Of Doordarshan and All India Radio

Hi. My name is Hariharan and I’m a Loyola college graduate. Joining Ad Club Madras was one the best things that I’ve done. In one of the many lectures that I’ve attended here, I found one particular lecture very interesting that I thought deserved to be heard by more than classmates. The lecturer’s name is Mr. Chandran and he is a retired deputy director from Doordarshan Kendra, before which he had served in All India Radio for more than thirty years. Educated at Madras University, he completed his bachelor’s as well as masters in English Literature.

 

Now being well versed in English prose and poetry should not be a surprise but being well versed in Tamil prose and poetry was something that surprised me a lot. He was able to quote from literatures of both languages relative ease. His general knowledge was so vast that I felt that my knowledge was quite infinitesimal when compared. Thus the class was more of us asking questions and him explaining almost all of them patiently.

 

Of the many questions that were thrown to him, one was why the Doordarshan and the All India Radio was never so famous or rather a television that people preferred as a final choice although it is oldest station in the country.

 

He started by pointing out how the programs in Doordarshan and All India Radio were superior when compared to that of other channels and radio stations. He spoke in length about the nature of various programs, viz education, rural development, youth welfare, music (including classical, folk and instrumental), agriculture, drama and so on and compared them to the other commercial channels who aim only at entertainment and making the maximum profit as well as maximizing their TRPs. We all had to agree with him to a large extent. Doordarshan is the only channel that gives news for people with hearing disability, that is sign language. All India Radio is the only station which broadcasts news in a variety of languages irrespective of state.

 

What I will be writing here will be only a small part of what all he said in class and only a small fragment of his never-ending spring of information.

ALL INDIA RADIO – WAVE LENGTH

There are two FM Stations commissioned in Chennai, Madras A and Madras B. India’s first FM was commissioned in New Delhi followed by Mumbai and then Chennai.

VIVIDH BHARATI

Though originally started for entertaining the Armed forces, today Vividh Bharati caters to the entertainment needs of millions across India. It includes revenue oriented commercial programs.

ALL INDIA RADIO’S EXTERNAL SERCIVES PROGRAMME

All India Radio has an external services program which broadcasts programs in languages like Sri Lankan, Pakistani Urdu, French, German, Russian etc., This greatly aids the Indian Government’s effort to bring about inter cultural harmony across the different countries of the world. All India Radio service is available in Pakistan along with their own radio broadcast.

 

There are monitoring units in India which monitors all the news that broadcasted in our country. There are certain rules and regulations that control the news. Some broad outlines of these rules are that the media cannot speak ill of a leader of the nation or state. The media cannot speak against the judiciary and the government.

Only the government broadcasts news in the widest range of languages. The languages that are broadcasted in India other than the local languages are polish, Hebrew, local languages of Andaman and Nicobar, Pakistani Urdu, French, German, Russian, etc.

What he said was much more when compared to what I have written here, my inability to note down all that he said has made me incapable to write here and I don’t think I will write what I can recall from memory since there can be errors. I think I will have to learn to shorthand so that I can jot down more than I can now. This will be all for now.

Hariharan Vel.