NITT launches community FM radio

The National Institute of Technology-Tiruchi (NITT) on Monday launched a community FM radio service.The NITT FM 90.8MHz would have a reach of about 15 km, covering five villages, adopted by NITT under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan. The radio will focus on development domains such as education, hygiene, health, sanitation, safety, employability, women development, agriculture, small businesses, according to G.Kannabiran, Director (In-charge), NITT.“We are the first NIT to start a community radio. We have also been recognised for our social responsible initiatives. We have a diverse surroundings with large organisations such as BHEL, OFT, HAPP and hundreds of SMEs located around the campus. We are also surrounded by a number rural villages. We have a great opportunity to contribute towards sustainable development in the locality,” Mr.Kannabiran said.“Our focus to society will take a completely new shape with the launch of the community radio to connect the NITT’s technical community with the industry and society,” he added.

Launching the radio by releasing its logo, Ashok Sundaresan, President, BHEL Small Industries Association, said the community radio needs to be participatory and service oriented. He suggested that the NITT could look into the possibilities of obtaining international funding through agencies such as UNDP for sustaining the radio. He urged NITT to focus on fostering entrepreneurial skills through its programmes.K. Natarajan, Head of Programmes, All India Radio, Tiruchi, shared his experiences and pointed out that local FM radios had played a vital role in giving alerts to people at times of natural calamities.B. Venkatramani, Convenor, NITT-Community Radio Station, said the Community Radio studio had state-of-art facilities for recording, editing and broadcasting. Bhaskar, Coordinator, broadcasting, presented the technical details of the radio station .Akhila Avala, students’ vice-president, NITT, elaborated on the role of the students’ in the development of the programmes.