Community radio is radio which is for, by and about the community, whose ownership and management is representative of the community, which pursues a social development agenda, and which is non-profit.
Community radio exists to serve the needs of its community. It is its community that forms its audience.
The community, members participate in the planning, designing and implementing the activities of the station. Management is done, programmes are produced and broadcast by community members.In its programming and other activities, community radio focuses on the events, people, issues, trends etc affecting its community. It carries community-oriented programming.
The central mandate of community radio is to promote development at the grassroots. Development that involves the people themselves and seek to bring about positive change in their living conditions and environment. For example: poverty eradication/wealth creation, education, health, better access to clean water, greater participation and representation in the democratic system, etc.
As an enterprise which generates income, community radio makes savings. The savings are not profits and not shared among community members. Rather, they are ploughed back into its operations to grow and sustain the station. A community radio station is independent of governments, donors, advertisers or other institutions. This does not mean that it does not have official relations with these institutions or that it cannot receive funding from them, but the nature of their relations must be governed by clear and transparent agreements that guarantee the non-partism community-service nature of the radio station, while operating within the boundaries defined by the law and by the constitution/guiding principles of the station.
Participation and community base. The community must be able to participate in the management and direction of the station through, for example, representation of the diverse interests in the community in the station’s board of governors, and participation in programme production and presentation.
The station must also be based in its community and accountable to it. Community radio exists basically to serve an underserved or marginalized community. A specific, identifiable community sharing common characters and/or interests. It could be a geographical community whose size can range from a rural area, to a small town, or a small section of a city. It could also be a community of interest such as women, youths, or linguistic and cultural minorities.
The legal form of ownership of a community radio station is usually through a local not-for-profit organization, such as an NGO, CBO, educational institution, cultural association, cooperative society or a partnership of such associations.
Religious bodies/communities own and operate radio stations in many countries. No, because Nigerian law forbids the granting of broadcast licences to religious bodies.
The agency that give licences is the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC)
Its headquarters is located in Abuja, the Federal Capital. It also has field offices in many states of the country.
The procedures for a getting a radio licence are
First, community members put in place a non-commercial, non-governmental corporate body, that is, non-governmental organization (NGO), Community-based organization (CBO), Community Development Association (CDA), Cooperative Society, etc and incorporate it with the Cooperate Affairs Commission.
Second, the organization purchases/collects an application form from the Finance Directorate of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
Third, the organization completes the form and returns it to the commission with a detailed feasibility study on the proposed station.
Fourth, the NBC processes the application through the Honorable Minister of Information and National Orientation to the President and Commander-in-chief, who gives final approval.
Fifth, the successful applicant pays for the licence.
Sixth, licence is issued and frequency allocated to the applicant.
Campus community radio stations recently established in Nigeria democratize the structure and discursive practices of the Nigerian communication system within the university community and how they support popular participation in public sphere.The Democratic Participant Media theory and the Public Sphere theory as the theoretical foundation that provided a broad analysis of how community media operate as participatory communication channels that encourage community participation in the airwaves, in terms of the interplay between the public sphere and civil society.examples of campus community radio stations are UNILAG 103.1 FM, MADONNA 93.1FM, BABCOCK87.9 FM and LION 91.1 FM etc The operational frameworks of the selected stations were examined to determine whether the campus radio stations enable decentralized participatory communication format by encouraging popular participation of students in production and decision making regarding content development. By evaluating the emerging community radio in Nigeria,The dynamics and operations of campus community radio station as an evolving phenomenon in Nigerian broadcasting terrain. This analysis checked the extent campus radios operate in accordance with the principles of community radio practice. The tenets which characterize community radio practice all over the world are access and participation, nonprofit orientation and community ownership. The study found that campus radio stations in Nigeria do not democratize communication within their various communities and is also faced with the challenge of fully complying with the key principle of participation that will ensure that they become truly participatory media capable of engendering democracy of the airwaves.this analysis also found the quantity of educational and development programmes to be low compared to what is expected of a community radio station. Based on the findings the study concludes that community radio is an evolving phenomenon in Nigeria faced with the challenge of operating as a distinct radio typology by ensuring broader community participation in stations operations and decision making. Since community radio is a relatively recent development in Nigeria the analysis suggests the creation of awareness about the importance of community radio as a type of participatory medium within the management and entire staff of these university communities to engender students’ participation not only in programme presentation but in content development and planning.
