BANGALORE: Activists allegedly owing allegiance to the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) attacked and vandalized offices of the Sun TV controlled 93.5 SFM in Mysore on 1 November, which is celebrated as Karnataka Day.

According to reports, around 20 activists, angered over the fact that the station was airing Hindi songs instead of Kannada songs on Karnataka Day, broke into the office and broke computers, fax machines and other office paraphernalia, and injured a security guard. Media reports peg the damage at about Rs 800,000.

SFM project head Nisha Narayanan described the event as an "extremely unfortunate incident and an act of vandalism", and said that the station hopes that the government of Karnataka will take appropriate action against the culprits.

According to industry sources, the KRV activists claim that they had rung up the station a number of times to desist from playing Hindi music on Karnataka Day, to no avail. The station regularly plays a mix of 80 per cent Kananda and 20 per cent Hindi music. Big FM is the only other station in Mysore which plays 100 per cent Kannada music.

Kannada has been granted a classical language status by the central government last week.

SFM in Bangalore has positioned itself as a predominantly Kannada with a bit of Hindi music station – the programing is currently skewed 70:30 in favor of Kannada - every seven songs out of 10 aired aired being Kannada music.