Two city institutes are ready to go on air, planning to launch their FM radio channels in the next two months.

While Jadavpur University’s Radio JU (90.8 FM) will hit the air on April 14, Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute’s SRFTI FM (90.4 MHz) can be heard from the second week of May.

Both stations will be run by the students. “We will write the scripts, take interviews and host the shows ourselves,” said Siddharth Basu, a third-year history student of JU, who has been selected as an RJ.

Radio JU can be heard within a radius of 10 km, extending up to Sealdah in the north, Sonarpur in the south and Taratala in the east. SRFTI FM has half the range.

“Our focus is on education-based programmes and institute-related information, like admission dates, results and campus interviews,” said SRFTI director Swapan Mullick.

JU, too, is keen on airing campus news, though there will also be sections for general listeners. “Our daily programme, drawn up on the basis of the findings of several surveys, will include plays and Western and Indian classical music. There will be talks on topical issues and programmes for the physically disabled, especially those who cannot see,” said Nilanjana Gupta, the director of the university’s school of media and communication and culture

Now, Indira Gandhi National Open University’s Gyanvani 105.4 FM is the only educational radio station in the city. “It’s good that educational institutions are offering educational radio service. The entertainment programmes run by private FM stations are useless,” said Biswanath Das, the station director of Gyanvani FM’s Calcutta chapter.

Calcutta University, however, has no plans to start a community radio. “The colleges and campuses of Calcutta University are so far apart that it is not feasible to cover them all through community radio,” said vice-chancellor Asis Kumar Banerjee.