Hills FM @ 90.8 

Contact Person: Ms. Imali Hesso

Broadcasting Language: English, Hindi and Nagamese

Genesis: 90.8 Hills FM is Nagaland’s first community radio station initiated by an NGO, Faith Ministry Society. 90.8 Hills FM came into operation on the 8th of September, 2022. The vision of the CRS is to be the voice of the people. The CRS aims to educate, inform, promote, and entertain the community through its broadcast programmes and adopts a ‘community first’ approach. The CRS is known for its popular programmes and initiatives. Despite being a young community radio station, Radio Hills has already started to create positive ripples of change in the target community. 

Thematic Focus: The unwavering focus of Radio Hills is on the welfare and development of the community. The programmes centre around issues about women empowerment, mental health, environmental awareness, and promoting local talents. Radio Hills creates content in English, Nagamese and Hindi, tailoring it to suit the needs of the local community. 

Sustainable Development Goals: Hills FM focuses on the following SDGs:

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being

SDG 5: Gender Equality

SDG 13: Climate Action

SDG 15: Life on Land

Primetime Programmes:

1. Know your Entrepreneur: Unemployment continues to be a major problem in Naga society today. In a society, where many are striving for government jobs, individuals who have looked beyond such a narrow lens continue to shine as examples for the community to emulate. This segment aims to highlight such personalities with the hope that the youth will be inspired to follow their dreams and pave their own path. 

2.     Community Welfare: As the need for humanitarianism grows, there are individuals who stand up and answer this call in their own way by working alone or joining hands with like-minded people to make the world a better place. Through this programme, the CRS highlights such selfless personalities and talks about the good work they have done for the community. 
3.     Music in Focus: It is safe to say that music is deeply rooted in the Naga way of life. With the rise of talented artists from Nagaland the CRS feels it is the right time to celebrate the music created by the talents of the state. The CRS supports the local talent by listening to and reviewing their music.

4.     Hills Campus: Awareness of various career options available to students is very limited in the state. With such a lack of knowledge, making a life-long decision can be challenging. On this show, the CRS  helps individuals make adequate educational and professional choices and make well-informed career decisions based on their interests, qualifications, and skill set.  

5.     Doctor’s Corner: Using the show ‘Doctor’s Corner’ as a platform, the CRS focuses on health issues by inviting medical professionals who are experts in their field to discuss with the listeners on various health-related topics and answer their queries.

6.       Hills Book Club: Through reading and having a discussion about books published by the Naga authors, the CRS inspires budding writers and revives the reading community. In the show, the CRS interviews writers, publishers, and have book-reading sessions for the listeners, including children. As many new writers are emerging from Nagaland alone, the CRS hopes to spotlight talented authors, promote their work, and support the literary community.

 She Who Matters: The focus on empowering women has become essential for building an equal and sustainable world. In the show, the CRS highlights women from all walks of life, emphasises the importance of women’s role in the overall development of the society, and initiates discussions around gender justice and equality.

Innovations in format or any other way: Hills FM has extensively worked along its line of vision which is to be the voice of people by actively conducting narrowcast projects in schools & colleges. In order to have more participation, Hills gives constant updates on social media giving more transparency and a broader reach to the listeners. Interview content is uploaded on YouTube and scheduled programmes are posted on Instagram on a daily basis. 

Core Team: Radio Hills has twelve members in its core team. The team is led by the Managing Director, and also includes a consultant, Station Executive, Station Manager, Duty Associate, audio engineer, content writers, intern and radio jockeys. 

Major Projects Undertaken: The following are some of the major projects undertaken by Radio Hills:

1.     Collaborated with the Traffic Police Cell to share updates about traffic congestion, car accidents and catastrophic events and in the meantime educate the masses about traffic rules. 
2.     Collaborated with SMART NGO on Digital Rights Literacy. The CRS visited 7 institutes and marketplaces and sensitised over 1000 individuals on how to be safe on the internet in 3 months. 
3.     Collaborated with Factshala India and SMART NGO on Media Literacy by producing three episodes and fun quizzes over radio in the month of April 2023. 
4.     Held a charity event for a 7-year-old boy who had to undergo kidney treatment. Through the event, the CRS was able to raise a total sum of Rupees 1,62,500.

Sustainable Strategies: : 90.8 Hills FM plans to sustain itself via departmental funding from the State Government on IEC targets and by collaborating with reputed NGOs for campaigns.  

Number of listeners and Potential Outreach: The CRS is still young and an extensive study needs to be done to ascertain the listener base. Online and offline surveys show that 78 out of 100 people in the region tune in to the programmes of the CRS. 

Major concerns in the Community: Nagaland, even after 58 years of statehood, is considered as one of the most underdeveloped State in India. There are still numerous pressing issues such as, unemployment, poor electricity, political unrest and corruption, low access to health facilities,  rise in pollution, poor condition of roads, and second highest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the country. 

These are some of the few major concerns which can be addressed collectively. The community radio station can be a tool to educate, inform people about the rights and entitlements. With proper partnership with the government and organisations, the CRS can help produce development programmes which will help increase good health, education and governance.