Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) under the support of Free Press Unlimited organized a day-long strategic workshop titled ‘Community Radio for the Future: Multi-Platform Presence, Multi-Generation Reach, Editorial Independence & Serving the Public Interest’, The workshop was held on 4 January, 2017 at the Meeting Room of Coast Trust at Shyamoli, Dhaka.
A total of 14 Community Radio Broadcasters and representatives of the initiator organizations of 8 Community Radio Stations (all located in coastal region of the country namely Community Radio Naf, Community Radio Sagar Giri, Community Radio Meghna, Community Radio Sagardwip, Community Radio Lokobetar, Community Rural Radio Krishi, Community Radio Nalta and Community Radio Sunderban) participated in this event.
Currently, Eight Coastal Community Radio stations jointly produce & broadcast 51 hours programs covering 2.8 million listeners by involving coastal communities.
On behalf of BNNRC, Mr AHM Bazlur Rahman, The Chief Executive Officer, Mr Kamaruzaman, Program Coordinator, Syed Kamrul Hasan, Coordinator and Ms Tamanna Rahman, Coordinator – Building Capacity from BNNRC attended the workshop.
AHM Bazlur Rahman said, “If the eight CR Stations could be able to exchange and share joint radio programs, they would reach altogether around 28 lacs audiences at a time! As a result, by using this common avenue, in future, the broadcasters will ensure to mobilise their target communities, i.e. they will be able to create a multi-platform where they can ensure multi-generation presence or reach.”
The participants presented their action plans by dividing them into two groups, such as one was technical and other on programmatic aspects. They highlighted about their possible future common and combined contents and formats. They have decided that each Community Radio Stations would make a single component of a magazine program and a news bi-rotation which would lead to coordinate to broadcast their combined program for a monthly basis.
The objectives of the workshop were to exchange and share common radio contents among all 8 Community Radio Stations and to produce more creative and quality radio programs in a common platform for their respective audiences to enjoy and benefit from various diversified contents based on their local demands.
