Mumbai Varsity to get its own community radio

Nehul Jagdish Kumar

Mumbai University will have its own community radio. The radius will be 18 km to 20 km covering major parts of Mumbai. More than 20 lakh students will access the radio service. It will be on air by Feb 2007. The frequency is 91.2 MHz. It will be accessible world wide through the internet.

The radio will link more than 400 colleges including recognised and affiliated to Mumbai University. This was an idea of the university to cater to the needs of the students. The campus is spread in more than 300 acres.

Speaking on this development, Dr N Hatekar member secretary of the committee told Employment & NRI Times, community radio is, “a non-profit venture run by the community for the benefit of the community” and the committee was set up in the early 2006.

Community in two sense, students and people who will be living in the radius of the radio. The programmes will be academics and information in nature. It will be having five minutes advertisement in one hour to balance the functioning of the radio, Hatekar added.

There will be cultural programmes, debates and translation programmes as students learning French will have to translate the French play in Hindi and Marathi, giving the students a way of learning from this service, he elaborated.

It will bridge the gap of communication in the campus area.

It will provide a platform to upcoming artists, singers, musicians to perform for the university radio on a freelance basis. The department of folks and dance will help us a lot, said Pankaj Athawale, Radio Jockey and Programme Coordinator told Employment & NRI Times.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is setting the studio at Ranade Bhavan, Kalina campus. The university has got the licence and is awaiting clearance from the Standing committee for frequency consumer authority, Department of Communication, Ministry of Communication and Broadcasting.