MUMBAI: China Radio International’s (CRI) Tamil service is all set to launch its FM station in India as part of its 50th anniversary this year.
As per reports, CRI Tamil Department deputy director Cai Jun aka Vani said, “We have already been broadcasting on shortwave in Tamil Nadu. We are in talks with local FM stations in Tamil Nadu for distribution. This will establish our footing in the FM area there.” CRI Tamil, who broadcasts on shortwave in Tamil Nadu, had started off their Tamil service in August 1963.
More than 50 shortwave transmitters are used to cover most of the world and comprehensive Foreign Service in Asia. Apart from Tamil, CRI broadcasts in three other Indian languages that include Hindi, Bengali and Urdu.
South Asia CRI Centre Director Lou Hongbing said he was looking towards mobile radio to facilitate communication with India. He said, “We are trying to introduce new means. We are interested in establishing a mechanism to share our resources — radio programmes, news. In 2009, CRI Mobile was officially launched. It is China’s first multimedia English language website optimised for mobile devices.
The state-run radio station that offers its services in 63 languages along with some Chinese dialects, was founded in 1941.
Hongbing also expressed interest in introducing daily lives of Chinese to India audience by translating Chinese programmes. “We could explore further in terms of exchange of news. Links could be exchanged, we could hold collective activities. We could also provide content to media in India,” he said.
Until 1983, CRI was actually called Radio Peking and later it was named as Radio Beijing. It was in 1993, the name of the station was again changed to China Radio International in order to avoid any confusion with local Beijing radio broadcasting.