IIT-Bombay students launch their own community radio. Will bak-bak get intellectual now?
Last night at 10 pm, students of IIT-Bombay opened up a new avenue to gain some freedom of expression for themselves. They joined the elite club of universities around the world, like MIT, Harvard, etc, who have their own student-run community radio. Hey radio jockeys, you have intellectual bak-bak to compete with now.
The pilot show kicked off last night, with an introduction, a book review, a travelogue, a hasya kavi sammelan and a programme on trivia – teasers of what to expect ahead. This web-based radio is run completely by the student body of IIT, its target audience being everyone who lives on the IIT campus.
“Students have been thinking of setting up a radio station for two years now,” says Sajid Shariff, one of the enthusiasts in the project. “But getting air space is a problem, so we decided to go in for web-based radio. Basically we want to articulate our thoughts, initiate debates and form a point of contact for the entire IIT community. And the cost of running a web-based radio is minimal.”
Of course, ‘freedom of expression’ comes with restrictions here, unlike in universities like MIT and Harvard where the freedom is a free-forall. There, professors are often, to use student terminology, ‘roasted’ on radio. There’s even an incident, famous in the student world, where students of a famous university targeted an Apple honcho on radio when he came on campus to give away prizes, after being in the news for going hunting and hurting animals. The ‘chief guest’ was hauled over the coals on radio.
“Obviously, we have to be more restrained and politically correct here, for our culture is different,” says Sajid. “We don’t want to have to shut down soon after launching! It took a lot to get permission to start it in the first place.”
So, the content will be perfectly ‘decent’, no, not even targeting IIT’s famous ‘dance club’ which is normally the target of many politically incorrect jokes among students. There will be travelogues narrated by students, panel debates on the burning topics of the day, interviews, plays. And yes, a fair amount of original music by IITians – some original compositions, some cover versions sung by IITians in different albums.
“Our USP is that the radio is open to all 10,000-odd residents on campus, including the 5000-strong student body,” says Sajid. “In fact, right now, we don’t have a fixed agenda. We’ve kept the plan fluid, so that we can shape it as we go along, with feedback from the community.
But what they aim to do is make the radio a mandatory part of life in IIT. “We want to make it a ‘need’ in IIT, where one must switch it on as a must, every day. We want to run all important announcements through the radio, have interesting serialised radio plays, basically concentrate all the action here,” says Sajid.
To begin with, the radio will run three days a week – Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays – 10 pm onwards. The radio is available at http://gymkhana.iitb.ac.in/~cultural/radio/. Later, as and when more people come forward with content, the days and the talk time will be increased.
MUMBAI MIRROR BUREAU
Last night at 10 pm, students of IIT-Bombay opened up a new avenue to gain some freedom of expression for themselves. They joined the elite club of universities around the world, like MIT, Harvard, etc, who have their own student-run community radio. Hey radio jockeys, you have intellectual bak-bak to compete with now.
The pilot show kicked off last night, with an introduction, a book review, a travelogue, a hasya kavi sammelan and a programme on trivia – teasers of what to expect ahead. This web-based radio is run completely by the student body of IIT, its target audience being everyone who lives on the IIT campus.
“Students have been thinking of setting up a radio station for two years now,” says Sajid Shariff, one of the enthusiasts in the project. “But getting air space is a problem, so we decided to go in for web-based radio. Basically we want to articulate our thoughts, initiate debates and form a point of contact for the entire IIT community. And the cost of running a web-based radio is minimal.”
Of course, ‘freedom of expression’ comes with restrictions here, unlike in universities like MIT and Harvard where the freedom is a free-forall. There, professors are often, to use student terminology, ‘roasted’ on radio. There’s even an incident, famous in the student world, where students of a famous university targeted an Apple honcho on radio when he came on campus to give away prizes, after being in the news for going hunting and hurting animals. The ‘chief guest’ was hauled over the coals on radio.
“Obviously, we have to be more restrained and politically correct here, for our culture is different,” says Sajid. “We don’t want to have to shut down soon after launching! It took a lot to get permission to start it in the first place.”
So, the content will be perfectly ‘decent’, no, not even targeting IIT’s famous ‘dance club’ which is normally the target of many politically incorrect jokes among students. There will be travelogues narrated by students, panel debates on the burning topics of the day, interviews, plays. And yes, a fair amount of original music by IITians – some original compositions, some cover versions sung by IITians in different albums.
“Our USP is that the radio is open to all 10,000-odd residents on campus, including the 5000-strong student body,” says Sajid. “In fact, right now, we don’t have a fixed agenda. We’ve kept the plan fluid, so that we can shape it as we go along, with feedback from the community.
But what they aim to do is make the radio a mandatory part of life in IIT. “We want to make it a ‘need’ in IIT, where one must switch it on as a must, every day. We want to run all important announcements through the radio, have interesting serialised radio plays, basically concentrate all the action here,” says Sajid.
To begin with, the radio will run three days a week – Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays – 10 pm onwards. The radio is available at http://gymkhana.iitb.ac.in/~cultural/radio/. Later, as and when more people come forward with content, the days and the talk time will be increased.
Students want to articulate their thoughts, initiate debates and form a point of contact for the entire IIT community through the radio
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