BANGALORE/MUMBAI: As part of the Union Government's plans through Prasar Bharati (PB), Bangalore University (BU) plans to start a FM radio channel. The channel will be beamed across the presently available frequency range of 102 to 110 MHz.

"We are trying for the 105 Mhz and plan to name it BU FM 105," said Bangalore University head of the electronics department, professor Ashok Kumar.

Initially the station will broadcast programs for two hours; this will be increased to a full 24-hour channel. The range would be within a 50-kilometer radius of Prasanna Kumar block of Bangalore University and would cater to about 400 colleges and 47 post-graduate departments.

The content will focus on education, health, hygiene, HIV/Aids, and college and university related news. Rs 3.5 million have already been sanctioned for the project. BU is talking with PB - the license holders for the channel for revenue generation through ad spots. At present there are no plans for beaming entertainment software.

Vice chancellor professor Thimappa says, "This will be a useful tool for reaching out to students doing our correspondence courses, we have about 30,000 students across 20 faculties, incidentally there are no CC's on science subjects, we'll broadcast the lecture notes during a session on a day, and the students will be welcome to phone in with queries and clarifications and we'll reply during the next broadcast. This will be a sort of a delayed interactive session. For our CC's we send CD's to the students, this will be one way for the to clarify their doubts."

"Bangalore University's electronic media students will gain valuable first-hand experience in radio news scripting and production. Help has been sought from All India Radio (AIR) in technical areas, IGNOU will share their experiences with us," said Kumar.

One university which has already gone the radio way is the University of Pune (UoP), which launched its FM radio on 1 May. The 90.8 FM initially covers an 8-km radius around the campus, making UoP the first university in Maharashtra to have a dedicated community radio service.