Community Radio Stations are considered as one of the most vibrant and dynamic means of participatory communication among the Indian communities. These radio stations have a critical role in strengthening the democratic fabric of a country by ensuring community engagement at all the levels of governance. But the Community Radio in India lacks in revenue streams and requires more options in this arena. An alternative of this can be provided by coupling radio with telephony services. Usually most of the Community Radio Stations have a basic set up comprising only a mic and a computer connected to the frequency modulation (FM) transmitter through a mixer. Such simple setups lack in interactive systems like telephones, content sharing and field reporting tools. In the absence of these tools the stations often face inability to engage the target communities more in the programs of Community Radios and to sustain their interest in the same. Software required for running the radio stations also affect the success of the Community Radio greatly. Mostly in these stations 'Winamp' is used to play the radio programs and they need to employ various tedious techniques for live broadcast and interleave advertisements between programs. To ease the process a professional radio automation system for scaling various activities would be much more helpful. Currently Community Radio lacks a one-stop solution to playout, internet content sharing, SMS, telephony and broadcast. |