Among the growing number of commercial stations in Kathamandu Valley, Radio Sagarmatha holds a unique position in terms of its programme content. Public affairs journalism and broadcasting are at the heart of Radio Sagarmatha's mission. However given Nepal's rich tradition of folk media and musical heritage, cultural programming is also prominent in the station's daily broadcasts. The station works to present a human package, blending culture with education, entertainment with information, and favors an interactive and participatory approach with a focus on originality and equality.
     The primary language of broadcast is Nepali and the music is also Nepali. Radio Sagarmatha utilises the imagination of the listeners. The programme mix we are working with is simple yet embraces issues and subjects that are of interest and concern to listeners. As a result, the station has built up an impressive profile among a broad cross-section of the audience that extends beyond Kathmandu Valley and includes the Valley rim and parts of the neighboring districts - Kavrepalanchowk, Nuwakot, Dhading and Makwanpur. The station has the distinction of being the only public service station to survive the competition, proving to the and the populace that public broadcasting service is feasible and can be done successfully by non-governmental institutions.

     Radio Sagarmatha has been constantly expanding its programmes in terms of time and diversity, and because of this expanded role it decided to increase its transmitter's power to 500 watts from the earlier 100 watts.
     The station provides programming in various formats - radio magazine, interviews, discussions, interactions, commentary, monologue and music. Radio Sagarmatha starts its daily programming in the morning with a mix of South Asian Classical music and issues related to healthy living, both spiritual and physical. This is followed by the national news, a morning radio talk show and current affairs programmes. The afternoon is mostly given over to entertainment, while the evening programmes include social - oriented programming as well as music.

     Radio Sagarmatha gives the highest priority to news and news-based information and current affairs programmes that consist of analytical and investigative reporting. This includes Radio Nepal's national bulletins and news generated by the radio station itself apart from morning magazines, news briefs, economic reports, community news, sport bulletins, news in ethnic languages (Nepalbhasa, Tamang, Maithili), and live reporting. The current affairs programmes deal with social, economic an political issues of the day and often feature invited guests to speak on these topics. Radio Sagarmatha also broadcasts the BBC World Today (in the morning) and the Nepali service of the BBC World Service (in the evening).

     Radio Sagarmatha's public affairs programmes have become a major success with listeners because of the relevance of content, style of presentation and creativity of the hosts. Some of the issues that have been dealt with in the programmes have never been discussed on the radio. The programmes are intended to assist the dissemination of knowledge on a variety of pertinent issues such as good governance, peace and conflict, earthquake security, gender and women's rights, sustainable development, education, disability, literature, health and sanitation, science and technology, human rights, business, environment, and other public matters.
     The magazine segment includes investigative reportage and commentary on issues and events of immediate and long-term public interest. As part of its regular programming, Radio Sagarmatha also hosts discussions to demystify specialists knowledge with a view to intellectually empowering its listeners. Similarly, the station conducts social analysis through its various programmes apart from broadcasting 'service radio': public service messages, reports on community and institutional events, information on everyday life (e.g. traffic flow, air pollution reading) and updates on upcoming events.

Music has always been an important part of the station's programming and it provides a blend of all kinds of Nepali music - classical, contemporary, pop, folk, film and spiritual. The station broadcasts golden oldies as well as fine instrumentals and vocals that no other radio station has in their archives. Radio Sagarmatha has a unique collection of over 9,000 Nepali songs.

The regular programme gird of Radio Sagarmatha also has feature that reach different segments of the people through its broadcasts to specify audiences - women, children, youth, persons with disabilities, elderly people, ethnic group, business community, artists and poets.

Since Radio Sagarmatha is a radio station it needs all the support it can get from its community of listeners. Towards that end, it has introduced three schemes to enhance participation, cohesion and ownership of listeners and to help make our programmes more vibrant and community-based. You can participate in these schemes in a variety of ways, but your participation has to begin with listening to Radio Sagarmatha.

We encourage you to send us your feedback, comments and suggestions by post or mail. Your comments are often shared with other listeners and these will be particularly helpful to us at the station as well. If you call between 10 am and 1 pm local time, we can record your call and broadcast it later.

Regular listeners can be curious about what happens behind the scenes at their favorite radio station. Radio Sagarmatha has allocated 3 hours (13:00-3:00) every day for its listeners to visit its studio to see the station in action.

Radio Sagarmatha exchanges technical and programming support with organizations willing to help the station to meet the financial burden of programming expenses. The editor responsibility for the programme lies with the community group and the station provides air time, technical and other support.

Although Radio Sagarmatha is essentially a non-commercial radio and a non-profit organization, we have to rely on some form of commercial advertising for sustenance.

Radio Sagarmatha is an excellent way to reach thousands of listeners to promote your events, products or services. As a community radio station, we are better than any other medium at positioning your product because of the comparative advantages we offer. It is inexpensive and reaches specific, attentive audiences. Radio Sagarmatha has a policy not to broadcast more that 10 minutes of message per hour of programming, which means that your advertisement will not be lost in a barrage of commercials.