Sunday, January 14, 2001		Article

BROADCASTING is mostly in private hands in the USA. Most large cities have several stations each. Even smaller towns and clusters of towns have low-powered stations. There are more than 7000 FM stations and more than two thousand AM (medium-wave) radio stations in the USA. Most of these stations are owned and operated by Americans of European origin. The African-American minority has also acquired some radio stations and has established new stations. The Hispanic community, which is the fastest-growing population segment in America, has also started hundreds of new radio stations all over America. Most of the stations owned by minority communities are low-powered and local in coverage. High-powered transmission is still the monopoly of big corporations and is concentrated in large metropolitan areas.

During the seventies, short duration slots, especially during the weekends, were offered to Indian professors and students. The Indian community made the best use of it. These stations mostly broadcast Indian music. The news, during the pre-internet era, was gathered through old Indian newspapers and by telephone.

In cities like New York some time was also rented on established radio stations and these rented slots were run on commercial lines. FM 106.5 was the first New York station rented by Yash Pal Soi. Initially Soi lost some money, but later on his venture became economically viable and more Indians got sucked into this business.

A Caribbean American of Indian decent started an FM side band service from a skyscraper in Manhattan about five years ago. He ran it as a commercial station with great success. This station is known as the Radio RBC.

In 1999, Jaspal Singh Suri, son of the illustrious Punjabi folk singer, late Parkash Kaur, decided to get into the business by starting a new radio station in New Jersey. He purchased an existing radio station with call sign WCNJ, operating from Hazlet in New Jersey. This station had two frequencies, 89.3 and 91.9 mhz in the FM band. Initially, the service was started for six hours on Sundays. The inaugural programme was put on the air on February 28, 1999, with great pomp and show. Radio EBC means Eastern Broadcasting Corporation. It has been registered as a commercial corporation. The call sign has not changed, it is still WCNJ located in Hazlet. Being located close to the ocean, half of the signal falls in the Atlantic Ocean, the remainder covers Monmouth, Middlesex and Union Counties of New Jersey and Staten Island area of New York City.

What started as a six-hour Sunday-only service, slowly kept increasing its hours. But June 1999, this radio station became a seven-day station and on the eve of India’s Independence Day in 1999, it became a 24-hour station. The expanded time increased the responsibilities of the management. The owner Jaspal Singh Suri had to rope in fresh talent. A former male model and stage artist Kulraj Anand who was on board since the inception of this ethnic radio service was appointed the Chief Executive Officer. Kulraj recruited some young bilingual announcers, like Rupal, who started on-the-job training to become professional announcers.

EBC Radio has entered into an arrangement with the BBC World Service and its Indian Subconti-nental Services to carry its newscasts five times a day. There are several computer buffs working at this station, who pick up news from India’s Internet sites and read those to the listeners.

Many celebrities from India’s film industry are featured on the talk shows. Important political and business leaders of India are also interviewed. Opinions of the listeners are solicited in the phone-in shows. This radio station has become a major financial and cultural success.