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| St.George College, Aruvithura, near Erattupetta, Kottayam |
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Which is the first college in India to start a TV channel on its own? Not the privileged ones in metros or large cities, but the obscure St.George College, Aruvithura, near Erattupetta in the Western Ghat region. Started in 1999, the channel is available by fibre optic cable to viewers in 15 km range.
It all started with the idea of few teachers how to obtain for the college, the Rs.25 lakhs grant from UGC for innovative projects. While the Principal Fr.Dr.K.M.Joseph Kollamparambil and teachers Pius Ozhakkal and Lopuz Mathew provide leadership for the venture, it is the students who produce and transmit the programmes.
What made the local populace sit up and take notice of the channel was the marathon 14 hours live telecast of the counting in the last Panchayat election held in the college. In 2001, the college started the course B.A in English with Broadcasting and last year the Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication and Video Production. It is the students of these courses who double up as technicians and artists for the programmes produced by SGC TV.
Daily telecasting begins at 2 p.m. After music programme upto 6 p.m., the channel switches on to news followed by other programmes in areas like social issues, health, education, environment etc up to 8 p.m.
In addition to SGC channel, the Community Telecasting Centre of the college transmits 41 other channels for the viewers. 6 franchisee cable operators take the programme to approximately 3000 houses in the vicinity.
“How useful are our assignments compared to the bundles of written papers in other courses,” comments a student Anu, who operates the digital camera.
Students recording and editing programmes
Courtesy: Merly M.Eldo, Vanitha, November 15-30, 2003
Contributed by: Administrator
