‘With the raise of his hand, no one dares make a peep, this is live. During the 20-second countdown, Sunny glances quickly around the desk that surrounds him, checking every blinking light and fader. He gets comfortable in his chair and adjusts his headphones to fit just so. He gently clears his throat as the countdown nears the five-second mark.
And in those five seconds, as his eyes light up, a different person emerges. This person is a professional. This person is a personality. This person, however, is not on the job. This is a college radio.’
KMIT Radio, 90.4 was launched on Feb 11, 2011 for sharing and disseminating information on engineering and technological education and career opportunities. It was run by students of batch’13 with great passion and was nothing less than a success. Since their graduation, the fate of the most exciting and desirable phenomena in the entire college seemed jinxed. That is, until the students of ’15 and ’16 have been garnered by some of the faculty to revive the lost fame and function of their radio station. Officials avow that it is delightful to see the students of ’17 ready to participate and help in any way they can to bring about this resurrection.
As we all know, it has been a blessing to the KMITians to have a moderate number of students in the college, which helps students to bring their latent talents, ideas and creativity into light. KMIT Radio uses this ‘moderate’ strength as a trump card in building a sense of community and in having better collaborations. Without a shadow of doubt, KMIT extracurricular programs give students the real world experience of working and KMIT radio adds up to it in many ways.
When asked about the advantages and objectives of KMIT Radio Mr. Sai Prakash opined, “The pros of having the college radio are numerous. The main motive of KMIT Radio is to create and serve the community in various ways. There is a need to be filled here. It is a two way system, GIVE to the community as much as you can and TAKE from it as well. To “TAKE” means to invite contributors from the community and have them GIVE more to the community. The objective is not only to grow students’ academic base, technical skills and overall marketability but also to build character and attitude with positive attributes like morals, ethics and also make them spiritually conscious. This could range from inviting JNTU faculty to edify student perspectives, a renowned entrepreneur who can guide and encourage students, CEOs of companies on recruitment, spiritual leaders to show students how to apply the wisdom of the ages (such as the Bhagvad Gita) on a practical level and perhaps conduct a quiz for students as well as the senior citizen community, debates through a talk show, quiz etc. Basically, the idea is to use their wisdom for self enhancement. We can also have music hours and promote local business and generate revenue to fund the system but it is not a commercial enterprise though.”
‘It is a ONE STOP SHOP!!’
He then added, “Although it is something that is funded and held in high esteem by Mr. Neil Gogte, the visionary and I am a small part of it, we prefer it to be the domain of the students, they should be ones to take the ball and run with it! And as you get to your senior years, you should pass on the torch to your juniors. The RJs, content collectors, writers, monitors, you name it. You are the backbone to take it forward.
We expect you to get involved and STAY involved rather than make a desultory effort at it. The motive is and always will be ‘Contribute and Enrich’ the community.
The update on the college radio will be out soon.”
From those with whom I’ve spoken and observed, college radio holds a great mystique for on the job learning, an empowerment to ‘rock the house’ the way you want and the opportunity to be surrounded in studio sized confines with peers who think and behave the same way you do.
KMIT Radio – ‘A medium through which you can contribute to something MUCH bigger than yourself.’
