Article | Radio

The Evolution of AIR (All India Radio)

Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee

AIR completes 80 years on June 8, 2016. On this day in 1936 the Indian State Broadcasting Service became All India Radio (AIR). From then it has been a roller coaster ride for the broadcaster which took on another name in 1956: Akashvani.

Journalist turned media academician Dr. Mrinal Chatterjee remembers the day and maps the journey of AIR from its inception to the present day.

History of Radio Broadcast in India

Broadcasting in India actually began about 13 years before AIR came into existence. In June 1923 the Radio Club of Bombay made the first ever broadcast in the country. This was followed by the setting up of the Calcutta Radio Club five months later. The Indian Broadcasting Company (IBC) came into being on July 23, 1927, only to face liquidation in less than three years.

Development

In April 1930, the Indian Broadcasting Service, under the Department of Industries and Labour, commenced its operations on an experimental basis. Lionel Fielden was appointed the first Controller of Broadcasting in August 1935. On June 8, 1936, the Indian State Broadcasting Service became All India Radio.

The Central News Organisation (CNO) came into existence in August, 1937. In the same year, AIR came under the Department of Communications and four years later in 1941 came under the Department of Information and Broadcasting. When India attained independence, there were six radio stations in India, at Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Tiruchirapalli and Lucknow. There were three in Pakistan (Peshawar, Lahore and Dacca). AIR then had a coverage of just 2.5 % of the area and 11% of the population. Sardar Vallavbhai Patel was the first Minister of Information and Broadcasting in independent India. The following year, CNO was split up into two divisions, the News Services Division (NSD) and the External Services Division (ESD).

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. First line of the poem was: "Uthilo akash bani dhorar angina hotay...." ("Hark to Akashvani up-surging, From here below..)  It could be true. But a radio station had been set up in the name of Akashvani in Mysore in September 1935. The name could have come from there also.

The Vividh Bharati Service was launched in 1957 with popular film music as its main component. The immediate provocation was to counter the popularity of Radio Ceylon. It so happened that in the 1950s, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr. B.V. Keskar, put a ban on broadcast of Hindi film songs on AIR. As a result Radio Ceylon with its programmes centred round popular Hindi songs became immensely popular. It took AIR seven years to launch Vividh Bharti, the entertainment channel to counter Radio Ceylon.

Growth

The phenomenal growth acieved by All India Radio has made it one of the largest media organisations in the world. With a network of 415 radio stations, AIR today is accessible to almost the entire population of the country and nearly 92% of the total area. A broadcasting giant, AIR today broadcasts in 23 languages and 146 dialects catering to a vast spectrum of socio-economically and culturally diverse populace.

Programmes of the External Services Division are broadcast in 11 Indian and 16 foreign languages reaching out to more than 100 countries. These external broadcasts aim to keep the overseas listeners informed about developments in the country and provide a rich fare of entertainment as well.

The News Services Division, of All India Radio broadcasts 647 bulletins daily for a total duration of nearly 56 hours in about 90 Languages/Dialects in Home, Regional, External and DTH Services. 314 news headlines on hourly basis are also being mounted on FM mode from 41 AIR Stations. 44 Regional News Units originate 469 daily news bulletins in 75 languages. In addition to the daily news bulletins, the News Services Division also mounts number of news-based programmes on topical subjects from Delhi and its Regional News Units

By mid-2016, besides the 415 Stations across the Country, AIR operates 18 FM stereo channels, called AIR FM Rainbow, targeting the urban audience in a refreshing style of presentation. Four more FM channels called, AIR FM Gold, broadcast composite news and entertainment programmes from Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai. With the FM wave sweeping the country, AIR is augmenting its Medium Wave transmission with additional FM transmitters at Regional stations.

Role AIR played

After independence AIR played an important role in communication, especially in the remote areas where the newspapers could not reach and/or could not be used because of the abymissaly low literacy rate. All India Radio played a significant role in social integration across the nation. AIR was used in nation building from various angles- from social integration to fighting superstitions to economic development.

Future of AIR

AIR is on a growth surge and technology upgradation mode. In keeping with the Government decision for transition to the digital mode of transmission, AIR is switching from analog to digital in a phased manner. The technology adopted is the Digital Radio Mondiale or DRM. With the target of complete digitization by 2017, the listeners can look forward to highly enhanced transmission quality in the near future.

AIR, has an advantage over private players so far news on radio is concerned. In India news is still not allowed on Private radio. AIR is playing on its advantage. In 2000, AIR ‘News on Phone’ Service was made available at 14 places i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Patna, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Bangalore, Thiuvananthapuram, Imphal, Lucknow , Raipur, Guwahati, and Shimla. It has introduced news in its FM stations also. 

Future of RADIO in India

Not only AIR, Radio in general is on a growth trajectory in India. The business is growing. The number of stations is also increasing with increasingly relaxed government policy. At present there are over 250 private Radio Stations across the country operated by about 50 broadcasters. About 200 Community Radio Stations (CRS) are operating in the country. This number is likely to increase many fold as the Govt relaxes the licensing rules and promotes it actively.

Radio on Internet and mobile is becoming increasingly popular than conventional mode and device of listening. Thanks to the reducing cost, and user friendly technology many players are setting up radio stations exclusively for these media. Recently Odisha State Open University is launching its Internet radio Pragynavani for its students.

Being an unobtrusive and inexpensive media Radio has definite advantages over other media. Technology has accentuated those advantages leading to its resurgence.

***

The author presently heads the Eastern India Campus of Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) at Dhenkanal, Odisha. He has had a long association with AIR.

7.6.16

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.

Interesting Media Facts | Radio

Interesting Media Facts | Radio

• Indian Broadcasting Service, the precursor of All India Radio commenced its operations under the Department of Industries and Labour in 1930. It was named All India Radio (AIR) on June 8 1936. In 1937 AIR came under the Department of Communications and four years later came under the Department of Information and Broadcasting.

• In the 1950s, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Dr. B.V. Keskar, put a ban on broadcast of Hindi film songs on AIR. As a result Radio Ceylon with its programmes centred round popular Hindi songs became immensely popular. It took AIR seven years to launch Vividh Bharti, the entertainment channel to counter Radio Ceylon.

Column | Window Seat

Window Seat | Mrinal Chatterjee

Of Books and Book lovers

We are not a book lover nation. Though with a Rs 269 billion book publication industry we are sixth in the world in terms of book business size, but as per the figures quoted by India Today (May 16, 2016) 93 per cent of the books sold are academic. The top three selling books in India are text books: one on Medical Pharmacology, one is Science for 9^th class and the third is Company Law.

There are over 9000 publishers, 21000 retailers publishing and selling books in over 1600 languages in this country which has over 90 crores literate persons. But of all the books sold 55 per cent are in English. Please note that only 2 per cent of our population knows how to read and write English. Among Indian languages, 35 per cent of books that are sold are in Hindi.

Another worrying fact is: sale of non-text books is coming down, drastically –a cross all languages, more so in regional languages. People are either reading from their hand held devices or not reading at all. A new word has been coined for such people- who can read but do not – alliterate. The trend is more prevalent in the youth, who should be reading more. As a result book publication industry is suffering a setback.

Another phenomenon, which is impacting the book publication industry adversely, is ‘author-publisher’. As the technicalities of book publication (composing the matter, layout, printing, binding, etc) have become accessible to common people thanks to the advancement of technology, the author is publishing his own books.  But without marketing network these books are not marketed properly. The end result is: most of the books are given to people for free or sold at a heavily discounted price. It is negatively impacting the publishing business environment, especially for the non-text segment.

It is time the industry majors seriously think about the future of this industry, which has brought in a major change in democratizing knowledge and thus in the development of the civilization post 15^th century.

Sambalpuri translation of Geetanjali

While talking about books, let me inform you that Sambalpuri translation of Ravindranath Tagore’s Nobel Prize winning poetry collection Geetanjali has been released.

Sambalpur based Muktakantha Pradhan has translated it from original Bengali. It has been published by Sikhya Prakashani, Bhubaneswar. Priced at Rs 100 this 120 page anthology has the English translation and Sambalpuri rendition.

Encroachment

Details of Mathura kaand is shocking. Till the time I am writing, 27 people have died.

Two questions that are being asked relating to the shocking and tragic incident: how can the quirky 'netaji' attract so many followers? And how can the administration sit idle when 270 acres of land in the city is encroached for over 2 years?

The answer to the second question is not very hard to find. Encroachment of Govt. land has become a menace across the country, especially in cities and towns. As people are migrating from villages to cities, real estate prices are going up. Land is the new gold. The easy way to grab Govt. land is to encroach it and hold it for some years. The poor people coming from rural areas do it. But more than the poor doing it land is grabbed by the local mafia, backed by political parties and they allow people coming from rural areas to settle there- obviously in exchange of money.  The encroachers get political support as the political parties/persons try to create and nurture their vote bank.  Thus slums grow overnight in prime Govt land. Backed by political parties, they stay put. In some cities eventually it is regularized. And that entice more people to encroach Govt land. As political parties and powerful political persons are involved in the encroachment, the administration often takes it easy and does not take action.

The menace is growing and has taken the form of an epidemic. It has to be curbed. Zero tolerance to encroachment should be the policy. That and prompt eviction and prosecution are the only answer to this menace.

Otherwise there will be more Mathura kaand across the country.

Tailpiece: Rumour

Ab  ye afbah koun faila raha hai ki jo ladkian brush nehi karti, who apna munh kapde se bandh karke ghumti hain.

(Now, who is spreading this rumour that girls who do not brush their teeth, move with the cloth tied across their faces)

(Courtesy: Social Media)

**

5. 6. 2016

The author, a journalist turned media academician lives and works at Dhenkanal, Odisha.  

Contact: mrinalchatterjee@ymail.com

http://orissadiary.com/ShowOriyaColumn.asp?id=67603

Column | Jagate Thiba Jete Dina

Samaja Saptahika 28 May-3 June, 2016

Samaja Saptahika, 4-10 June, 2016

Shakti to be translated in Assamese

Shakti to be translated in Assamese

Itishree Singh Rathaur, Consulting Editor Ama Sahar Samparka has finished translating my novel Shakti, originally written in Odia. Written in the form of a science fiction it tries to explore the concept of shakti- power.
Mrinal Kumar Nath will translate it in Assamese.
The Hindi version should be published by this year end.

Media in India: Interesting Facts 2

 Media  in India:  Interesting Facts 2

Out of the four oldest surviving newspapers in India, three have been founded by the Parsis- and in Gujarati language: Bombay (Mumbai) Samachar (1), Jam-e-Jamshed (2) and Gujaratmitra (4). 
Times of India happens to be the third oldest surviving newspaper in India.