THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The All-India Radio’s (AIR) Regional News being broadcast from its Thiruvananthapuram station will turn 60 years on Tuesday on the 70th Independence Day. It was on August 15, 1957 that the broadcast was started here. As of now, AIR Regional News unit is airing three national bulletins at 7.25 am, 12.50 pm and 7.25 pm besides two regional news bulletins at 12.30 pm and 6.20 pm. A news bulletin for the Gulf region is also aired at 11.15 pm.The morning news bulletin at 6.45 am is aired by AIR, Kozhikode station.
The Malayalam news bulletin being broadcast from New Delhi has started airing from Thiruvananthapuram since April 2017. The news bulletin for the FM radio stations of Ananthapuri, Kochi, Manjeri and Kavaratti are prepared here.
Besides, news-based programmes such as ‘Vaartha Tharangini’, ‘Vaartha Veekshanam’, ‘Niyama Sabhayil Innu’ and district news (Jillavrithantham) are also handled here. AIR Regional news unit Head and Deputy Director A M Mayoosha told ‘Express’ that they continue to enjoy a large number of audience even in the era of television.“We still have a regular audience. Immediately after every bulletin, we get calls from our audience. They refer to the content, language and even pronunciation of the readers,” Mayoosha said.
On any attempt to transform the style of AIR news to catch the attention of the new generation, she said the AIR already had accounts in the social media and enjoy a strong clientele for its news. FM radio stations are also providing news updates every one hour with 2-minute content up to 10 pm. “Though we are active on social media and FM stations in providing news updates with a mix of soft items, we cannot compromise on its content and language as we are expected to maintain our tradition with utmost credibility. People call up to confirm news appeared in television channels and other media. So we will have to be more cautious, accurate and credible,” she said.
AIR Director of Thiruvananthapuram station R Vimalasenan Nair said last year AIR stations in the state altogether could garner up a total revenue of nearly 17 crore. “A major portion of this revenue is contributed by the news unit. The Commercial businesses service Division (Ananthapuri) has been able to generate a good portion of our revenue. We give only confirmed non-controversial news,” he also said. However, the AIR Thiruvannthapuram has not organised any special programme on the occasion of its 60th anniversary, besides the Independence Day celebrations.
Under Diwan’s glory
On March 12, 1943, the T’Puram station was commissioned.
From 1950, AIR started taking over the radio stations of principalities of the pre-Independent India. On April 1950, Travancore Radio also was taken over and the station was shifted to the official residence of the Diwan of Travancore.
The Thiruvananthapuram station is functioning at this building has been declared a heritage monument by the Archeological Survey of India.