By Jerry Edling
LOS ANGELES – Amid the cacophony of new technologies that seem to proliferate with each passing year, radio remains a beacon to the disenfranchised. It is arguably the most affordable medium, and its reach makes it a viable way of reaching rural and isolated areas in which residents typically feel marginalized. As Colin Fraser and Sonia Restrepo Estrada note in UNESCO’s Community Radio Handbook,
“Any notion that TV and other sophisticated communication technology will replace radio is unfounded, for radio is in constant expansion. Its waves reach almost every corner of our planet. It is the prime electronic medium of the poor because it leaps the barriers of isolation and illiteracy, and it is the most affordable electronic medium to broadcast and receive in.”
Community radio in particular is meant to be a tool of empowerment. By definition community radio is a third model of broadcasting, separate and distinct from commercial radio and public radio. It is low-power radio, by and large, and caters to specific, frequently underserved communities in limited geographic areas. It is no accident that in India it has been burgeoning for years. Per a UNESCO publication entitled “A Report on National Consultation on Community Radio Policy IIMC New Delhi,” the struggle for community radio followed a decision by the Supreme Court of India that declared the airwaves public property, to be used for the public good. The judgment further stated that broadcasting media should promote freedom of expression and should be free of “Government monopoly or control, subject to regulation by a public body.” For years advocates of community radio in India fought for the establishment of
“a new tier of not-for-profit radio stations, owned and run by local people, typically in rural areas, which would enable marginalized communities to use the medium to create opportunities for social change, cohesion and inclusion as well as for creative and cultural expression.” Continue reading
