The much awaited community radio service of Ranchi University (RU) -- ‘Radio Kaanchi’ will go on air from March 2019. After clearing several hurdles, the community radio service will work on the model of ‘Infotainment’ and ‘Edutainment’ genres taking up relevant issues of the tribal region while giving voice to students’ related matters.
Earlier, work on the community radio service was stuck in several clearance processes.
“After completing the clearance process from all the major government organisations and other agencies, the community radio service will be initiated from mid March 2019, as per the instructions of RU VC – Dr. Ramesh Kumar Pandey. All documentation works have been completed. The preparations are on full-swing, the community radio service will be started here at the Basic Science Building of RU at Morhabadi,” said Director -- ‘Kaanchi’ Community Radio Service, Anand Kumar Thakur.
“Acoustically equipped labs are getting readied up in assistance with Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Limited (BECIL), a Mini-Ratna firm under Information & Broadcasting Ministry,” he added.
According to the Director, considering the guidelines of the Ministry and after rounds of tender procurement process for hiring private partners to run the community radio station, all related equipments for setting up the community radio station here is being supplied by the BECIL only.
“The members of Technical Advisory Committee of RU have advised to take assistance of BECIL in setting up hi-tech laboratories. This time, no private companies will be hired separately for this specific purpose. Testing of equipments, dry run before going on air in March 2019 including the training of students will be completed soon. The tentative dates of the launch of Radio ‘Kaanchi’ will be released soon,” said Thakur.
The concept of starting a community radio at the State-owned University was tabled in 2011 but was not pursued upon by the university for a long period. Recently in 2018, Radio ‘Kaanchi’ has been provided its own FM bandwidth--90.4 by the Centre. According to the Director, the university personnel had applied for Standing Advisory Committee for Frequency Allocation (SACFA) clearance online, a few years ago.
The Government of Jharkhand (GoJ) in January 2018 had sanctioned Rs. 40 lakh for setting up the community radio station on the premises of RU Campus, while Rs. 36 lakh was approved for meeting all other annual recurring disbursements of this much awaited community radio venture. As per the university officials, besides taking up the issues of students’ welfare, the community radio service will be also utilised for endorsing several ongoing schemes of Government of India (GoI) like skill development, stand-up programme and start up scheme.