COMMUNITY RADIO SUPPORT CENTER (CRSC)

For Community Radio Support Centre ( CRSC, the tasks are too many. One of them is to spread out the medium of radio among those who have the required resources but not the desired degree of know-how to start a station. At the same time, supporting a struggling community radio station is no less important since resources run scarce when it comes to public interest broadcasting.

Thanks to breakthrough recorded with the establishment of Radio Sagarmatha and its continuing advocacy in defense of community radio, there is a heightened degree of interest in community broadcasting now. Even municipalities are keen to set up a radio of their own. Village Development Committees (VDCs) too are not far behind as are community forestry user groups.

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working in rural areas want to establish radio stations too. But it is one thing to have a community interested in establishing radio station in their midst and totally another thing when it comes to realize the dream. The enthusiasm and interest shown by potential community radio broadcasters need tangible and solid support to realize the dream of setting up the station.

Close Cooperation: This is where CRSC is in close cooperation with various community radio stations. Not only that. It has yielded fruits, too. Almost all the blaring community radio stations have worked closely with NEFEJ as a pro-radio organization before CRSC was instituted. Its own resource constraints notwithstanding, the CRSC have done what it could to sustain the interest of potential community radio broadcasters.

CRSC has been the focal point for dozens of organizations at the grassroots level which looked forward to explore possibilities for establishing radio stations in their areas. It will not be an over-statement to say that NEFEJ led the way.

It was a pleasure that NEFEJ could assist in materializing Radio Mandan Pokhara, a village-based community radio. The CRSC was in the scene when Radio Lumbini was established by a cooperative agency. That has proved to be a successful experiment indeed. The technical and advisory support from CRSC to Radio Sworgadari of Dang has been crucial. Himchuli, which is another cooperative-run community radio station in Pokhara, was pushed by CRSC at the initial phase and later, particularly in the area of human resource development.

CRSC Objectives:

To assist in the setting up of community radio with technical and professional expertise and as well as in securing funds;
To strengthen networking among community radio stations, community radio promoters and independent community radio producers, and to facilitate exchange of radio programmes among them;
To assist communities in establishing community radio in different geographical areas keeping in mind the linguistic, cultural, ethnic and social diversity;
To strengthen capabilities of established community radio stations with professional and technical assistance;
To organise periodic trainings for community radio producers and technicians;
To identify appropriate places, from technical and resources points of view, for encouraging establishment of radio stations;
To produce manuals and reference materials in community radio;
To undertake community radio audience research/studies;
To be active in lobbying and advocacy in order to mould public opinion in favor of making laws that are conducive to the growth and expansion of community radio;
To establish and promote contacts with like-minded international organizations for world solidarity in favor of promotion of community radio broadcasting.

Functioning as a special wing of NEFEJ, the CRSC has drawn expertise from NEFEJ members who have worked or have been working with Radio Sagarmatha and other radio teams of NEFEJ' and those who ran radio programmes on community forestry and gender equality on Radio Nepal, the national broadcaster.

For more information,
write to the CRSC at
crsc@nefej.org.np or nefej@mos.com.np
or call +977-1-4261991/4260248.

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