(Source: India.com)
New Delhi, Sep 30 (PTI) On October 1, 1939, the All India Radio made its first broadcast for foreign listeners — a Pashto service started by the then British rulers to counter the Nazi Germany propaganda during World War II.
The national radio broadcaster has decided that the 80th anniversary of the historic event will be marked by year-long celebrations beginning this week right up till October 1 next year.
The external services of the All India Radio (AIR), though began with the aim of serving the propaganda of the British colonialists, have now transformed into the “voice of India” at the world stage, officials said.
“Last year, the decision was taken that October 1 will be observed as External Broadcasting Day and Monday will be the first such occasion. All Indian missions abroad will observe the External Broadcasting Day,” Amlanjyoti Mazumdar, Head External Services Division, AIR, told PTI.
“The missions are going to circulate the material that we have sent them to sensitise the listeners in their respective countries about AIR’s external services,” he said.[…]
Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what happens with the AIR external services broadcasts. IIRC, back in about 2015 or so the (then new?) Director-General of AIR was floating the idea of cutting the SW external services (as well as the MW DRM rollout) and keeping only the 2 “super-power” AM/MW external services services (Rajkot & Chinsurah), while transitioning domestic services to FM.
Nothing came of it at that time, but they’ve been seemingly passed over since then…
Like Dafydd (who also commented here) I expect AIR’s days on shortwave may be short. There has been discussion recently in the Indian domestic media around the value (lack of?) of the AIR GOS (general Overseas Service).
That said if you enjoy AIR for the musical and cultural programming then you can access the majority of their outlets in digital formats around the world.
The easiest way to listen to the domestic services is via the AIR LIVE app (Android & IOS) which you can Airplay or Chromecast to your music system if you wish. When you search the Android or Apple store you will find countless paid apps – the one I am recommending is the official AIR streaming app – it’s free and called “All India Radio Live. An easy way to find the official app is to navigate to it via the AIR mobile app page http://allindiaradio.gov.in/mobileapp/Pages/Default.aspx
The AIR website also provides the streams and if you want you can also grab the stream URL’s and add them to the directory of whatever online radio receiver you use. All the streams are here:
http://allindiaradio.gov.in/default.aspx
… the link above was for the AIR domestic services.
The streams for all the AIR External Services are here:
http://airworldservice.org/
I wonder how long they will remain on shortwave,now? It looks like they might (one of the) next to go? I know there are some people who find their English language broadcasts a bit boring;but there aren’t that many sw broadcasts in English that are easily received on a portable radio with an extendable aerial these days. Yes,their broadcasts can be a little on the soporific side,but there are some interesting items,here and there;and the Indian classical music,in between,is very nice,in between the murmur of voices,especially on a warm summer evening. For me,it will be a long-ish gap,until Radio Romania International begin their own broadcast in English. I can always listen to Radio Amateurs chattering away on 80 m;but I will miss AIR,and hope the broadcaster wins. You don’t need a subscription to listen to sw radio,unlike the internet;and a small radio,with rechargeable batteries,costs,next to nothing to run;AND you can listen anywhere in the world……in a house,a caravan,a tent,on the move! Meanwhile,China seem to think sw,still,has it’s advantages,judging by their almost,ubiquitous presence,on the sw bands.
Reply to Dafydd.
China Radio International English Chair Li Dan at a Radio Canada International conference in the 1980s didn’t think that shortwave would last past the year 2000. There really isn’t a market.
China Radio knows this, but can use them as jammers, and fill in the frequency gaps with their broadcasts.
Just as they produce unlistenable crap programs for local Chinese language radio stations around the world. It is the propaganda department that fills all media. But as with Voice of Russia they could turn it off the switch anytime.
I found hearing Radio Australia very useful while in China, they had a better rolodex, and used Australian on-site diplomats, whereas VoA was crap, and BBC was irrelevant often.