Community Media/Radio

What are some of the Challenges?

 * Project level planning - what are the main steps involved before one starts broadcasting
 * Sustainability - how does one sustain programmatically, financially, socially, technologically?
 * Management - in India for example, the NGO is the license holder, so how does one ensure community based management within the framework?
 * Participation - What formats and planning can be done to ensure that programs are compelling and are user-generated, and participatory?

Secondary (but equally important) issues include:


 * Research Systems - What research systems can we put in place to ensure that community's feedback is considered, and programs are relevant?
 * Archiving Content - How does one archive content (its a rule to keep an archive of last three months of content)
 * Free and Open Source Software - How does one use FOSS for radio stations to enable trouble free operations, as well as use innovative applications for radio?
 * Content Sharing - Issues around content sharing- regional, national and international...
 * Copyright issues - for radio stations; legalities around content sharing as well

Open Source Tools for Radio

 * Audacity- a Free and Open Source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux and other Operating Systems. Tutorial Available: Using Audacity


 * Airtime - (previously Campcaster) an open source radio management application for use by both small and large radio stations to schedule radio shows. More info on the project website or download here.


 * Cowbell - a music organiser that makes keeping your metadata up-to-date easy. Tag editor, album art and track lister. Cowbell is available for most current Linux distributions.


 * Kid3 - an open source ID3 metadata tagger. Linux and Windows versions.


 * Open Tape - a free, open-source package that lets you make and host your own mix tapes on the we
 * Rivendell Audio - a complete radio broadcast automation solution, with facilities for the acquisition, management, scheduling and playout of audio content.


 * Zara Radio - a handy little radio automation application which allows even Windows users to schedule radio shows. (Free but not Open Source)

Open Content for Radio

 * The Freesound Project - The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focuses only on sound, not songs.


 * Jamendo - Jamendo is a community of free, legal and unlimited music published under Creative Commons licenses.


 * One World, Many Voices - is an online audio content exchange bank for community radio broadcasters in South Asia. Edaa has over 500 audio programmes categorised under 27 themes in 8 languages

Open Educational Resources

 * Community Radio Performance Assessment System (Nepal), December 2008
 * Low Power AM Handbook (Kyle Drake)
 * Radio Governance Workshop
 * Audio for Distance Education and Open Learning, Commonwealth of Learning

Links

 * National Radio Project
 * iReporter's Toolkit (CNN) - resources for audio, video, images and storytelling.
 * Pocket Guide to Ubuntu

Enjoy Community Radio

 * Radio Lumbini, Nepal
 * Waiheke Radio, New Zealand
 * Planet FM, Auckland, New Zealand