Linking NRIs through airwaves
Harjap Singh Aujla

THOUGH a multitude of Indian television channels, including Zee, Sony, TV Asia, B4U, Zee Gold, Sun TV and ITV have been bringing India into the bedrooms of NRIs in the USA, the community is not content with receiving only television images from home. It wants its radio too, especially in the cars. Located 8,000 nautical miles away, it is hard for New Delhi to reach America with reliable quality of signal. Medium-wave and FM simply do not have the capability to reach the USA. Thus, some private broadcasters in America have taken it upon themselves to fill the gap.

During the 90s, one expatriate Indian hailing from the West Indies started an Indian language radio programme on round-the-clock basis from New York city, using an out-of-band UHF frequency. In order to receive broadcasts of this station, the listeners have to buy a special chip from the broadcaster to insert in their FM radio receivers. This special chip converts the broadcast frequency into a receivable regular FM band frequency. As an alternative, the listeners can buy specially manufactured radio receivers, with a built-in chip, from the owner of the station. These special radio receivers have a capability to convert the frequency of this broadcast into international FM band receivable frequency. The price of the chip and the special receiver is jacked up to pay for the cost of broadcasting. This station did lose money in the beginning, but picked up enough listenership to stay afloat.

In New Jersey, Jaspal Singh Suri, son of legendry Punjabi folk singer Parkash Kaur, teamed up with another entrepreneur Arvind Agrawal to start an FM radio station in 1999. Having earlier failed under its previous owner, this non-profit station, the Eastern Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) Radio became a success in its very first year of operation. The programmes are presented mostly by young volunteers. But its reach is only up to Staten Island of New York and the coastal areas of Middlesex and Monmouth counties of New Jersey.

The main Asian stronghold of northern Edison and the Indian-dominated townships of Mercer County were outside the range of the FM station. Arvind Agrawal, who owned major share in this station, decided to opt for a more powerful medium-wave radio station. He made an arrangement with an existing medium-wave station with call sign WTTM. After sunset, the people with station-locking digital receivers can tune in to this station even in far-flung places. This is a rare medium-wave frequency not used in most parts of the world. That is why there are very few stations using this frequency in the USA and Canada. As a result, its transmissions can be heard far beyond the designed and desired range.

Agrawal, realising the high cost of running a powerful medium-wave radio station, has kept the financial control in his own hands. His wife, Alka Agrawal, is the General Manager of EBC Radio. She manages the finances of this station. The Programme Director is a veteran broadcaster Kulraj Anand. His command over Hindi, Punjabi and Gujarati makes him the most sought-after person for commercials.

The former name of this station—EBC Radio—has been retained.

It presents programmes in several languages, including Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu, Bengali and several South Indian languages. Being a 24-hour station, after midnight, when formal presenters are unavailable and listenership goes down drastically, its programming becomes canned and computer-programmed. The first compered program of the day starts at 6 am with devotional music.

This station has started giving news in Hindi and English. The first indigenously produced news bulletin in Hindi goes air at 6 am, followed by one at 7 am, and 9 am. At 8 am, there is an English bulletin. The newscasts have lent a lot of credibility to this station.

On the whole, this station has become a multi-functional station for the South Asian community. It acts as a livewire for the mass communication and entertainment of South Asian Americans.

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