(This is an analysis from our June 2014 print quarterly, 'Growing Media, Shrinking Spaces?'. See more from the issue here.)
I met Sunil Wijesinghe at a small book store stacked between nondescript shops that border the road from the Kandy railway station to Peradeniya. The former station manager of the much-hailed Kothmale Community Radio, among the first community radio stations in Southasia, now oversees the daily functioning of the store. Amidst tending to customers, Wijesinghe sat down to talk about the initial days of community radio, when private broadcasting was hardly prevalent in Sri Lanka. "Those were the days when private radio was not a conspicuous part of the Sri Lankan media. My employer, the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC), was the only big player, with national and regional radio services spread across the country. The community radio initiative was started way back in 1981 and our aim was to reach out to those displaced by the Mahaweli project," Wijesinghe recounted, his voice revealing the excitement and pride that came with being part of the experiment that would fundamentally alter the media landscape of the region.
Community radio, by definition, is a form of broadcasting that is owned and operated by communities at the local level, catering to ideas and interests intrinsic to the inhabitants. Community radio broadcasting is set apart from private, state and public service radio by virtue of local participation and ownership. This kind of broadcasting creates a space for content that is not privileged in the mainstream media, and is looked upon as a force that democratises the media landscape.
As part of the Mahaweli Community Radio project, two teams were formed in 1981, one each in Girandurukotte and Kothmale. Wijesinghe described the novel programme production cycle followed by the teams. "Each team had about ten members. We would spend one entire week in the villages, dressing like the village folk and living with them as part of the community. The first two days were devoted to research to understand people's needs, skills and their problems. For the next four days, we would strike up conversations on a variety of issues and record them. We would then come back to the office, listen to the many hours of recordings and make half-hour programmes," he explained. Similarly, the second week of the cycle was focused on editing and producing the programmes. "We introduced very novel ways of bringing in community participation. We would invite the villagers to listen to the programmes, and would edit or re-produce them according to the feedback. The programmes would be broadcast on the Rajarata and Kandy Sewa (the regional radio stations of SLBC) simultaneously." Over the years, the programme time increased and the reach of Mahaweli community radio expanded. "Gradually, we also had volunteers from the villages joining us in programme production," Wijesinghe explained. All this while, the initiatives were being supported by external funding from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and UNESCO, the Mahaweli Development Authority, and came under SLBC.