Every now and then I sit out on the balcony of my house in Budikote, hear the radios crackling, the TV's blaring and think about how we managed to pull off this technical idiosyncrasy. Radio through cable. One year later, there are precious lessons yet to be learned. Technologies don't always work as consistently as you want them to. Like it or not, we have become cable experts and after all that hard work people don't always want to listen to you. What strikes me harder is that on March 28th, 2004 a year had passed since Namma Dhwani started two hours of programming everyday, give or take hours lost courtesy the electricity department. That would mean, approximately seven hundred and thirty hours of programming. Forty three thousand and eight hundred minutes of music and spoken word. All churned out by the community of Budikote.

So what has Namma Dhwani done for this community? On a macro level what is it that community radio stations can do for their community? The same question was posed to the core staff team of Namma Dhwani at a recent staff retreat. They listed out a set of socio-economic cultural and political problems which included lack of transparency on Government levels, lack of education, superstitions, animal sacrifice, lack of marketing information and local outlets, use of low yielding crops for short term benefits and no local entertainment.

Information about these issues has a crucial role to play for the community. It cannot be accessed through mainstream media channels like big commercial newspapers or even All India Radio, but by local community media. However, local communication channels like community radio require an enabling regulatory environment, which does not yet exist in India.

Over the last year in Budikote, some community members have gradually begun to recognize their information needs and now see the value addition that a community radio station brings to their lives.