Independent Roma Community Radio in Budapest

[anna balint]

http://www.radioc.hu/

Perhaps you have the curiosity to look up the pages of C Radio.
It grew out from the pirate radio scene in Budapest, it had pilot transmissions
in 2001 and - after ten years of fight - it started this year. As far as we know,
it is the first roma community radio in the region.

Principles of the operation of Radio ©

Milestones

Radio©, that is, the radio of the Roma 

Radio © is not about the Roma, it addresses the Roma: its prime target audience is the estimated hundreds 
of thousands of Roma people who live in the capital (the radio's area of receipt)., most of them in districts 
and areas with an increasing proportion of Roma population. They include musician families with long 
traditions, living here for generations, similarly native trading Wallachian Roma and poverty-stricken 
people who moved to the capital during the socialist regime or after the political changes, escaping from the 
desperation of the countryside. 
As regards this principle, Radio © is unique in the domestic media market where the audience can only 
encounter programs that are about the Roma. This also means that at present no one in the market covers 
this segment efficiently, although the test operation of the radio at the beginning of 2001 has proved that 
Roma communities have an actual demand for a frequency that speaks to them in the first place. 
Radio © will be unique on the international level as well, because - as far as we know - there is only one 
Roma radio in this region operating in Macedonia, but it does not undertake such public service tasks as 
Radio ©. 
This also means that Radio © can serve as a model on both domestic and international levels. That is why 
it can be regarded as a venture of special significance. This is worth emphasizing because one of the most 
- or perhaps the most - urging problems of the region seeking EU membership is the Roma issue. 

The - mission - of Radio © 

So the main task of Radio © is to satisfy the demands of the Roma as its prime target audience. In this 
respect, it obviously and clearly acts like a medium. 
However, it inevitably carries the - burden- , which results from its position. Nevertheless, we are convinced 
that the chief way a Roma radio can contribute to the settlement of existing conflicts between the Roma and 
the majority society is not to promote tolerance and anti-discrimination in the sphere of institutions and 
majority citizens. This is also an important viewpoint, but what is even more crucial is the impact it has on 
the -other side-, namely to increase the feeling of comfort of the Roma citizens. Because the greatest 
success of Radio © will be if the Roma people listening to the radio feel that this radio is theirs, it speaks to 
them, in their own language, voicing their own problems. Radio © will take a pioneer role in this regard, that 
is, in the creation of a kind of internal publicity. And this is something that will certainly have an effect 
-outwards- as well: it will show new Roma roles to the majority, partly by educating and managing Roma 
-stars-. 

Community, public service, commercial

In order to achieve the above-mentioned goals we need a radio the elements of which are well-known from 
other areas of the media, while being radically new on the whole. First of all, Radio © is a community radio. 
Secondly, it undertakes characteristically public service functions as well - after all, the first Roma radio 
cannot afford not to do this. Thirdly, the basic requirement is that the radio can operate as a strong and 
independent institution, so within a few years after it is started it should earn substantial commercial 
incomes.

Community radio

The primary goal of the Roma radio should not be to change the prejudices of the majority society, nor to 
live up to the expectation of the - standard - white-  intelligentsia. Indirectly, this is one of the aims, but it is 
more important to attract Roma listeners and serve their interests. 
To achieve this, however, the radio should offer everything that its audience would like to hear. Another 
objective is that the Roma regard Radio © - through its programs and voice - as their own radio. On the 
other hand, this means that Radio © would like to distract Roma listeners from the well-established 
commercial radios and become their number one radio. 
The community feature also means that Radio © tries to be a forum of dialogue between each other, that is, 
to become a communication channel within the community. In the first place, this means the flow of 
information related to the community. This has a close connection to the implication of a natural self-
acceptance and self-image, taken for granted, without any special emphasis, more precisely, to the 
presentation of a diverse, often extremely varied world image (with a number of Roma elements), life and 
way of thinking without - self-improvement-  before the majority society. 
Besides, multi-culturalism should be a normal state of the radio. On the one hand, this means that the 
various cultures (Roma and non-Roma, as well as Romungro, Wallachian Roma, Boyash, etc.) are integral 
parts of the program rota. On the other hand, it indicates a kind of program producing approach: these 
cultures should not be presented, preserved and fostered to the disadvantage of one another. 
The above already suggests, but we need to make an explicit statement: it is evident for the producers of 
Radio © that they intend to present and foster the Roma culture and traditions. This is true for the culture 
of various Roma groups (Romungro, Wallachian Roma, Boyash, Sinto, etc.) as well as the different cultural 
genres (music, customs, traditions, literature, artists, etc.). 
In this spirit, we would like to deal with the Roma languages intensively, thus in specific programs.
starting with the Carpathian and Romany language, and later the Boyash as well. It would not only involve 
discussions about the language but possibly language teaching, too. 
Similarly: we will have thematic musical magazines, including traditional music genres (such as authentic 
Wallachian gipsy music, Hungarian gipsy music) as well as light music (e.g. jazz). 
Tradition (not only in an ethnographical, but in a wider, anthropological sense) will be a distinguished topic 
of Radio ©. We would not like to show separate elements of tradition, but the interrelations, similarities and 
connections of cultures, not as a - dead culture- , but as living, existing tradition elements. 
Relevantly, we regularly broadcast stories. By the way, Radio © is planning to compile its own collection. 
Most of all, we would like to collect the so far undocumented stories of long-established musician gypsies 
of Budapest, as some kind of an oral history.  A similar aim is to process and preserve the traditions of 
Wallachian and Boyash Roma cultures. 


Public service radio

In addition to its community feature the program rota of Radio © contains a lot of public service elements. 
In fact, this is an automatic consequence of the situation that Radio © is the first Roma radio and that it 
tries to provide services with a view to making the life of the highest possible number of Roma people more 
endurable. The radio therefore aims to enable its listeners, the Roma, become better informed, more 
conscious, have a clearer understanding of the processes that determine their lives and be citizens of their 
country who are able to make decisions.  On the other hand, it would like to be a medium which intends to 
serve its listeners as much as possible and transmit their questions and problems towards the authorized 
decision-makers and institutions. In this respect, Radio © will cooperate with other organs of the Roma 
press (Roma papers, Roma Press Center, etc.), Roma non-governmental organizations and organizations 
and foundations dealing with the Roma. 
So Radio © will operate as a Roma public service broadcaster in both a cultural and political sense. This 
means that it will approach political events from the viewpoint of the Roma listener with the aim of showing, 
for example, how a certain measure will affect the Roma (as well as people living in similar situations). In this 
regard Radio © will be critical of the current government, but not partial. The Roma public service character, 
on the other hand, means that all key persons of Roma political life will have an important role in the 
program rota - not with a limited number of minutes, but after assessing the relevance of a given political 
manifestation (news value).
A logical consequence of this is that it is not enough for Radio © to put a man (the presenter) and a 
computer (play list) out in the ether, as many radios do. Radio © operates columns and employs and trains 
radio journalists. In the program rota this will appear as news programs and lots of service providing and 
analyzing program elements which all require expertise. In addition to news magazines, fact revealing 
interviews and studio talks will regularly discuss the typical conflicts of the Roma. A separate program will 
deal with 'big political' issues concerning the Roma and the poor in general, and the problems of Roma 
self-organization will have their own program as well. Just to give a foretaste: we plan to have a pensioner 
program with one (or more) Roma presenter(s); a women's program will deal with transforming family roles, 
the topic of female career opportunities; and Radio © would like to address children brought up in state 
institutions with a special program. The radio will broadcast several magazine programs, which will provide 
practical legal advice, job opportunities, health care and drug consulting, current practical issues and 
program offers for its audience. 

Commercial radio

At the same time, it is of utmost importance that Radio © must not be a 'complaint radio': it should give 
voice to basic truths, while it remains a 'listenable' and 'comfortable' radio. Therefore the producers of 
Radio ©'s news magazines must also adapt to the media consumption habits of the target audience, while 
fully complying with the requirement of professional accuracy.  The radio's management also prepares the 
program rota accordingly: they continuously measure the size of the radio's audience and create the 
program structure of Radio © flexibly to meet the demands. So they adopt a number of elements from the 
world of commercial radios - mainly because the radio aims to maximize its sphere of listeners and its 
commercial-type incomes. 
Another significant aspect: with a permanent number of 50-60 thousand listeners Radio © could be the first 
to break the wall between the advertising market and the Roma. This is one of the prime aims of Radio © (in 
addition to being the Roma's own radio): to have advertisements specifically targeting the Roma, so that 
they are not only emancipated as citizens, students, employees, etc., but in economic terms, as consumers 
too. We are convinced that the achievement of this would have a positive impact on equality in the areas of 
human rights and opportunities in life and on the self-image of the Roma.    
 

-