Community Radio in Asia

New book on radio in Asia, focus on Philippines-

Book launching at Devcom, UPLB

Miracle berries, a non-sugar based sweetener

New hydroponics farm school


In broadcast sophisticated Asia, community radio is almost a total anomaly.  What could possibly be the function of 100-watt transmitters in isolated rural, mainly traditional areas of this modern continent, now raging in its dragon economy? What is their role in the face of the emissions of NHK Japan, CCTV China, Radio Indonesia, RTM or even CNN, Aljazeera and other round-the-clock, round-the-globe sources? Why write a book about it?

Because it happened.

 

As far back as 1980, with the financial assistance of UNESCO and Danida (Danish International Development Agency), community radio was established in Sri Lanka. The government in those days had made a final and long term decision to turn the nationwide Mahaweli River system into an economic powerhouse to spur development at local and national levels. For this it created the single all powerful Mahaweli River Development Authority, a super ministry, with the combined mandate for structural development, economics and finance, and natural resources. The payback? The government had to move over a million settlers from lush upstream habitations to the now arid zones, to be irrigated once the dams were constructed and the water released. Ironically, little was new in the design and placement of dams in this project, the old dam and irrigation system of 2,000 years ago was discovered right in the same tracks as the new system. The ancients had already figured this out.

But how coordinate the movement of a million people in timing with the construction of the dams? How ensure roads, electricity, telephone, irrigation, marketing and schools? There had to be a system of mobile radio that followed the settlers and the developments of the Mahaweli Authority. Mahaweli Community Radio- a training and operations base in Kandy with 7 jeeps, 40 radio producers and technicians, serving the major zones of the Mahaweli region.

This was the first big movement towards community radio in Asia. It was soon followed by the Philippines with Tambuli Community Radio, a system of some 27 stations all over the country, and later by Nepal first with Radio Sagarmatha in Kathmandu, and now with some 30 community stations all over the country. India is the latest to turn in this direction, with preparatory projects in Budhikote and Hyderabad.

It has been practically a life work with many dedicated radio people, starting with Jake Mills, the former Chief Engineer of Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. In 1980 at a UNESCO experts' meeting in Brighton, UK,  Jake offered to design a portable studio mixer. Martin Allard, a British electronics design engineer proposed to design a 10 watt FM transmitter capable of  broadcasting in a radius of 10 kilometers. These two designs enabled the launching of Radio Homa Bay in Kenya, which was the forerunner of community radio in Asia.

We are very grateful to DevCom, now the College of Development Communication, University of the Philippines in Los Banos for inviting us to present the book to the students and faculty. It was here after all, that most if not all the pioneers of rural broadcasting in the Philippines were educated under the spell of Dr Nora Quebral, Dr Tom Flores, Dr Ely Gomez, Dr Johnny Jamias, Dr Gelia Castillo, Dr Gloria Feliciano, Dr Felix Librero (who wrote the preface to the book) and many others.

Dr Maria Theresa H.Velasco, Chairperson of the Department of Development Broadcasting and Telecommunication, College of Development Communication (DevCom), formally opened the session, warmly welcoming us. Assistant Professor, Ms Tattie Borja-Ossalia, one of our Tambuli radio training consultants sent on mission to East Timor, was also on hand.

Louie Tabing, anchor host of DZMM Sa Kabukiran and Director of  Tambuli Community Radio Foundation introduced the guest speaker. He referred to Choy Arnaldo, Felix Librero and himself as the 'fathers' of community radio in the Philippines. Right after martial law was lifted in 1986 and Cory Aquino led the first democratic administration, the three had gathered under the towering antennas of DZLB to rethink radio. Couldn't there be room for community radio? Imagine reaching all the communities with transmitters as powerful as ABS-CBN or Radio Veritas? Diffusing programmes for education, farm innovation, marketing, creation of small enterprises.  "As Choy continued in UNESCO Communications and Felix returned to DevCom and later to the Open University, I took up commercial broadcasting at ABS-CBN. Then, a few months later, Choy emailed me, 'Am sending you a ten watt transmitter, try to set up community radio.' What could ten watts possibly do? Where could I set this up? Who would really be interested?"

And that was the start of community radio in the Philippines, one in Batanes, the other a standby transmitter for DZUP, the radio station of UP Diliman.

Choy then took the floor to give the background to the community radio movement generally as well as to the summation of it in this book.  "Just after the war, my father was the Director of the New York Office of UNESCO, and I thought then, he must be a big man. But my father told me, if you are big and you have to work with small people, make yourself small, like them. It facilitates communication. But if you make yourself big, the little people will make you bigger, and they will feel smaller. And then, they may have nothing to say to you."

In many ways, that little story sums up how community radio came about. In the sixties and seventies, the second and third UN Development Decades, as they called them, there was comparatively little development world wide, despite the here and there successes of the green revolution. A few very sharp analyses pointed to the lack of participation of the people in development. Development was always imposed from outside or from on top, never from the bottom or from the inside. Ordinary people were rarely decision-makers in their own development. If development was to happen, people had to be involved and they needed ways to communicate. If the little people were essential to their own development, then "Communication is the critical pathway to that development," said Jaques Richardson, former UNESCO Director of Sciences.

Arnaldo then referred to specific projects showing how development had contributed to social and economic well being in Sri Lanka, Nepal, India and the Philippines. He also spoke of the future of community radio, that community broadcasting would one day give in to 'community broadstreaming,' that is, radio resources would be focused on a high level informatics workstation and programs would be designed, produced and stored there, for random telecharging by anyone in the audience, anyone in the world, for that matter. Community radio in Coron need not be limited to residents of the islands of Coron, anyone in the world could listen to those programs. And the technology is available now, for young kids are doing this everyday that they podcast their own own music and messages, that is a form of 'community broadstreaming.'

In other words, in the future it will no longer be possible to separate community radio and community broadstreaming, because all the media are now converging and migrating, one to the other. For example, in Budhikote, India, the community radio station there, does not have a licence to broadcast. But it does have permission to disseminate programs by cable. But the cable can also transmit photos and videos, and can work in both directions, like a telephone. In this sense, the Budhikote radio, totally computer based, is already in a position to broadstream as either radio, TV or both and in both directions, to the audience and from the audience to the community station. INn the same way, Louie's program, Sa Kabukiran, is also telecast at the same time on the ABS-CBN cable channel, Teleradyo.

And one day, multimedia streaming will be very prevalent in the Philippines, as the internet and the mobile telephone networks are increasingly being accessed by young people today technology is developing rapidly and costs are coming down.

The young students in the hall were anxious to pitch their questions in the open forum  that followed.

"How do you motivate people to take up training and participate in community radio?" asked Bea Manalo, Community Broadcasting Major from Laurel, Batangas. Radyo Laurel was among the early Tambuli stations to be set up but it faltered after a year.

Choy replied "I think it's first a question of seeking to identify those community movers, those who are agitated and want to do something. If you find those people, you will likely find that their motivation is high enough, or they can be inspired to do more for their community. For example, if you yourself stayed overtime in this session and likely missed a class when this session was to end 20 minutes ago, you are likely to be one of those motivated persons, a potential community mover."
 

"Sir, I am a lecturer in development of communication but I find so little material for teaching in community broadcasting," said Ms Aiza Balinos from Los Banos.

"If you go to www.unesco.org and click on communication, you can find a lot of research, manuals and materials on community media and multimedia. I also have some dvds and powerpoints I made for presentations. I can send you copies."
 

"I can get you copies of How to do Community Radio," added Louie.

Choy added, "I also hope you will all use your educational opportunities to do thesis work on community radio projects. They need the support of good research and fresh ideas. Tambuli Radio can also put you in contact with any of the 30 or so stations in the Philippines. For example, Bea, you have a potential thesis in your hands on how to motivate the Laurel community to restore their community radio after almost twenty years of inaction."

Several others, both students and faculty intervened to say a word on community radio. Most were taken up with the possibilities of broadstreaming. As the former Dean of Devcom and Chancellor of the UP Open University, Dr Felix Librero wrote in the preface:

"Indeed, the inter-marriages among community radio, computerization, telecommunication, digital audio and video, and the World Wide Web, have ushered a new dawn in people empowerment through localized application of the new technologies of communication."

 

A visit to the Los Banos campus would not be complete without a tour of farms instigating innovations in agriculture and food processing. Dean of the UP College of Agriculture, Doming Angeles took the book launching team on a tour of an experimental farm growing 'miracle berries.' Though not quite good for eating as a fruit or berry, they do have a sweetening effect on other fruits. After 20 seconds of tossing a miracle berry around your palate (like tsampoy), try eating a fresh kalamansi (local lime), and it tastes sweet.
 

On an experimental basis, miracle berries are planted in Los Banos, harvested and sorted for quality and freeze stored prior to shipment to prospective buyers. Japan is an eager importer!
 


While in Batangas, Ms Chit Pedrosa, Philippine Star columnist invited us for a short visit to her farm near Lipa. Here she aspires to start a small agricultural school in hydroponics, a system of farming based on water.  This is particularly useful for farmers who do not have large plots of land. Although it requires more fertilizer, these chemical elements work more efficiently in enclosed water than in soil where they deplete rapidly. Louie Tabing and Malou Angolluan expressed keen interest in this project, as a boost to the overall development of Batangas.

Louie advised, however, not to lose sight of traditional soil planting as that is still the dominant method today. He also stressed the need of keeping close to agricultural knowledge resources like UPLB and building up a network of technical advisers and trainers. Radio could also be an efficient advocate.

"May I call you for an interview for Sa Kabukiran at 04:30 AM this Sunday?"

"At that ungodly hour?"

"That's when the farmers rise for breakfast before starting their day!"

Choy thought to himself, "I wonder if hydroponics can work on another schedule?"