Thursday, October 01, 2009

AIR’s External Services turn 70 on 1st October, 2009

Jose Jacob, VU2JOS
The External Services Division of All India Radio, India’s cultural ambassador to the world will be 70 years old on October 1, 2009. The External broadcasts were started on October 1, 1939 by the then British Government to counter the propaganda of the Nazis directed at the Afghan people. The first broadcasts were in Pushto beamed to Afghanistan and the then North West Frontier Province. Soon broadcasts were started in Dari, Persian, Arabic, English, Burmese, Japanese, Chinese, Malay, French etc.

The External Services today broadcast in the 27 languages (16 foreign and 11 Indian languages) with a total program out put of 70.25 hrs. per day (on MW & SW).

The foreign languages are: Arabic, Baluchi, Burmese, Chinese, Dari, English, French, Indonesian, Nepali, Persian, Pushtu, Russian, Sinhala, Swahili, Thai and Tibetan. The Indian languages are: Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi, Saraiki, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

The maximum duration is the Urdu Service to Pakistan round the clock on DTH and on Short Wave / Medium Wave for 12.15 hrs while the English broadcasts to various parts of the world called “General Overseas Service” are there for 8.15 hrs. During the Haj season, there are special broadcasts in Urdu beamed to Saudi Arabia but I do wonder if the pilgrims carry any radioes with them. The External Services of AIR is even broadcast to Europe in the new broadcasting mode DRM (Digital Radio Mondial).

These transmissions are broadcast by the High Power Transmitters located at Aligarh, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Gorakhpur, Guwahati, Mumbai and Panaji on Short Waves and from Jalandhar, Kolkata and Tuticorin on Medium Waves. Some of these transmitters are of 1000 kW and 500 kW power. Programs are beamed to different areas of the world except to the Americas but it is often heard there by many radio hobbyists.

In each language service a composite program is presented consisting of news bulletin, commentary, press review, talks on matters of general and cultural interest, occasional feature programmes and documentaries, Indian music as well as music of the area concerned. Most of the programs originate in the New Broadcasting House located in Delhi with a few originating at Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jalandhar, Kolkata, Mumbai, Thiruvanthapuram and Tuticorin.

The External Services Division of AIR has been a vital link between India and rest of the world, especially with those countries where there are Indian emigrants and people of Indian origin. It projects the Indian point of view on matters of national and international importance and demonstrates our way of life through its various programs.

Beautiful QSL cards are issued to the radio hobbyists from time to time by AIR in New Delhi for reception reports of their broadcasts. These are very much sought after by international radio hobbyists.

With the other choices in the media scene like Internet and TV, the number of listeners for Short Wave broadcasting has drastically dropped. That along with high cost of running broadcasts and also changes in political equations has prompted many countries to cut short or even completely abandon their External broadcasts.

It must be mentioned here that the AIR broadcasts to China in Chinese and Tibetan are jammed by the Chinese authorities. Added to this the ageing problems of transmitters and its maintanance, interference from other broadcasting stations due to improper coordination of frequencies etc. hampers the good efforts of AIR.

However it is business as usual for All India Radio’s External Services for the time being.

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