Radio Tarana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
36°52′02″S 174°45′20″E / 36.86715°S 174.75559°E
 | |
 Radio Tarana headquarters in Eden Terrace, Auckland | |
| |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | New Zealand |
| Frequency | Auckland: 1386 AM |
| History | |
First air date | 1996 |
| Technical information | |
Transmitter coordinates | 36°50′56.7″S 174°37′46.9″E / 36.849083°S 174.629694°E |
| Links | |
| Webcast | Live stream |
| Website | tarana |
Radio Tarana is a New Zealand radio network, broadcasting in Auckland. It broadcasts a mixture of music, information, news, sports, culture, events coverage and lifestyle features.[1] The station was the first commercial full-time New Zealand radio station targeting migrant communities.[2] According to the 2014 TNS New Zealand radio survey, it remains the highest-rating ethnic broadcaster in the country.[3][4]
Robert Khan set up the station in 1996 for Auckland's Indian and Hindi-speaking community. It now targets a broad range of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan and Fijian migrants around New Zealand.[1] The network aims to foster mutual understanding between different migrant groups with diverse interests, religions and ethnic origins.[4] This is done in part through the coverage of religious festivals, international news events and local political issues.[5]
Tarana broadcasts in Auckland on 1386 AM, reaching a weekly audience of 32,000 in the Auckland market during a survey in 2014.[6] Radio agency The Radio Bureau claims these listeners have "significant spending capacity" and "high disposable incomes".[1] With nationwide coverage through online streaming, digital radio, mobile devices, satellite radio and an estimated 22,000 weekly web browsers, it claims to reach a total audience based on about 80,000.[4]
Language use
Tarana began broadcasting on 15 June 1996 at 5.00pm, to showcase popular Hindi songs from the 1950s to now, including Bollywood music, popular tracks and new remixes. This includes live music and local music tracks.[7] Other programmes include local news and sports bulletins, interviews, and discussions on local contributors covering issues affecting local migrant communities.[4]
Tarana has supported community events and activities, and provided on-air event listings, birthday announcements, and death notices. It has sponsored the Indian Republic Day Show, Festival of India, Diwali Mela, India Independence Day Show, and similar events. The events it organised around the country in 2014 attracted more than 400,000 people.[8] With a broad range of programming blocks, the station has tried to reach a range of age groups, social backgrounds and other segments of the audience.[4]
Radio Tarana broadcasts in a combination of Hindi and New Zealand English. It was set up specifically to promote the Hindi language and serve Hindi-speaking communities.[2] Many of its hosts are proficient in the Hindi language, experts in language usage, or advocates for its continued use in New Zealand. Some of the hosts have worked for overseas media outlets like Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Fiji, Radio Navtarang, Radio Sargam, Mirchi FM and the BBC. Many are prominent community figures or have been master of ceremonies at local community events.[5]
Journalist and media commentator Thakur Ranjit Singh, the former publisher of Fiji Daily Post, has been critical of Radio Tarana's extensive use of Hindi. In 2012, he wrote Tarana had used and promoted a high quality of traditional Hindi, maintaining language decorum, sensitivity and proper usage. He suggested rival network Apna had used pidgin, slang and Fiji Hindi, and had compromised the language with "linguistic engineering". However, Singh claimed Tarana was not translating words into New Zealand English or explaining words in ways young and second generation listeners could understand. He argued this excluded listeners who had limited exposure to the Hindi language, including school children whose friends and peers were mostly Pākehā. He suggest this could undermine Tarana's efforts to promote the Hindi language.[9]
Religious complaints
Radio Tarana has been the subject of Broadcasting Standards Authority complaints relating to its coverage of religious issues. The first related to a series about religious procedures following the death of a Muslim person. A Muslim priest argued the dates and times of making supplications did not need to be fixed, and a Muslim commentator they did. The host argued the priest was right, and was accused of being unfair and derogatory to the Muslim commentator. Radio Tarana disputed the claim, accusing the commentator of being derogatory towards the priest, and said the programme was no longer on air. The broadcaster was unable to provide tapes of the programme, and the authority found it could not determine the case. It asked Tarana to keep recordings of future programmes.[10]
Another complaint related to Zinadgi Forever, a Christian radio programme produced by Navjaveen Ministries International and broadcast on Radio Tarana. The programme's host had discussed his conversion from Hinduism to Christianity on air, saying after he received a Bible he "never walked in darkness again" and "never walked in untruth again". He was accused of discriminating against and denigrating the Hindu religion and breaching responsible programme standards in 2009. However, the authority ruled the host was entitled to discuss his personal views and experiences with Christianity, and the programme did not encourage denigration or discrimination against Hindu people.[11]
News
Radio Tarana has covered national and international news events, including New Zealand elections, 2000 Fijian coup d'état, 2001 Indian Parliament attack 2001 Gujarat earthquake, 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, 2006 Fijian coup d'état and 2014 Fijian general election.[12] Its journalists and hosts have interviewed politicians and journalists, like US Senator John McCain, New Zealand prime minister John Key, and United Nations Development Programme administrator Helen Clark. Winston Peters and Phil Goff have also done interviews with Tarana.[5]
The station provides coverage of cricket, soccer and rugby.[4] Its website also includes live feeds from stuff.co.nz, Times of India, Fiji Times, Cricket Next, Bollywood Hungama and BBC News.[12] Tarana broadcasts BBC News Hindi, BBC News Urdu and Fiji News every weekday afternoon, and broadcasts BBC News Hindi every evening of the week.[13]
Fiji coverage
Radio Tarana covers Fijian news, political issues and events including the 2000 and 2006 coups and the 2014 general election.[12] It is the only media outlet in the world to secure a weekly interview with Fijian prime minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama. Journalist Sanjesh Narayan has conducted the phone interview since Bainimarama took power. In 2011, he said it was often hard to secure the prime minister at a specific allotted time, but Bainimarama always took part. At the end of a two-hour interview at his Suva office, Bainimarama said Tarana served as a "good bridge between Fiji and New Zealand" and Narayan was a "pleasant man" he had never met.[5]
Complaints
In 2014, the Broadcasting Standards Authority refused to uphold complaint against Radio Tarana from Fiji government minister Rajesh Singh. Tarana had broadcast a news item about District Court proceedings involving Singh, over a dispute about rent allegedly owned to the landlord of a building he leased. Singh argued the story was an unfair, inaccurate and unbalanced account of a controversial issue. He also believed the story was discriminatory, was denigration, and went against good taste and decency. However, the authority found the story was a straightforward, brief news report, and gave proper airtime to the complainant's position.[14]
Later the same year, the authority received a complaint about Tarana's stories on the Sanil Kumar Medical Fund, which had been set up the support the treatment of a young Fijian-Indian man in New Zealand who had died after being deported back to Fiji. Radio Tarana News reported some people, including the immediate family of Kumar, had made allegations the fund was being misused by its directors. The complainants, Pradeep Chand, Asheelta Kumar, Ashok Kumar and Kamta Prasad, argued the reporting, was unbalanced, inaccurate, unfair, denigrating, and likely to cause panic among the public. The authority rejected the claims, ruling the broadcaster made been reasonably balanced, fair and accurate, and the story was no discriminatory or irresponsible.[15]
