‘Sainik Vani’, a podcast channel developed by veteran community radio practitioner R. Sreedher featuring talents and talks of ex-servicemen, will go live on Friday as the country celebrates Kargil Vijay Diwas.
According to Dr. Sreedher, a pioneer of community radios in India, the channel is ready with a couple of podcasts featuring interviews of Param Vir Chakra awardee Subedar Major (Honorary Lieutenant) Yogendra Singh Yadav, Vishisht Seva Medal awardees Group Captain (Retd) R. Vijaya Kumar and Colonel (Retd) Achal Sridharan.
He said an interview with cosmonaut and Wing Commander (Retd) Rakesh Sharma will be up on the channel, which can be accessed at https://www.i-radiolive.com, India’s largest non-commercial and non-governmental podcast platform for knowledge education and culture, soon.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, I launched a podcast channel ‘Tapovani’ to keep senior citizens engaged and showcase their talents. Later another podcast channel ‘Anubhav’ was launched. ‘Sainik Vani’ is a channel dedicated to ex-servicemen, where they can exhibit their talents, share memories or even take their grievances to the authorities,” he said.
It was under Dr. Sreedher that ‘Anna Community Radio’, the country’s first community radio, was set up in 2004 when he was the Head of the Department of Media Sciences at Anna University, Chennai. It took another 20 years for the country to have 500 community radios, he remarked.
‘Sainik Vani’ is ready with 15 podcasts for the soft launch on Friday. Veterans and ex-servicemen who wish to express their talents and experiences could approach the nearest community radio station, who in turn would connect to Dr. Sreedher, to get featured in the podcast channel. The podcasts will also be available on Spotify and Apple Music.
Dr. Sreedher, who is also the president of Media 4 Community Foundation, wanted the government to take forward the initiative to engage a larger number of talents and audiences.
