Making waves with Radio Alakal

Radio Alakal is the community radio of Vizhinjam, a fishing village in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Alakal, in Malayalam means waves. Radio Alakal made waves, not just within the village and but also within SPACE, our organisation.

Radio Alakal was initiated by four organisations in May 2006. SPACE, which was the technical partner, trained seven village youth including two women in Audacity, a free software for audio recording and editing. The recorded programmes were narrowcast through loudspeakers set up at strategic points in the village where the fisherfolk gathered to repair their nets or for recreation. The radio content included weather forecast, tidal height, conditions at sea and disaster warning, discussions and expert opinions on livelihood options, market information and interviews.

The radio's operations were however, soon overshadowed by conflicting opinions regarding its ownership and governance. It looked like the radio which had just begun to make a ripple in the community would be closed down. The young villagers who worked on the radio turned to SPACE for support.

SPACE's core area of activity, at this time was Free Software promotion and that too mostly in educational institutions. Most of the members on its team were more tuned to software development, training, customisation and promotion of free software.

SPACE began supporting Radio Alakal team, by providing them space in its office and the infrastructure to produce radio content. At first it looked like a gamble. But the feed back of the community regarding the value and relevance of Radio Alakal, proved that the Radio was headed in the right direction.

Within months, the team members on the Radio came up with a proposal for localising radio content production. The team identified Mother Teresa Granthasala, a village library in Vizhinjam, for this. SPACE trained 4 village youth in radio production. It also provided two computers to the library to support Radio activities. In January 2008, radio production was completelytransferred to the library and Radio Alakal began to be run by volunteers.

The village library itself underwent many changes in the process. It had only a few books and little public involvement. As radio production got underway, people began to pour in and get involved in the activities. The library members began streamlining its activities such as cultivating readers, collecting books by mobilising support of the local bodies. The Mother Teresa Granthashala is today a community hub where people learn to use computers, read or borrow books and participate in radio production activities.

Two members who worked with Radio Alakal team from the start comtinue to provide guidance, but the youth in the community lead the activities, producing content which is narrowcast everyday. Mother Teresa Granthashala is in the process of getting registered as a Society which will enable it to get a license for a community radio. In recent months the Radio Alakal team also received training in producing video content using free software and are experimenting in making short films on social issues in the area, which are telecast and discussed with the community.

The entire experience changed SPACE as well. New activities are being planned in promotion of community radio and video production. Primarily a technical organization involved in promotion of ICT and Free Software, the association with Radio Alakal has expanded its horizons and its work in the realm of community media. These together with community online media portals http://entegramam.gov.in and the recent public media portal http://ila.cc have enriched its approach to software promotion and development.