What is happening to the world’s most diverse radio broadcasting service? Not many people know that the Central government is quietly shutting down the ‘autonomous’ regional services of All India Radio.  What is interesting is that the local AIR stations are most popular. Why is the Union government shrinking the space for vernacular languages and dialects in South India?

Telengana Today reported from Hyderabad Hyderabad: When private radio stations are gaining popularity, All India Radio (AIR) discontinued two radio stations on Saturday (February 5).

AIR Chennai B Channel was also discontinued from today (February 7). Delhi’s Indraprastha channel on Medium Wave was also discontinued a few days back. On 31 Dec 2021 the Short Wave channels of AIR Srinagar and Jeypore, (Odisha) we’re also discontinued.

Sources say that Prasar Bharati policy is to discontinue the old transmitters which served much more than their normal service period.

Hyderabad: less of native languages, more of Hindi?

Hyderabad B Service was started on 13 November 1972. It was in service for exactly 49 years and 2 months. At first a 10 kW transmitter was used which was later replaced by a 20 kW one. This channel used to carry Yuv Vani programs for youth in Telugu, English, Urdu and other programs in Kannada and Marathi. In the old days there was a DX program also in English being broadcast.

Hyderabad has a variety of AM and FM radio stations. Two AM broadcasting AM and two FM broadcasting FM stations were operated by All India Radio (AIR), officially known as Akashvani.

After the national lock down due to Covid-19, their usual  programs in the local languages were heard only for the morning broadcast (6.30-10.45 am). The afternoon (1.00 to 3.00 pm) and evening services (5.20 to 11.00 pm) were replaced by relay of Vividh Bharati Hindi Service from Mumbai. (without any local announcements or even station identification).

The first FM radio station to broadcast in the city was AIR’s Vividh Bharati in the early 1990s.

In Madurai, the Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, (TNCCI) Madurai, has condemned the Centre’s move to downgrade All India Radio stations in Tamil Nadu. The Chamber urged the Centre to retain the well established radio stations.

Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce condemned New Delhi’s move

The AIR, officially known as ‘Akashwani’ since 1957 has been operating its services through about 420 radio stations in various parts of India to reach the maximum number of people, N Jegatheesan, president, TNCCI said on Tuesday.

Despite this, the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has announced that the radio stations in Madurai, Tiruchy, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and in Puducherry would be completely closed and would function only as relay stations in the near future and the programmes would now be broadcast only from Chennai. Such a decision would certainly affect radio listeners especially those in rural areas, he said.

D Dhanushkodi, vice president of the Chamber said the primary radio stations functioning in Tamil Nadu had the autonomy to host all events, including education, agriculture, especially Meenakshi Thirukalyanam in Madurai, Kallaazhagar landing event in the Vaigai river, ‘Madurai Theppam’ festival, Jallikattu, useful news for students of schools and colleges, quiz programme to encourage students, poetry and literary competitions and important announcements were periodically broadcast to the benefit of general public.

All these programmes were popularly listened to as such ones were compiled and broadcast in the local style, flavor and regional dialect.

These four stations in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry (Pondicherry)  could lose its charm if they had only option of relaying programmes organised by the Chennai AIR, he said.

He also said that if the programmes are broadcast through All India Radio station ‘A’ it can be listened by people in 300 kilometres radius but when it is broadcasted in Rainbow FM channel it will be listened by people in the radius of 50 kilometres only.

Already Chennai All India Radio station ‘B’ has been shut down and the programmes are broadcasted through Gold FM. When the radio station is about to celebrate its centenary anniversary there are steps taken to close down the Chennai All India Radio station ‘A’, he rued.

The move of Prasar Bharati to convert primary stations into relay stations in Tamil Nadu has met with stiff opposition from the employees as they claim that hundreds will lose employment if primary channels are converted into relay ones.

 “There are six primary stations in Tamil Nadu, including the one in Puducherry and Prasar Bharati is planning to convert five of the primary channels into relay channels except Chennai. Chennai will remain as the primary channel and all other relay stations will be made to play the programmes given by Chennai station due to which hundreds of temporary workers in other primary channels are at risk of losing their jobs,” an employee attached to Tiruchy All India Radio toldDT Next, on request of anonymity.

All India Radio, under Prasar Bharati, has seven primary channels in Tamil Nadu located in Chennai, Tiruchy, Madurai, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli and Puducherry. Every primary station has 12 hours of its own programmes aimed at local culture, agriculture, fishing and folkarts and so on.

One Primary Channel per state

However, recently, the Centre decided to have one primary channel per state and to convert the rest into relay channels. In technical terms, it is referred to as ‘one state one primary channel’ scheme.

When the scheme was announced there was uproar following which Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L Murugan assured that the scheme would not be implemented.

However, the Prasar Bharati has decided to implement the scheme from Pongal.

An official in the rank of Additional Director General held a meeting with all the Head of Programs (HOPs) on Friday and informed them the intentions of Prasar Bharati to convert primary ones into relay stations and based on the meeting HOPs have informed the employees to follow fixed point chart from Pongal.

“According to the information, the relay channels will be given only 5 hours per week for broadcasting native programmes which will result in decreased patronage. Fishermen and farmers who are the major beneficiaries of the local radio channels will be the one to be affected and so Prasar Bharati should drop the plan,” said another employee attached to Tirunelveli AIR.

  All India Radio, Media, naked truth