Radio Salesian 90.8 FM, Voice of the Hills‎ - part 2

The Salesians of Don Bosco who are in India for 110 years, recently ventured into an uncharted territory to serve and interact with the local folks better.  “Radio Salesian, 90.8 FM – Voice of the Hills,”  is the new enterprise of Salesian College Sonada in Gorabari near Sonada town, in the Himalayan foothills of Darjeeling District in India’s West Bengal state.  The web version of the community/campus radio, that one can listen to online at www.salesiancollege.in, was inaugurated on Oct. 28.  And its FM radio will be officially inaugurated on Dec. 8.   Salesian priest, Fr. CM Paul, is the brain behind and director of  Radio Salesian. 

Last week, in the first part of a telephone interview, Fr. Paul explained that Radio Salesian is the first community/campus radio run by a college in West Bengal and in the entire northeast India.  It’s also the first and only radio by the Salesians in the whole of South Asia.  The idea of a community radio first came up in 2000 during the provincial chapter of the Salesian province of Kolkata.  In 2012,  Salesian College Sonada officially applied for a broadcast license, which required a slew of formalities, permissions and clearances from various ministries and offices of the Indian government, given the fact that Bagdogra Airport, military and air force installations as well as Nepal border are not very far from Salesian College Sonada. 

Fr. Paul explained that Radio Salesian is a truly community radio, the voice of the people - a radio of the people, by the people and for the people.  Most of the programmes are produced by the local Nepali-speaking villagers in the extensive tea gardens of Darjeeling.  Radio Salesian thus invites contributions from students, community groups, self-help groups, children, young people, seniors, labour class, women’s associations, entrepreneur groups, and others. 

Being a community radio, Radio Salesian has to comply with several government norms and regulations.  It cannot engage in politics and religion, it cannot broadcast news per se - only community-based information, and must promote community peace and harmony.  It does this by giving space to every religion in the form of devotional hymns.  Radio Salesian also has a bit of Hindi and English in its programmes.  Today, Fr. Paul begins the final part of this interview explaining the content of the Hindi and English programmes.

Listen: