* Radio & Us: Panel Discussion at AROI's second annual Radio Congress (2011)

* Radio must also help trigger social upliftment and change: Anurradha Prasad

NEW DELHI: At its second annual Radio Congress (2011) AROI partnered with UNICEF as its social development partner, advocating to over 300 members of the Radio fraternity -- including CEOs and Programming Heads, government representatives and mediapersons – the need to include children's voices in regular programming.

UNICEF participated in a panel discussion â€?Radio And Us – A Personal Account of the Panelits' Relationship With Radio'. The panelists were Chairperson of Prasar Bharati and well-known journalist and editor, Mrinal Pande, UNICEF Chief of Communication Angela Walker, BIG FM Operations Head Sudha Sadanand and Radio City RJ Simran Kohli, and the discussion was moderated by News 24 Deputy Executive Producer and Anchor Anjana Kashyap.

Pande reminded participants, The public broadcaster was the first to inform women on reproductive health. This is information that even a mother in the family will not share with her daughter. But the public broadcaster brought this information to millions of women....

UNICEF Chief of Communication Angela Walker spoke of The Role Of Radio As A Social Catalyst 

While emphasizing on the immense opportunity and platform that Radio can provide to young people, Walker reminded Radio broadcasters that 25% of India's current population is made up of adolescents, which accounts for 20% of world's young population  When we are asking you as Radio broadcasters is to start concentrating on adolescents – it is not only from a humanitarian perspective but we think it makes sound broadcasting and economic sense,... she said.

Urging broadcasters to participate in the International Children's Day of  Broadcasting,  Walker said that in 2010, UNICEF had initiated partnership with 17 radio stations across the country, giving voice to voiceless young people. Last year All India Radio Lucknow was the winner and this year too, UNICEF would like to invite radio broadcasters to nominate special programming that they are doing with young people,... she said.

Walker shared an example of radio programming, which highlights gender issues in an infotainment initiative (Radio Dhamaal Jharkhand had embedded a 13-year-old girl's voice on gender issues) within the standard Hindi film song request format of private radio 

The ICDB initiative of Radio Dhamaal with stations in Jharkhand, Bihar and Maharashtra was played to show how the voice of a thirteen year old girl discussing gender issues was embedded within the usual format of Hindi film song requests.

Mrinal Pande reminisced: I grew up in to a town where newspapers arrived at 4.30 in the morning, and sometimes the entire week's newspapers arrived collectively. So the only source of communication, news and entertainment was All India Radio. People started and ended their day with All India Radio.... Speaking about what Radio has meant to people, she said,  Radio was like a family for us All India Radio has a treasure trove of classical music  From empowerment to providing vital information about controlling reproduction etc, the Public Service broadcaster has officially helped the women of India in all possible ways....

Pande suggested that the Hindi Film industry with its vast reach to the masses could partner with organizations such as UNICEF for carrying socially relevant messages in local languages in cinema and radio programs.

Bollywood producer Madhur Bhandarkar agreed with Pande's suggestion and stressed on the need for producing localized content in vernacular languages.

Panel moderator Anjana Kashyap said, Radio is a powerful medium that reaches the poorest and the richest alike. To me it is a friend in the loneliness of my car as I drive back home from office in the night. It is my bunch of favourite songs, but apart from that it's a big medium being wasted because airing of news is not permitted. Radio should be liberated from all these inhibitions. All this hue and cry about meaningless chatter from RJs in between songs is not justified since business and profit-driven motives have perverted almost all mediums. We cannot expect Radio to remain pious....

Sudha Sadanand said that to her and her company BIG FM, Commercial Radio doesn't stand just for entertainment; it is about being locally relevant, informing, engaging and empowering in the most entertaining fashion....

She was upbeat that With Phase III opening up, the future of the Radio industry in the country will be extremely bright and challenging. We believe that Phase III will do for Radio what  Facebook did to the world of the internet: throw up multiple opportunities,  connect the multitudes, evolve as a more credible medium and open up several avenues with News and sports made accessible to listeners....

RJ Simran Kohli of Radio City said, For me Radio presents a world of possibilities. It has grown from 1995 to today and changed for the better – one needs to understand that in spite of all the limitations and regulations, Radio has grown considerably. Radio is a medium with which you can deliver anything. However,... she said, Without adequate resources, plus a helping hand from the government,  Radio cannot do much.... Reacting to producer Madhur Bhandarkar's observation that Radio today is not like All India Radio, Kohli said, We cannot have programmes like Hava Mahal in the times of social networking. Madhur wouldn't have made Fashion in 1942. Radio has changed with the times and has progressed a lot....

Why AROI chose to partner with UNICEF:

On why AROI chose to partner with UNICEF, Anurradha Prasad, President – AROI, told RadioAndMusic.com, I feel Radio is the biggest source of information for people. It is the common man's medium, and therefore its basic job is to deliver important information to people. Especially in a developing country like India, where you have issues of poverty and children's support- and emancipation needs, it becomes very relevant for Radio to act as a source of information which can help trigger social upliftment and change. With this in mind, there could have been no better choice of a partner for AROI than UNICEF, which has done such brilliant work with children in India and all over the world....

On the example Walker cited in the panel discussion of an information-cum-entertainment initiative adopted by a Radio station (embedding a 13-year-old girl's voice on gender issues within the  standard Hindi film song request format of private radio), Prasad said, Radio Dhamaal embedded the little girl's voice in its song request programming as we did not want the critical message to be seen as preachy; we wanted to mix it with the flow of the song request format to make it more effective. We will continue to make these efforts with socially relevant initiatives – as both, an industry body, and, I am sure, individual networks too....

Today, Private FM stations are extremely active with Corporate Social Responsibility in a very sincere way,... Prasad said, adding, This will make Radio, which is the best source of information for the common man, even more relevant and significant....