Role of Community Radio in Rural Development

Community is a type of service that caters to the interests of a certain area, broadcasting content that is popular to a local audience but which may often be overlooked by commercial or mass-media broadcasters. The term has somewhat different meanings in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Australia. In the UK, the idea of community-based services can be traced back at least as far as the original concept for BBC local in the early 1960s. Thereafter various land-based unlicensed stations (Such as East London Radio, and Radio AMY (Alternative Media for You)) developed the idea further. As stations proliferated during the late 1970s and early 1980s these stations were joined by those broadcasting specifically to minority immigrant communities (Afro-Caribbean and Asian etc.), particularly in cities such as London, Birmingham, Bristol, and Manchester. Although, radio remains synonymous with pirate radio for some people in the UK, most minority immigrant stations focused purely on specific musical genres and were operated (theoretically at least) on a not- for-profit basis. Community services in the UK are operated on a not-for-profit basis with community ownership and control built in to their structures. Following an experiment started in 2001 by the former UK broadcast regulator The Radio Authority, since 2005 some 200 such stations have been licensed by the UK broadcasting regulator (Of com). Most such stations broadcast on FM (typically at a radiated power level of approximately 25 Watts (per-plane)) although there are a few that operate on AM (medium wave), particularly in more rural areas.