Radio City's new education venture offers 'real time real world' environment

For those who want to enter the radio industry, but are unable to find the ideal training institute, Radio City's education venture may just be the answer

On the occasion of the launch of Radio City School of Broadcasting (RCSB), Apurva Purohit, chief executive officer, Radio City said that venturing into education was a natural process. RCSB’s debut offer is a six-month certificate course in Radio Jockeying and Radio Production.

Purohit claims that Radio City has positioned itself as the “university of radio” and believes in training and creating high quality radio professionals. She adds, “There are very few radio stations in the country today, which do not have a Radio City alumnus using their expertise to build good radio organizations.”

Another factor that enabled the radio station to start RCSB is that despite huge interest in radio careers over the past few years, institutes for specialised radio courses have been inadequate. “It is an attempt to bridge this gap and attract and train new talent for the industry,” informs Purohit.

She explains how radio aspirants will benefit. “Students, who are part of RCSB, get mentored by Radio City’s experienced personnel, who are completely hands-on with managing the business. The programme allows students to be part of the dynamic, ‘real time real world’ radio environment, instead of only making promos at a recording studio.”

The course comprises classroom training for three months, followed by a three-month internship at Radio City. The classroom training includes two modules -- an introduction to key elements of a radio station and essential insights on various functions at a radio station. The internship will cover departments like programming, national creative and content integration.

The course includes papers such as Marketing and Brand Management, Selling Radio, Scope and Future of Internet Radio and Career Management, along with Radio Production, Radio Jockeying, Music Management, Sound Technology and Programming.

Commenting on the course offering, Sagorika Kantharia, Head – HR, Radio City and Dean, RCSB says, “In addition to the theoretical knowledge of various facets of radio management, our Certificate Course focuses on providing students the practical experience of working at a radio station. The course content, designed by a dedicated, in-house team of radio professionals, will be refreshed periodically, keeping in line with the industry dynamism.”

On the lack of specialized centres for radio education, Purohit says, “Partly due to their teaching format, they at best manage to only offer theoretical learning, which hardly comes handy on the job. Also, students from such courses only develop an appreciation of how one element of radio functions. They are not trained to see the larger picture, of how various functions work collaboratively for successful programming innovations and exciting listener offerings.”

She points out that the short-sightedness on the part of these institutes curtails the growth of the students. She also assures that RCSB will take care of all these shortcomings to create world-class radio professionals with hands-on radio experience.