Akashvani

Headquarters at Sansad Marg, New Delhi
Type	Government Organisation
Country	India
Headquarters	Akashvani Bhavan Sansad Marg, New Delhi – 110001, Delhi, India
Motto	Bahujanahitaya Bahujanasukhaya (बहुजनहिताय बहुजनसुखाय)[1]
Ownership
Owner	Prasar Bharati
History
Launch date	8 June 1936 (1936-06-08) (as All India Radio) AIR 5 May 2023 (2023-05-05) (as Akashvani)
Coverage
Availability	National International
Links
Website	All India Radio, News on AIR

All India Radio (AIR) aka Akashvani (literal meaning "Voice from the Sky"), is an Indian state-owned public radio broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. It was established in 1936.^[2] It is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, an Indian television broadcaster.^[3] Headquartered in the Akashvani Bhavan building in New Delhi, it houses the Drama Section, the FM Section, and the National Service, and is also home to the Indian television station Doordarshan Kendra, (Delhi).

In terms of the number of languages transmitted, the range of socioeconomic variety it serves, and the size of its broadcasting organisation, Akashvani is the largest radio network in the world. AIR's home service comprises 420 stations located across the country, reaching nearly 92% of the country's area and 99.19% of the total population. originates programming in 23 languages and 179 dialects.^[4]

A stamp on Akashvani Silver Jubilee.

Etymology

Akashvani is a Sanskrit word meaning 'celestial announcement' or 'voice from the sky/heaven'. In Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, Akashvanis are often featured in stories as a medium of communication from heaven to mankind.

When the Indian State Broadcasting Service (ISBS) was renamed All India Radio, Rabindranath Tagore rechristened it as Akashvani, the voice that comes over from the skies, through a poem penned for the inauguration of Kolkata's shortwave service.^[5][6]

'Akashavani' was also used in the context of radio by M. V. Gopalaswami in 1936 after setting up India's first private radio station in his residence, "Vittal Vihar" (about two hundred yards from AIR's current Mysore radio station).^[7] Akashvani was later given as All India Radio's on-air name in 1957; given its literal meaning in Sanskrit, it was believed to be a more than suitable name for a broadcaster. The name "Akashwani" was suggested by very famous poet Pandit Narendra Sharma.

History

During British Raj

Broadcasting began in June 1923 during the British Raj with programmes by the Bombay Presidency Radio Club and other radio clubs. According to an agreement on 23 July 1927, the private Indian Broadcasting Company Ltd (IBC) was authorized to operate two radio stations: the Mumbai station which began on 23 July 1927, and the Kolkata station which followed on 26 August 1927. The company went into liquidation on 1 March 1930. The government took over the broadcasting facilities and began the Indian State Broadcasting Service (ISBS) on 1 April 1930 on an experimental basis for two years, and permanently in May 1932 it then went on to become All India Radio on 8 June 1936.^[2]

AIR headquarters in New Delhi

Old Akashvani Bhawan on Sansad Marg

On 1 October 1939, the External Service began with a broadcast in Pashto. It was intended to counter radio propaganda from Germany directed at Afghanistan, Iran and Arab nations. 1939 also saw the opening of the Dhaka station of Eastern India, in what is now Bangladesh. This station catered and nurtured the pioneers of Bengali intellectuals. The foremost among them, Natyaguru Nurul Momen, became the trail-blazer of the talk-show in 1939. He wrote and directed the first modern radio-play for this station in 1942.

After Independence

When India became independent in 1947, the AIR network had only six stations (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Lucknow, and Tiruchirappalli). The three radio stations at Lahore, Peshawar and Dhaka remained in what became Pakistan after the division. The total number of radio sets in India at that time was about 275,000.

In August 1947, All India Radio hired its first female newsreader, Saeeda Bano, who read the news in Urdu.^[8]

On 3 October 1957, the Vividh Bharati Service was launched, to compete with Radio Ceylon. Television broadcasting began in Delhi in 1959 as part of AIR, but was split off from the radio network as Doordarshan on 1 April 1976.^[9] FM broadcasting began on 23 July 1977 in Chennai, and expanded during the 1990s.^[10]

Deccan Radio (Nizam Radio 1932), the first radio station in Hyderabad State (now Hyderabad), went live on air on 3 February 1935. It was launched by Mir Osman Ali Khan the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad with a transmitting power of 200 Watts. On 1 April 1950, Deccan Radio was taken over by the Indian Government, and in 1956 it was merged with All India Radio (AIR). Since then, it has been known as AIR-Hyderabad (100 kW).^[11]

Radio Television License

Domestic services

AIR has many services in a number of languages, each serving different regions across India.

External services

The external services of All India Radio are broadcast in 27 languages to countries outside India via high-power Shortwave radio broadcasts. Medium waves is also used to reach neighbouring countries. In addition to broadcasts targeted at specific countries by language, there is a General Overseas Service broadcasting in English with 8+1⁄4 hours of programming each day aimed at a general international audience. The external broadcasts were begun on 1 October 1939 by the British government to counter the propaganda of the Nazis directed at the Afghan people. The first broadcasts were in Pashto, beamed to Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier Province. Broadcasts soon began in other languages including Dari, Persian, Arabic, English, Burmese, Japanese, Chinese, Malay and French. The external services broadcast in 16 foreign and 11 Indian languages, with a total programme output of 70¼ hours per day on medium and shortwave frequencies.

Two high powered FM stations of All India Radio are being installed in Amritsar and Fazilka in the Punjab to supplement the programmes broadcast from transmitters operating from Jalandhar, New Delhi, Chandigarh and Mumbai and to improve the broadcast services during unfavourable weather conditions in the border regions of Punjab.

Today, the External Services Division of All India Radio broadcasts daily with 57 transmissions with almost 72 hours or programming covering over 108 countries in 27 languages, of which 15 are foreign and 12 Indian. The foreign languages are: Arabic, Baluchi, Burmese, Chinese, Dari, French, Indonesian, Persian, Pushtu, Russian, Sinhala, Swahili, Thai, Tibetan and English (General Overseas Service). The Indian languages are Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Konkani, Kashmiri, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Nepali, Punjabi, Saraiki, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

The longest daily broadcast is the Urdu Service to Pakistan, around the clock on DTH (direct-broadcast satellite) and on short- and medium wave for 121⁄4 hrs. The English-language General Overseas Service is broadcast 81⁄4 hours daily. During Hajj, there are special broadcasts beamed to Saudi Arabia in Urdu. AIR is planning to produce programmes in the Balochi language.^[16]

The external services of AIR are also broadcast to Europe in DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) on 9950 kHz between 1745 and 2230 UTC. These external transmissions are broadcast by high-power transmitters located at Aligarh, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Gorakhpur, Guwahati, Mumbai and Panaji on shortwave and from Jalandhar, Kolkata, Nagpur, Rajkot and Tuticorin on medium wave. Soon All India Radio Amritsar will also start a booster service on the FM band. Some of these transmitters are 1000 kW (1 MW) or 500 kW. Programmes are beamed to different parts of the world except for the Americas and the reception quality is very good in the target areas. In each language service, the program consists of news, commentary, a press review, talks on matters of general or cultural interest, feature programmes, documentaries and music from India and the target region. Most programmes originate at New Broadcasting House on Parliament Street in New Delhi, with a few originating at SPT Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jalandhar, Kolkata, HPT Malad Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram and Tuticorin.

The External Services Division of AIR is a link between India and rest of the world, especially in countries with Indian emigrants and Indian diaspora. It broadcasts the Indian point of view on matters of national and international importance, and demonstrates the Indian way of life through its programs. QSL card (which are sought-after by international radio hobbyists) are issued to radio hobbyists by AIR in New Delhi for reception reports of their broadcasts.

Direct-To-Home

Direct-to-home (DTH) service is a satellite broadcast service in which a large number of radio channels are digitally beamed down over a territory from a high-power satellite. AIR broadcasts various national and regional stations available to listen on DD Free Dish. The DTH signals can be received directly at homes using a small-sized dish receiver unit containing a dish antenna installed on a building's rooftop or on a wall facing clear south and one indoors.^[17] DTH service is offered on twenty one channels via Insat.

Online services

• AIR Live News
• AIR Najibabad
• KASHMIR ONLINE RADIO
• Vividh Bharati
• FM Gold Delhi
• FM Rainbow Delhi
• AIR Urdu
• Raagam
• AIR Gujarati
• AIR Marathi
• AIR Punjabi
• AIR Malayalam
• AIR Tamil
• AIR Telugu
• AIR Kannada
• AIR Bangla
• AIR Jammu
• AIR Odia
• AIR Assamese
• AIR North East
• FM Tragopan Kohima
• FM Rainbow Goa
• AIR Shimla
• AIR Bhuj
• AIR Indore
• AIR Mysuru
• AIR Jodhpur
• Amrutvarshini
• Vividh Bharati Bengaluru
• FM Rainbow Kannada Kaamaanbilu
• AIR Bengaluru
• Sun City FM Jodhpur
• AIR Pune
• AIR Rohtak
• FM Rainbow Lucknow
• AIR Jabalpur
• AIR Bhopal
• FM Rainbow Mumbai
• FM Gold Mumbai
• Samvadita Mumbai
• AIR Aadilabad
• AIR Jaipur
• AIR Varanasi
• AIR Raipur
• AIR Sangli
• AIR Rajkot
• AIR Nagpur
• AIR Prayagraj
• AIR Patna
• AIR Patiala
• AIR Mhadei Panaji
• AIR Gorakhpur
• AIR Hassan
• AIR Dehradun
• AIR Solapur
• AIR Kota
• AIR Madurai
• AIR Kolhapur
• AIR Suratgarh
• FM Rainbow Visakhapatnam
• AIR Kurnool
• AIR Bikaner
• AIR Kochi
• AIR Calicut
• AIR Mathura
• AIR Agra
• FM Rainbow Vijayawada
• AIR Vijayawada
• AIR Kannur
• FM Ananthapuri
• AIR Lucknow
• AIR Mount Abu
• AIR Dharwad
• AIR Chandigarh
• AIR Chitradurga
• AIR Manjeri
• AIR Aurangabad
• AIR Surat
• AIR Tirupati
• AIR Kodaikanal
• AIR Alwar

Other services

Gallery

• 
  AIR tower in Mangalore, Karnataka
• 
  Kolkata Centre of All India Radio, West Bengal.
• 
  Emblem of AIR

See also

• Radio in India
• 106.4 FM Radio Gold
• Telugu Radio
• AIR Srinagar
• Telecommunications in India

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to All India Radio.

Look up akashvani in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• All India Radio Official web-site
• All India Radio (AIR) Station Frequencies (National/International) Archived 5 June 2014 at the Wayback Machine