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News |  08 Jun 2013 11:06 |  By RnMTeam

All India Radio to mark anniversary with programmes

NEW DELHI: All India Radio was formally created on 8 June 1936 with the government taking over Indian State Broadcasting Service (ISBS) which had been on the verge of closure.

To mark this day, All India Radio in its primary channels and its two FM Channels – FM Gold and FM Rainbow – will spend the day today to test the knowledge of listeners about the growth of the audio medium.

AIR Director General L D Mandloi told Radioandmusic.com that some state-level kendras will also have programmes marking the anniversary of the public service broadcaster, which has now grown up to a monolith giant comprising both AIR and Doordarshan and having become the largest broadcaster in the world.

Twenty years after AIR got its name, the government decided to use the term Akashvani literally Sky's Voice from 1956.

In British India, broadcasting began in July 1923 with programmes by the Radio Club of Bombay and other radio clubs. According to an agreement of 23 July 1927, the private Indian Broadcasting Company LTD (IBC) was authorized to operate two radio stations; the Bombay station began on 23 July 1927, and the Calcutta station followed on 26 August 1927. On 1 March 1930, however, the company went into liquidation. The government took over the broadcasting facilities, beginning the Indian State Broadcasting Service (ISBS) on 1 April 1930 (on an experimental basis for two years, and permanently in May 1932). On 8 June 1936; the ISBS was renamed All India Radio.

When India became independent in 1947 the AIR network had only six stations (in Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Lucknow, and Tiruchi); the total number of radio sets at that time was about 275,000. 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. FM broadcasting began on 23 July 1977 in Madras (Chennai), and was expanded during the 1990s.

The word ‘Akashvani’ was coined by MV Gopalaswamy after setting up the nation’s first private radio station in his residence, ‘Vittal Vihar’ (about 200 yards from AIR’s current location in Mysore) in 1936. Akashvani means ‘celestial announcement’; the word, of Sanskrit origin, is often found in Hindu mythology. When the gods wished to say something, an akashvani occurred. Literally, akash means ‘sky’ and vani means ‘sound’ or ‘message’. Thus, Akashvani seemed to be fit for use by a radio broadcaster and was later adopted as All India Radio's on-air name after independence.

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