Kanpur starts its own FM Radio station

Community FM radio, the first-of-its-kind in any of the IITs in the country, was launched on Friday in the premier engineering institute here. Hectic preparations were on for a year to start the FM station which was delayed many a times.

On January 26, some testing was done by airing a programme. On March 6, recordings were done for a programme.

"The project is the first of its kind in any of the IITs in the country," registrar of IIT Kanpur Sanjeev Kaslakar told PTI on Friday.

He added the station will function emulating the model of America's National Public Radio.

The station will incorporate educational and awareness programmes related to science, Indian classical music and the untouched fields of Indian culture, he said.

The station will play classical music of maestros like Bismillah Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Gangubai, Hari Prasad Chaurasia.

The broadcast will include programmes relating to science with special emphasis on making the subject more interesting and simpler to students. It will also air cultural programmes.

The well-equipped FM station with technical devices worth Rs 22 lakhs will initially go on-air only for two to three hours, he added.

"Apart from these, the FM Radio will also air a phone-in programme through which scientists and professors of the institute will answer queries related to science, engineering and biotechnology from students and other listeners," Kasalkar said.

A two-day workshop has been organised in the institute's campus where experts from community FM radio station will discuss problems that may come up in running the FM station and how to make it more effective.