Community Radio Solu FM 102.2 MHz

Solukhumbu is situated in hillside of Nepal; the district famed by tourism and Mt. Everest; is not connected by road yet but around half dozen of domestic airlines have been providing regular flight service daily from Kathmandu to Lukla and Phaplu when the weather permits.

However, people in Solu have less opportunity to read newspapers that published in Katmandu and elsewhere. The majority of the people in the district do not have access to television as well. Radio Nepal, the state-owned media was the only source of information and communication that covers events from urban areas like Kathmandu. But Solukhumbu is out of the coverage area of Radio Nepal, so that the signal received is very poor in the area.

The geographical structure of the area makes it difficult and expensive to communicate from one to the next villages since there are no telephone facilities. Radio is the best and fastest media for remote place like Solukhumbu for communication and forwarding information among the people in the communities. In order to achieve a deep impact with education of the population and create communication in the area, a local based community Radio Solu FM 102.2 MHz has been established in 2004.

 Facts on Solu FM

• It is a community radio station.
• The objective of Solu FM is to be forum for information dissemination and to promote freedom of expression and media pluralism.
• It is a non-biased independent radio station allowing all ethnic, legal political and religious groups to broadcast and participate in the decision making.
• Young Star Club, A social service organization since 1977 in the district got Solu FM license (FM 114/060/61-cha no. 1004) on 11 November 2003 from the Ministry of Information and Communication.
• Its test transmission started from 27 August 2004.
• Its capacity is 100W.
• It is believed that more than 100,000 people hear Solu FM.
• The station is located at Dorpu Bazar, Salleri VDC-7, Solukhumbu (Lattitude 27 degrees 29 min 214 sec. N/S; Longitude 86 degrees 34 min 743 sec. E/W)
• It can hear up to Namche Bazar, the gate way to the Mt. Everest, to the north, northern part of Okhaldhunga district to the south, some western part of Khotang district to the east and some eastern part of Ramechhap district to the west.

Solu FM has been set up with the financial support from DIALOGOS, Denmark under the Solukhumbu Edu-Communication Project, initially to facilitate and support community information and the spreading effect of project works, this includes organization/education and the health/education elements along with democracy, human rights, social justice/responsibility and empowerment. 

Solu FM is giving the possibility of an economical deep impact; creating jobs for the local youths, increasing creativity and skills of the local people. It is a non-biased independent radio station allowing all ethnic, gender, age, legal political and religious groups to broadcast and participate in the decision making.

The radio is serving local communities with its 100W capacity producing local news, giving platform for debates on current affairs, democracy, human rights, social justice / responsibilities, empowerment, district information, brodcasts on local languages and choices of songs inluding local songs.   

An Operation and Management Guideline has been made that defines clearly how to set up the responsible Management and Operating Council (MOC). Representatives from the stakeholders like District Development Committee (DDC), District Health Office (DHO), District Education Office (DEO), District Agriculture Office (DAO), Women Development Office (WDO), Young Star Club (YSC), Solukhumbu Edu-Communication Project, Active Listeners Groups (ALG), Business Entrepreneurs and Associations in the district, Local NGOs, Ethnic Groups & Minorities, Legal Political Parties, Religious Groups etc will be in the MOC. The MOC elects an Executive Committee following the democratic process.

Programs