoly of a government-controlled newspaper or television channel.

The new FM radio stations have certainly shown up AIR's increasing alienation in urban India. As Sumantra Dutta, chief operating officer of Radio City, points out, "radio listenership has grown in excess of 300 per cent since the entry of private FMs in towns and cities". This is ample testimony to not only the eagerness of the public but AIR's inability to tap this need. The government made a few stabs at setting up local radio stations such as the Radio Rural Forum in the 1950s, but its efforts collapsed because they were top-down in nature and lacked long-term commitment.

According to Rajiv Mehrotra, who heads the Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT) in Delhi, radio legislation was structured in a manner that would not let in anything that would be uncomfortable to the status quo. He said that the PSBT's attempt was to expand the concept of public service broadcasting and demonstrate "the magic, the power, the relevance of community radio" by partnering with Prasar Bharati. For its community radio project in Delhi, which is still at an embryonic stage, the PSBT will lease time on AIR and provide the programming; half the costs would be met by Prasar Bharati. Calling public service radio in India a moribund medium "more heard about than actually heard", Mehrotra said that the PSBT's initiative aimed to rescue the idea of public service broadcasting from the centralised bureaucracy on one hand and the market on the other.

Despite the government's claims, the recent "allocation of licences to educational institutions is nowhere close to community radio," asserted Bandana Mukhopadhyaya. Community radio is a concept with various interpretations, but it is primarily run by a not-for-profit organisation and reflects the specific interests and needs of the community that it is licensed to serve. This may involve owning and managing a radio station, or more realistically, leasing time on a local AIR station. (Here, the community is defined in spatial terms rather than as a community of interests.) As a workable model, Bandana Mukhopadhyaya suggests that the state provide the hardware and outsource the content to local voluntary organisations. For instance, in the U.S., Spanish or Mexican communities take up time slots to provide entertainment and community-oriented programming, she said. As an example of genuine grassroots broadcasting in India, she cited the efforts of the Kuchh Mahila Vikas Sangathan, a voluntary group working with rural women in Gujarat, who, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme and the Department of Rural Development, took a half-hour slot on AIR, Bhuj, to explain the roles and responsibilities of panchayats.

It is ironic that radio, arguably the most inventive, lively mass medium the world over, faces so many stifling restrictions. While in India the fight is to prise open the state's clutch on the spectrum, in countries like the U.S. the struggle is against corporate media behemoths such as Clear Channel and Infinity. In a recent book Rebels on Air, Jesse Walker chronicles the anarchic history of independent low-power radio in the U.S. He argues that pirate radio has often evolved out of an unresponsive media climate and presents a free-thinking, content-driven alternative to commercial radio and state-run stations. In fact, media theorist Robert McChesney, who has tracked the development of radio since the 1920s to the present, views operating pirate radio as a form of civil disobedience. "They are to the media what Rosa Parks was to the civil rights movement," he says. Bandana Mukhopadhyaya agrees, warning that if the current situation continues to be stifling for community-driven radio, one might be forced to take the same subversive route in India.

Radio reform has come too little, too late, feel media analysts. By charging an exorbitant licence fee (about Rs.10 crores), AIR ensures that only the most deep-pocketed investors, like the Star-owned Radio City or the Times group-owned Radio Mirchi, can enter the field. This is especially hard since these FM stations find themselves caught in a situation where radio gets a measly 1.5 per cent of the total advertisement. Also, while non-governmental organisations can seek broadcast time from the government, the telecast fee is too high for non-profit applications. Bandana Mukhopadhyaya dismisses the government's attempts to pass off licences to educational institutions as `community radio'. She says that despite theoretical concessions, private partnership remains a sham so that "they can say on paper that they are privatising radio, but in reality, state control is as rigid as ever".

One of the reasons why no substantive changes have been initiated, according to Pawan Chopra, is that "we do not have a regulatory body for radio modelled on the lines of the Federal Communications Commission in the U.S." He added: "These are only the first steps towards including private radio in the spectrum." Recent studies suggest that radio in India has a potential listenership of 98.5 per cent, and that the medium can get its groove back by better diversification. However, unless the government commits itself to loosening its own grip on radio, the entire debate is just a lot of empty sound and fury, signifying nothing major for the media situation in the country.