This video discussing Anna Radio, features Dr. I. Arul Aram, Professor and Head, Dept. of Media Sciences, and Dr. R. Lavanya, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Media Sciences, at Anna University, Chennai, India.
Anna Community Radio
Anna Community Radio was launched on 1 February 2004, following the freeing up of the Indian airwaves, becoming the country’s first community radio station.
The station focuses on serving poor communities, particularly women, who live around the campus in low-income localities. The station was initially designed as a campus radio station serving Anna University, but soon changed direction to include communication for development under the leadership of R. Sreedher.
The station was initially based on AIR’s (All India Radio) local radio experiments and on narrowcasting audio initiatives run by civil society organisations such as Voices and Drishti Media. However, the establishment of Anna Community Radio finally provided a more consistent and powerful advocate for its audience of underrepresented listeners.
Unlike more populist stations broadcasting in the area, Anna Community Radio doesn’t broadcasting film-based songs, but takes the time to produce and broadcast original folk songs.
Over the years, Anna Community Radio has grown from strength to strength, serving as both a trusted media outlet, and as a training facility for students and community members to gain valuable broadcasting experience. Alongside its radio transmissions, the station’s content is simultaneously delivered through the internet as well. Like many community stations, Anna Community Radio undertakes a range of offline activities too, and frequently conducts training workshops for members of its community and the wider radio fraternity. The station has adopted eight communities in its coverage zone, particularly poor households, and slum clearance tenements, with the primary target group being poor women in those communities.
Disaster Relief
During the 2004 tsunami, Anna Community Radio provided relief and rehabilitation activities as well as broadcasting relevant disaster relief content. The station also held a pioneering international conference on community radio supported by the Commonwealth of Learning and the UNESCO in December 2004. The government of India was very appreciative of the station’s efforts and replicated the experiment in remote places in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Anna Community Radio also served the community during the 2015 floods that devastated Chennai. Then, during the 2020–2021 Covid-19 lockdown period, when educational institutions were shut, Anna Community Radio broadcast educational content, particularly spoken English, so children isolated at home could benefit and feel a sense of connection.
Recognition
In 2022 the station was recognised by the Indian government as one of the leading examples of the community radio movement. Anna Community Radio has also received several national awards for best community radio practices. At the National Community Radio Awards function, held in New Delhi on the 16th of March 2015, Jamila, the first radio jockey from the community, was a special invitee. When the then Information and Broadcasting Minister asked her what difference community radio made to the lives of its listeners, she replied: ‘Before I joined as a volunteer in the community radio, I used to be ill-treated by my drunken husband who often disrupted the children’s education too. Now I am an empowered woman, and come what may, I shall not allow any force to disrupt the education of my children and other children in my community.’ The station continues to this day – providing a valuable service to both the student population and surrounding areas.
