On a pleasant cock crow young Raghav Mahato and friend Sambhu gets all set to fire up homespun FM radio station in India’s northern state of Bihar. Raghav and his friend run a home-grown radio station at Raghav’s thatched -roof Priya Electronics Shop. The place is an overcrowded rented hut heaped with music tapes and rusty electrical appliances. Raghav’s love for radio began in 1997 when he started out as a mechanic in a local repair shop, the moment shop owner left the area, Raghav, son of a cancer-ridden farm worker, took over the hut with his friend and in 2003 Raghav thought up the idea of launching an FM station.
In underprivileged Bihar state, the cheap battery-powered transistor has became as the most popular source of entertainment. The transmission kit is fitted on to an antenna attached to a bamboo pole on a neighboring three-storey hospital and this radio station has some 200 tapes of local Bhojpuri, Bollywood and devotional songs which Raghav plays for his listeners. He does not earn anything from it and even his electronic repair shop work brings him some two thousand rupees a month.
Short time back people put in the picture before him that his station was illegal; he actually set down the lid. But it hardly matters for the locals that Raghav FM Mansoorpur 1 does not have a government license – they just love it and persuaded him to resume services again. Kumar has requested government to help him so that he can register his station and acquire some advanced equipment to transmit the radio waves to a greater distance.
What our foreign counter parts are doing with jam-packed edification and funds; we Indians do the same with consistency and modest effort. So, I think our government should appreciate that inspite of being brought up in such crime stricken state and environment Raghav has applied his effort and worked for betterment and should bestow license and aid to pace up Raghav’s Radio frequency.
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