India’s First Queer Radio Station Launching on Sep 11

India's first queer radioIndia’s LGBT community will soon have a dedicated radio station. Q radio, an online radio channel from radiowalla.in, will be launched on 11th September to cater to the community. The channel will be available 24×7 and listeners will be able to access it through a computer or mobile device via the internet.

Radiowalla.in is India’s first Direct to Consumer multi-channel internet radio platform and has over 30 radio stations carefully created and curated by professionals with a wide range of music, non-music and talk shows. They also plan to launch a mobile app for Q Radio soon.

Q Radio hopes to provide a platform to bring out the voices from the LGBT community that need to be heard, opinions and debates that needs to be had– out in the open. “One of the main objectives of Radiowalla.in, as a platform, is to cater to special interests of a population not being addressed by mainstream media adequately and that of inclusion of all through the diverse channels offered on this radio platform. I believe that the gay and lesbian population can benefit from a space of their own,” said Anil Srivatsa, CEO and Co-founder of Radiowalla Network Private Limited, the parent company of Radiowalla.in.

The channel will provide a wide variety of experience to its listeners. While the show Lets Get Beyond Ties, hosted by John & Sandy, hopes to be both a “fun and serious” show, another show HqO hosted by Vaishalli will be challenging gender stereotypes and celebrate gender fluidity. A half an hour counseling show called Heart-to-Heart will have counselors Ajanta De and/or Mahesh Natrajan answering queries of listeners calling in to the station. “We would love the South Asian LGBT community around the world to contribute, participate and also add to this channel with more of their own content to be part of our offering on Radiowalla.in,” said Harry Bhatia, the company’s co-founder.

The channel has already received a very good response on social media, with their facebook page crossing 1000 likes within 2 days. Reacting to this news, popular playwright and Director Mahesh Dattani said, “I congratulate Radiowalla on their initiative to bring out a radio station for the Indian LGBT community. Radio has the power to reach out and communicate effectively through dialogue, discourse and outreach. The LGBT community I am sure will make good use of it to build their identity and address issues that concern them specifically.”