Tuning into Radio MUST on Saturday evening, a bubbly voice is tickling listeners’ funny bones in between information on educational courses, traffic updates and music.

Sitting in the third floor studio at Ranade Bhavan in Mumbai University’s Kalina campus, an erstwhile Mathematics classroom, Gautami Chavare is as chirpy off air as she was on it.

The 18-year-old girl who lives in a slum next to the University campus in Kalina, is among the first bunch of slum residents learning to be radio jockeys at the university’s community radio station. She got roped in through her mother, who works at the residence of Professor Neeraj Hatekar from the Department of Economics.

“I love to talk, I am always talking. The first few days I came they taught us how to use the equipment and explained what it means to be a radio jockey. I checked it for a couple of days and since then I enjoyed coming here,” she smiles.

And to know that she takes radio jockeying seriously, you have to see her skim through a meticulously maintained notebook containing jokes, shayari and anecdotes. “Now, I read evening newspapers daily as they have lots of jokes in them which I can read and memorise to say on radio,” she says, as she scans another sheet with shayari couplets.

Far from the evening hours she earlier spent chatting with friends or watching television, she now works as an RJ and had managed to inspire others from her locality to join in.

“Earlier I would finish work and head home to watch TV serials. Now as I have begun coming here after work, there is no time to watch TV. Evenings have changed, but I’m enjoying this,” says Gautami.

Coming from the same locality, Gautami’s co-host Shainaz Nasir Ansari (20) joined on August 15. “I really like it that people are getting to hear our voices. They now know us and it’s a great opportunity,” Shainaz says.

Radio MUST (Mumbai University Students Transmission), which was launched this February by President Pratibha Patil, is available on the frequency 107.8 FM within an 8-10 kilometer radius of the Kalina campus. The station initially ran for four hours, but has now extended it to nine hours daily.

Managed by a core team of eight to ten people who create, produce and execute the 13-15 capsules of information, the radio station is held together by a team of nearly 18 radio jockeys. The capsules even include bits from the Marathi, English and Hindi textbooks of Std V to VII for the benefit of children in the neighbouring areas.

“It is a talk-based radio, where we are giving lot of information about courses, interviews, FAQs on distance education. We even had college cultural teams come and perform. Music element has to be there. Then recently, after these girls came in there was a request for vegetable and fruit rates in markets and traffic information. We now have a team which goes to the markets to check the prices and broadcast on radio,” says Pankaj Athawale, radio consultant at the station.