Parminder,
Well! it's to each according to their exposure and awareness. For me, this was
an experience I quoted in the context of the original thread re: cash
registers. This person's approach was normal as could be for a buissnessman.
This person came from an extreme commercial end and I came from CR end with a
view to explore possibilties to gether to make it commercially viable. Missing
was a committment from my part re being sure about earning mega bucks through
minor community spots!
And you are so right about 'development should pay for itself' . I worked with
a CR in station and we endeavoured to be self-sustainble. This was by way of
having radio spots, selling air time to community groups, producing programmes
for educational institutions and socially conscious groups, raising money
through memberships and running annual radiothon. this gave us enough to
sustain a CR with 15 and more employees and many be over 300 volunteer
broadcasters. we were backed by unversity consortium, which gave regular
funding. So here was a successful CR which sustained itself. As such I don't
find talking about buisness/marketing as regressive as money is must for any
venture. In the instance I quoted, it was about difference in committment. At
the CR station I worked with for almost a decade, we faced the same issue with
broadcasters. Most of them were committed to the social awareness part of it
and some purely 'used' our station as a launch pad to get into better paid
public and commercial radio. So all kinds of people floated thru our station
but station never drifted from its committment which was ensured by
well-established code of practise, guidelines. CR broadcasters national
umbrella body and so on.
So that experience didn't disturb me except that I had to let go of a chance to
put to pratice my CR exprience in an Indian setting. I have moved on.
sumegha
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:35:56 +0530From: [email protected]:
[email protected]; [email protected]: Re: [cr-india] when cash
registers ring for community radioSumegha Your experience, and the earlier
observations made by Sajan, are disturbing. And I hope they are disturbing
enough for all of those in the CR movement to commit ourselves to understanding
this phenomenon and take steps to fight it. It is not difficult to 'understand'
this phenomenon if we realize that most of those who speak of setting up
'community' telecentres openly profess somewhat similar plans and expectations,
as the person you met did. While in the CR movement one is still a bit on the
defensive to take such a stand, it is considered quite respectable in the
telecentre movement (speaking in general terms and not about all telecentre
initiatives; our own organization supports community telecentres). This is the
new 'sustainability' mantra as the primary yardstick of any ICT project.
Basically what is meant to be said is that 'development should pay for itself'
and governmental transfers or other kind of public funding may really not be
required. Such practices have done precious little for communities, or for that
matter for 'telecentres', but they have certainly been quite successful in
entrenching a new ideology of business models and marketisation of development.
What you see is simply an open expression of it. While one can understand the
motivation and the strength of the dominant forces driving such an ideology,
there also has been the problem that traditional development actors often
acquiesce in treating new ICTs in a 'different' way. I never have been
able to understand what is about the new ICTs - computers, Internet etc - that
lends them to be seen primarily from a 'market' rather than a 'community'
angle, as community radio is seen. Is there anything essential and specific to
new ICTs vis a vis the old ones which is responsible for this. I don't think
so. If anything, new ICTs because of their collaborative possibilities may be
even better candidates for collective and community-based appropriation.
However dominant forces, seeking an early advantage, have entrenched a solid
ideology around the new ICTs, and traditional development actors who were
either too busy figuring out ways to meet the so many developmental challenges,
or took a simplistic attitude to new ICTs as just harbingers of neoliberal
globalization, have largely failed to provide any alternative, pro-development,
conceptions. (Apologies for such generalizations which may be unfair to some/
many.)I keep hoping that the community orientation of the CR movement could
be used to communitize telecentre movement or ICTD, but the reverse looks like
happening. The way forward from a CR perspective therefore may be to get more
pro-active, and get on the offensive - challenge the dominant trappings and
ideologies of telecentre practice and ICTD theory, to stop the damage that it
seems to be causing to the CR movement. Meanwhile, I must clarify that I have
nothing against markets - which are one of the principal institutions of our
social organizing, nor against sustainability - a concept used since long in
development practice, but in a much broader sense. The fact that I must
immediately make such clarifications, or else risk being misunderstood or
labeled regressive (if not something worse), speaks volumes about the
dominance of a certain ideology. Apparently, one can use terms like business
models and revenue streams in ICTD without any corresponding clarifications at
all. Thats all, Sumegha, the person you met did.Parminder sumegha agarwal
wrote:
Off late I was approached by one CR station owner to take up the role of PD
with the station. This person rued about investment of few lakhs in setting up
the station. This person's main concern was to recover the money invested ASAP.
Idea was that I should not only earn my salary and also deliver lots of profit.
That too with hardly having any program content worth broadcast available.
Further discussions were held whereby partnership was offered and I was also
asked for a marketing plan with clear timeline re: recovering revenue through
advertisment. I too spent lot of time explaining the vision and scope of CR to
this person. No doubt our discussions led to nowhere. txsumegha
Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:44:46 -0800From: [email protected]:
[email protected]; [email protected]: Re: [cr-india] when cash
registers ring for community radio
This story is obviously the work of a highly imaginative desk editor --
especially the headline - because nothing much in the story seems to suggest
that the Jamia station is going to rake in anything close to big bucks, what
with Rs 50 for a 10 second ad. If they can raise enough to pay reasonable
stipends to their staff, that will be a miracle.ArtiArti Jaiman Project
Manager: TRF Radio [email protected] www.trfindia.org www.jaiman.org
www.pitara.com--- On Wed, 24/12/08, sajan venniyoor <[email protected]> wrote:
From: sajan venniyoor <[email protected]>Subject: [cr-india] when cash
registers ring for community radioTo: "CR India" <[email protected]>Date:
Wednesday, 24 December, 2008, 12:48 PM
This is the second press story in a row on how CR is going "to set cash
registers ringing". (Another one had appeared in Indian Express last week:
'Community Radio Must Earn Revenue')
Not only is the story below factually incorrect (IMS Noida tells me that they
are already broadcasting ads), this media projection of CRS as a cash-cow is
sending out very wrong signals. Like many others on this list, I have often
been approached by dubious individuals and NGOs in search of ringing cash
registers courtesy 'community radio'. Very often in Delhi -- and recently in
Patna -- I've had long, surreal conversations with people who assume that CR is
a kind of cut-price commercial radio station. The tragedy is that, given the
loopholes in the policy, anyone can set up a network of CR stations and turn
them all into low-cost commercial FM channels without even bending the law.
Unfortunately, it is the genuine community-based group, with little or no
interest in making profits, that's grilled endlessly on their revenue model and
why they don't plan to broadcast round the clock. The other sort, who prepare a
business plan before they think of a programme plan, set the standards of
'sustainability' that the rest of us are supposed to shoot for.
I guess it is difficult to tell whether it is cash registers ringing or bells
tolling when one's ears are stuffed with greed and ignorance.
Sajan
'This is Radio Jamia, and you can hear our cash register ringing'
Hindustan Times, 24 Dec 2008
Come January, Radio Jamia on 90.4 FM — run by Jamia Millia Islamia University —
will become the first campus community radio station in the Capital to air
commercials.
And this is exclusively meant for the benefit of local products and commercial
ventures.
"Our radio reaches out to people within 10 km. This new feature will provide a
platform for the local tea stall, the nondescript beauty parlour, eating joint
or even a small-time soap manufacturer within the area to popularise their
product or service," said GR Syed, Reader and in-charge of Radio Jamia. The
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting allows community radio stations to
have a five-minute commercial spot every hour.
There are five operational community radio stations managed by educational
institutions in Delhi, including those run by Delhi University (DU) and Indian
Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC).
DU and IIMC don't plan to introduce commercial spots in the near future. This
will make Radio Jamia the first among them to generate revenue through
advertisements. The station currently airs programmes for six hours every day.
Private institutions, namely Jagan Institute of Management and Jagannath
International Management School, run the other two stations.
"The commercial length will be anywhere between 10 and 30 seconds and we've
decided on a tentative charge of Rs 50 for the same. Currently, our volunteers
and radio jockeys work without pay. We would like to start paying them a token
amount with the money earned through advertisements," said Syed.
If needed, students of the Mass Communication and Research Centre will also
help produce the commercials.
"They will, however, have to pay the rent for the using the university studio,"
said Syed.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=IndiaSectionPage&id=7a66cbb5-7e23-41a8-91c9-1a187b110da5&&Headline='This+is+Radio+Jamia,+and+you+can+hear+our+cash+register+ringing'_______________________________________________
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