GopalaSwamy Shishuvihara Institutions

Name and Genesis of the CRS: Jnanadhwani 90.8 FM Community Radio

Jnanadhwani 90.8 FM started broadcasting on 29-02-2020. It is owned by our parent organization Maharaja Education Trust, situated at Gopalaswamy Shishuvihara Institutions, Lakshmipuram, Mysuru-570004. Gopalaswamy Shishuvihara was started by Dr. M.V. Gopalaswamy, Prof of Psychology, University of Mysore.  Dr. M.V. Gopalaswamy was a pioneer in Radio, who established the first private radio station in South India and gave the name Akashavani. The CRS was established with his vision to improve the chances of education and provide guidance to village children and the youth community. Our CRS started with just one staff and today we have grown into a dedicated team of three. Started in the Covid years, we struggled to broadcast SSLC lessons by resource persons in the first year, it was a success.  We started to broadcast programs related to Covid by inviting doctors and counseling sessions for all sections of people enabling them to face the situation. We continue to create pathbreaking impacts on our target community through different projects and effective intervention strategies.

Thematic Focus: The focus area of intervention of the CRS has majorly been quality education for children in our target community. We also focus on girl child welfare, gender equality, professional and economic growth.

Prime time programs: Our primetime programs are Vanijyavihara, Vachanaveda, DVG Jnapaka Chitrashale, Mahadarshana of DeVuDu, Siridweepa of Ananda and interviews with self-employed and others. Vanijyavihara is a program where current topics in Economics are discussed. This includes narrations, recitals, etc. Our staff makes quality content which includes inspirational stories, discussions about different fields of study, etc. Vachanaveda is the narration of Sri Ramakrishna’s life, focusing on the older generation and youth. In Jnapaka Chitrashale, we get a picture of the cultural scenario of the past. Experts from the field of education, medicine, and health are interviewed on Sundays to discuss career opportunities, scholarships, and other things that can guide the youth toward a better future.

Innovations in format or any other way: Along with broadcasting, we effectively use narrowcasting at our educational institutions. We also collaborate with leading educational NGOs across the country like CEMCA, Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement, etc., and collaborate with them to run campaigns, and intervention projects in our community. Recently we concluded a Yoga awareness campaign with practical sessions, for International Yoga Day 2023.

CRMC Members and Core Team: Our staff is presently 3 in numbers. Our team includes a Station Director, a Station Manager, a panel of 3 teachers/educators, and 2 core members. The Station Director deals with the stakeholders and is the key decision-maker regarding the projects we undertake; the Station Manager looks after the content and gives technical assistance; the teachers’ panel provides us guidance in curating the content that can help students; and, our core team takes care of content development.

Frequency: We transmit our programs at 90.8 MHz with a transmitter of 50W capacity.

Broadcast Hours and Language: Our CRS operates from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. for 2 hours a day. We broadcast in Kannada.

Sustainable Strategies: We receive technical and financial support from our parent organization Maharaja Education Trust, which is around 95 percent of our annual budget. Apart from this, our sustainable strategy is to be self-sufficient and draw at least 30 percent of our budget by means of collaborative projects with leading NGOs and government departments.

The number of listeners and Potential Outreach: Our internet provider gives us the regular listeners number as 1600. Around 5000 people have installed our mobile app. 12 villages Bogadi, Mahadevapura, Gurur, Gejjagalli, Udbur, Parasayyanahundi, Dadadahally, Koodanahally, Kadakola,,Hadajana, Dattagally, Tandya–and some area of the city of Mysuru fall in our broadcast range. As per the census reports collected from the local bodies, these villages have a total population of around 1,50,000. From this outreach potential, we have an active listener base of around 2,000 people.

Content Sharing Platforms: We simultaneously broadcast our programs on the internet (Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=atc.metradio ) and regularly share our content on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Twitter: @Jnanadhwani 90.8 FM

Facebook: @Jnanadhwani 90.8 FM

Instagram: jnanadhwani90.8fm

Youtube: Jnanadhwani 90.8 FM

WhatsApp Contact: +91-7760672739