Interesting Media Facts | Radio

AKASHVANI

In 1938 Rabindranath Tagore composed a poem titled, "Akash bani"(celestial announcement from sky), on the occasion of the inauguration of the Calcutta short-wave transmission. The first line of the poem was: " Uthilo akash bani dhorar angina hotay...." (Thanks Subir Ghosh for sending me the line)
Translated in English it poem reads:
"Hark to Akashvani up-surging
From here below,
The earth is bathed in Heaven s glory,
Its purple glow,
Across the blue expanse is firmly planted
The altar of the Muse
The lyre unheard of Light is throbbing,
With human hues.
From earth, to heaven, distance conquered,
In waves of Light
Flows the music of man's divining
Fancy's flight,
To East and West speech careers,
Swift as the Sun,
The mind of man reaches Heaven's confines
Its freedom won."

In 1956 the name AKASHVANI was adopted for the National Broadcaster. Many believe that the word ‘Akashvani’ has been coined from Rabindranath Tagore’s poem written on the occasion of the inauguration of the Calcutta Radio Station’s Shortwave transmission in 1938. It could be true.
But a radio station had been set up in Mysore in the name of Akashvani in September 1935. The name could have come from there also.