Gujarat University (GU became the fifth university to have a campus FM radio station in the country. However, it is the first university in Gujarat to launch a campus radio service.

Set up at a cost of Rs 80 lakh, it was inaugurated with the broadcasting of Governor Kamla Beeniwal’s speech to students and faculty at university’s Convention Hall and Exhibition Centre, about one km from the premises of the Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMRC) where the GU’s radio station is located.

Beniwal was in GU to inaugurate more than half a dozen new buildings and research laboratories, besides parks and lawns, completed by Vice-Chancellor Parimal Trivedi.

It was one of the favourite projects of Trivedi who introduced several new projects, including a high-tech lab with 400 computers. The computer lab has been set up with funds from National Knowledge Commission (NKC) headed by Sam Pitroda. diljit dosanjh gobind de laal

Though Trivedi wanted to launch the FM radio station in 2011 itself, it was delayed due to financial and other problems.

Available at 90.8 Mhz frequency, it would have a range of 25 km radius. It means that this facility could be availed by all the colleges in the city and on its periphery as far as Sanand.

The facility could also be used to provide radio and broadcasting training to the students of the department of journalism and mass communication of the university

“GU FM Radio station is of the students, for the students and by the students,” Trivedi commented when asked about who would operate the station. However, initially, it is being run by EMRC staff members, with overall supervision of Dinesh Goswami. Goswami is assisted by his colleagues Hemal Gadhvi and Dilip Dave.

Presently, the programmes would be broadcast daily for an hour from 9 am to 10 am, and the same programme would be repeated between 5 pm to 6 pm. In due course, it would be a two-hour programme in the morning and two hour in the evening.

Anna University in Chennai was the first in the country to have launched the country’s first campus FM radio station in 2004, followed by Pune University in 2005. Subsequently, Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia University also launched their campus FM radio stations.