WHEN LITERATURE WEDS RADIO - AN LRS STORY
There is a widespread belief that the electronic media have killed the reading habit of our youngsters but how far is this true ? An experimental programme started during the lockdown, by AIR Manjeri FM, LRS, the smallest radio station in Kerala has a different story to tell.
The weekly live phone-in programme titled 'Oru Kadha Parayam' (literally meaning 'Let's tell a story or 'You can tell a story) started in April, was meant for listeners to present live over phone, a selected portion from their favourite book of fiction or autobiography. After one's presentation each listener will take part in the creation of a chainstory also, by contributing one sentence of his own to the chain , the very first sentence being provided by the anchors sitting in the studio. In the meantime other listeners can message their responses to the presentations and contribute their share in the chainstory through Whatsapp to the studio, which will be read out by the anchors between the phone calls.
The overall response from listeners to the programme was amazing with participation from all walks of life despite age or class difference. The callers include 4th class students as well as octogenarians; truck drivers as well as government servants; house wives as well as merchants, the majority being youngsters. There was marked variety in the selection of literary pieces by the callers also, ranging from old classics to the newest writings. The creativity shown by the participants of the chain story also was astonishing
The bottomline is that our general apprehensions regarding the future of reading, especially of literary works in the age of electronic media, is groundless. On the contrary the books and the electronic media can have a mutually complementary existence. Whether we could clearly identify the common areas of this mutually beneficial coexistence and explore them correctly is the key question. The radio has a definite answer to this question and it is in the affirmative. That is what the AIR Manjeri experiment shows.
മലബാറിന്റെ സ്വന്തം മൊഞ്ചും മൊഴിയഴകും Manjeri FM 102.7
രാവിലെ 5.53 മുതൽ രാത്രി 11.06 വരെ തുടർച്ചയായി പ്രക്ഷേപണം
Contributed by :-HOP, AIR Manjeri FM, LRS.