Film institute starts community radio
Launched by Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute based in eastern India, a new community radio station caters to a mixed audience that includes residents of upscale apartments to original inhabitants of the area – farmers and fishermen. It provides an interesting package of music, literature and programmes on women and child welfare.
Kolkata: These days, the 10-km stretch from Ruby Hospital to Kamalgazi in east Kolkata tunes into a new band on radio: SRFTI 90.4 FM, the community radio station launched by the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI).
The radio has a package that includes a repertoire of music, literature, theatre and issues on women and child welfare. There will soon be programmes on the technical and non-technical aspects of filmmaking, said SRFTI director Swapan Mullick.
SRFTI 90.4 FM runs on two time slots — 7 to 9 in the morning and the same in the evening — from Monday to Friday. Sarod maestro Tejendra Narayan Majumdar has composed the jingle.
The station, a brainchild of Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Das Munshi, caters to an eclectic mix — from the upscale residential complexes coming up along the SRFTI campus to fishermen and farmers, the original inhabitants of the area.
The radio station boasts of sophisticated technical equipment — including imported amplifier, CD players and mixing console — to ensure transmission quality.
Mullick said he wasn’t sure of the cost involved in the project: “The community station was long overdue and the installation of equipment was made before I could take over. The project has been on for at least for two or three years. I will have to look into records and let you know,” he said.
According to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, a community radio station catering to an area of five kilometres range could cost around Rs. 30 to 40 lakhs.
“The community radio is part of the Central government’s initiative to set up such stations in academic institutions. The idea is to involve the students and faculty in various issues related to the local community,” said Mullick.
The programme content is completely designed by students with help from the faculty. The programmes are pre-recorded but the station plans to extend the transmission range by another five kilometres and introduce live shows in future.
SRFTI came under the scanner after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), in its 2007 report, detected flaws in the functioning of the institute. The technical courses overshot the specified duration, which CAG attributed to the “ad hoc approach towards its core activities.”
For instance, students who joined in 1997 batch were awarded their diplomas in 2005, five years later than the original deadline. There was no academic calendar or examination schedule in place and this situation went on till at least 2006.
