Reaching out to the unreached: Community radios in Nepal take up podcasting

Community radios in Nepal are taking up podcasting in earnest to reach out to listeners that cannot be reached through their regular terrestrial broadcasting. Podcasting will allow radios to extend their reach to those that prefer to receive their audio content from online platforms, such as the youth and the diaspora.

The what, why, and how of podcasting was featured in a capacity-building online program that AMARC Asia-Pacific, with support from UNESCO, conducted for community radios in Nepal. At least 15 community radio journalists from eight community radio stations participated in the training program. The training is part of the “Community Radio Campaign against COVID-19”.

While most of the radio stations have engaged in the online streaming of audio and radio programs until now none were podcasting in an organised manner and regularly. An experienced podcaster guided the participating broadcasters in the webinar-based training on how to get started with podcasting. The expert shared the value of podcasting as community broadcasters and at the same time enlightened them about the online resources that were available to help them get started. The webinars also discussed how podcasting could be used for income generation and the promotion of their podcasts through social media platforms.

Community radios are very well placed to begin podcasting given that the required resources are already available to them. With the support of UNESCO, regional organisations such as AMARC Asia-Pacific are rapidly expanding this knowledge to other community radios in Nepal as well as outside of the country, to encourage more and more stations to the podcast. This is being done through publications and online resources.

Radio Langtang has advanced from this training. It started its podcast channel in April 2020, when a lot of misinformation about COVID-19 was spreading in the Syaubari community.