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Mass Media and Communications privately run radio stations sought to provide entertainment to its listeners. As privately run FM channels are not permitted to broadcast any political news bulletins, many of these channels specialise in ‘particular kinds’ of popular music to retain their audiences. One such FM channel claims that it broadcasts ‘All hits all day!’ Most of the FM channels which are popular among young urban professionals and students, often belong to media conglomerates. Like ‘Radio Mirchi’ belongs to the Times of India group, Red FM is owned by Living Media and Radio City by the Star Network. But independent radio stations engaged in public broadcastings like National Public Radio (USA) or BBC (UK) are missing from our broadcasting landscape. In the two films: ‘Rang de Basanti’ and ‘Lage Raho Munnai Bhai’, the radio is used as an active medium of communication although both the movies are set in the contemporary period. In ‘Rang de Basanti’, the conscientious, angry college youth, inspired by the legend of Bhagat Singh assassinates a minister and then captures All India Radio to reach out to the people and disseminate their message. While in ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’, the heroine is a radio jockey who wakes up the country with her hearty and full-throated “Good Morning Mumbai!”, the hero too takes recourse to the radio station to save a girl’s life. The potential for using FM channels is enormous. Further privatisation of radio stations and the emergence of community owned radio stations would lead to the growth of radio stations. The demand for local news is growing. The number of homes listening to FM in India has also reinforced the worldwide trend of networks getting replaced by local radio. The box below reveals not only the ingenuity of a village youth but also the need for catering to local cultures. It may well be the only village FM radio station on the Asian sub-continent. B ox 7.14 The transmission equipment, costing little…, may be the cheapest in the world. But the local people definitely love it. On a balmy morning in India’s northern state of Bihar, young Raghav Mahato gets ready to fire up his home-grown FM radio station. Thousands of villagers, living in a 20 km (12 miles) radius of Raghav’s small repair shop and radio station …tune their … radio sets to catch their favourite station. After the crackle of static, a young, confident voice floats up the radio waves. “Good morning! Welcome to Raghav FM Mansoorpur 1! Now listen to your favourite songs,” announces anchor and friend Sambhu into a cellotape-plastered microphone surrounded by racks of local music tapes. For the next 12 hours, Raghav Mahato’s outback FM radio station plays films songs and broadcasts public interest messages on HIV and polio, an105ven snappy local news, including alerts on missing children and the opening of local shops. Raghav and his friend run the indigenous radio station out of Raghav’s thatched-roof Priya Electronics Shop. Reprint 2026-27