 Namaskar and welcome to the audiovisual program of Krishnakanto-Hondikoi State Open University. I am Dr. Juri Hazarika, Assistant Professor of Bhupen Hazarika School of Mass Communication of the University. And I am Dr. Trisha Dora Borwa, Assistant Professor from the Bhupen Hazarika School of Mass Communication, Krishnakanto-Hondik Street Open University. And today we have brought to you this discussion on the occasion of World Radio Day which is celebrated on 13th February every year all around the world. Right, so when we talk about World Radio Day, what does it refers to? Basically it talks about the importance of radio in the present day context. And the team for this year's edition of World Radio Day is devoted to radio and trust. Now the beginning of the World Radio Day stems from the United Nations Radio which was established on the 13th of February 1946. And the date was therefore a very natural choice to celebrate this mass media. World Radio Day was proclaimed at UNESCO's General Conference in 2011 following an initial proposal by Spain. And it was unanimously approved the following year by the United Nations General Assembly which declared it a United Nations International Day. Now why do we need to create a separate day for radio? Because radio is a low cost and popular medium which can actually reach the remotest areas of the world and the most marginalized people. It thereby continues to broadcast when other media are out of action for emergency communications or following a natural disaster. Finally it is a medium that has been able to fully embrace the technical developments such as broadband and digital audio broadcasting and to adapt to mobile devices. It actually continues to become the most trusted and used media in the world according to the different international reports. And this year's team as I've already said revolves on a radio in trust and which is again divided into three main sub-themes. The first is the trust in radio journalism. Basically the trust in radio journalism, this area, it talks about how to produce independent and high quality content. While respecting the basic standards of ethical journalism has become challenging in the present high tempo digital age. However, in order to keep a raised listeners trust, journalism must continue to be based on verifiable information that is shared in the public interest. And that also holds the powerful to account and help society to build a better future for all. The second most important sub-them which this year's team revolves around is trust and accessibility. That is to take care of the target audience. While reaching out to selected audience group implies serving the information needs of all listeners and being a catalyst for integration and social participation including persons with disabilities. And digital radio platforms provide grounds for innovations in the accessibility of content for the latter such as a use of sign languages or automated subtitles for hearing impaired audience when streaming. The third most important subdivision of this year's team revolves around trust and viability of radio stations. In other words, this particular sub-team talks about or discusses how to remain in a competitive pool, how can we ensure competitiveness. There are few questions that really comes to mind when we talk about this particular area. That is how can radio actually survive when financial crisis hits the media market. How to transform loyal audience engagement into financial sustainability. Since we are celebrating this special day specially for radio, let us now understand what actually radio is. So it is one of the channels or medium of mass communication. We know what mass media is, isn't it? Mass media can be divided into different categories which comprises of print media and electronic media. And when we say electronic media, we are talking about radio and television. And radio is one of the earliest forms of electronic media. Radio solely depends on sound and hence it is also called as the audio medium or it is also known as the blind medium. Audio means of sound or of the reproduction of sound. So specifically it refers to the range of frequencies which is detectable by the human ear and which is approximately 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz. So now we know that radio is a very important medium of mass communication. It has an all pervading presence in our lives and it reaches out to almost every nook and corner of the world. It has a very wide reach and access. Radio can be listened at home while driving and also while at work because it is just about the sound. The sound it helps people in carrying out the day-to-day activities of one's life. Radio helps in reproducing the different rhythms of the day. When in the morning we come across the chirpy tunes which are played in the radio and the evening hours we can listen to the late-back musical tones in the different radio programs. So hence the radio can actually touch the people in a deeper level. Now radio is a very immediate form of mass media. We can get the updates on the breaking news as soon as it happens in the society. The different weather forecasts and the latest road traffic reports all these can be listened to on the radio. So again I have already mentioned here that radio is very intimate and it is a very personal medium of communication because it touches the audience at a personal level through its different music, the words and the radio presenter also has a very important role in this regard because the radio presenter touches each and every individual who is listening to the radio through his or her words and the voice. The voice is hence a very important component of the audio media. So radio establishes a very close relationship with its audience as I have already mentioned because it is a very conversational medium. Radio is by far the most portable means of mass communication. We are here not talking about the new media forms. If we are only talking about the traditional forms of media as compared to the print or television the radio can be carried with the person. You can carry it along with you wherever you travel and hence it is very portable and hence very useful as well. Radio is the cheapest of all media forms because our radio transistor is quite cheaper as compared to the television set and other modern tools of communication. So now Dr. Trisha will explain the types of radio broadcasting to you. Thank you Juri. I think a discussion on the world radio would not be complete without understanding different types of radio broadcasting. Now we often talk about the radio broadcasting different kinds of programs, different kinds of transmission channels and all. There are very technicalities involved in this entire process. Now let me talk about radio broadcasting. From a layman's point of view it is nothing but just a transmission of audio that is sound and sometimes with relatable or related metadata by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. As far as our terrestrial broadcasting is concerned the radio waves are broadcast by land-based radio station while in satellite radio the radio waves are broadcast by satellite in outer orbit. Now there are two very common forms of radio broadcasting techniques or technologies that we can commonly refer to. They are the AM and FM that is Ampliated Modulation and Frequency Modulation. Now AM radio stations or Ampliated Modulation radio stations are transmitted in AM format while FM radio stations are transmitted in FM format. FM are basically they are older analog radio or audio standards while newer digital radio stations are transmitted in several digital audio standards like DAV which is a digital audio broadcasting, HD Radio, DRM that is Digital Radio Mondial and AM stations they were earlier broadcasting stations which were developed and slowly the AM stations were replaced by the FM stations. Then let us understand this is not a type of radio broadcasting but it is just a part of you know one of the new trends or maybe you can say one of the different forms of broadcasting videos it is known as a pirate radio. Now from the term itself we can make out when we talk about pirate radio it is something it is a non-regulated radio transmission that there is no regulation involved in this kind of transmission and this is mostly used to describe the illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes and sometimes it is also used for illegal two-way radio operation. So and if you look at the historical overview if you try to trace the history of pirate radio it can be traced back to the unlicensed nature of the transmission but historically there has been you know occasionally used in most of the sea vessels you know whenever the ships they sail in the high sea area they try to you know transmit certain intimate certain some kind of informations you know to some other persons maybe outside the country also so illegally they try to transmit the different transmissions. Then we can also talk about one of the form of you know important radio broadcasting technique it is a Terrestrial Digital Radio. Now digital radio broadcasting at first emerged in Europe and from then on later on it spread to different other countries the United States, France, Netherlands, South Africa and many other South Asian countries as well. And the simplest system is named DAB Digital Radio for digital audio broadcasting and it basically uses a public domain Eureka 147 system that is band 3 system important you know a form of radio broadcasting you can say that is a community radio. From the term itself we can make out community radio is intended to serve the community for you know discussion on different community related issues and it is basically you know it is a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to the commercial and other public service broadcasting and community stations they basically serve the geographic communities and communities of interest the content that is broadcast is very much popular and very much relevant in the present day context and usually relates to the local specific audience but it is also often often it is overlooked by commercial or mass media broadcasters. And basically there are two philosophical approaches to community radio when we talk about models or approaches you know one particular approaches that it tries to you know kind of the community focuses on what the station can actually do for the community as a whole and on the other hand the other approaches that that involvement of the community for the you know radio broadcasting purpose they can actually invite the community to come to the radio station and they give the opportunity to the community as a whole to you know discuss a variety of issues for the benefit of the community which can actually help in the holistic development of the society in the long run. Now when we are talking about community radio there is you know a very interesting exchange and knowledge sharing basis also going on. The Indian government has been you know promoting content exchange specially for radio programs good practices the different case studies are there to facilitate a very meaningful discussions as well as utilization of the whatever resources is there. Like in the you know past couple of like 10 to 12 years like the minister of information broadcasting under government of India. They have actually promoted the egg dunya anek avas which is basically an audio and knowledge exchange portal for community radio practitioners most specifically in the South Asian region and this this particular portal was launched in the year 2008 and this particular portal this service is it has uploaded a numerous radio you know content for various radio stations you know one can listen to any songs or any content starting from North India to South India to East Asia any part of the country which actually have a lot digitalized content from different radio stations most basically from community radio stations.