KOCHI: All India Radio’s Kochi FM station, which is Kerala’s first FM station, will be celebrating its silver jubilee on November 1. As a part of the celebrations it will be organising a slew of programmes which will last till December 31. Kochi FM is looking to reinvent itself due to competition from private players.
Kochi FM, which began transmitting in 1989, enjoyed monopoly status till 2007, when private radio stations started operations. “The entry of private players have actually helped us as they created more awareness about radio,” said Balakrishnan Koyyal, station director at Kochi FM station.
He said that there has been healthy competition and Kochi FM station has started several new programmes to stay above the competitors. “We started news feeds after every hour, traffic information, employment opportunity news, besides increasing our content on health issues,” Koyyal said.
“We are serving a mix of light entertainment based programmes sprinkled with a healthy doze of informative programmes to capture the attention of both the young and old alike,” he said.
Koyyal said that Kochi FM station is among the top three AIR stations across the country in terms of revenues and is a favourite of radio buffs in and around central Kerala.
As part of the celebrations, AIR Kochi FM held a literary camp for the youth at Kalady University campus in August. It also held a lecture series in August, which was inaugurated by writer and critic M K Sanu. The subject of the lecture series was Bhashayum Samskaravum (Language and Culture).
On the Diwali day on October 22, the FM radio station is launching an audio history series on Kochi titled Charithram, Samskaram, Prakshepanam’ (History, Culture and Broadcasting), which will be inaugurated by historian M G S Narayanan at Ernakulam Public Library. “Our plan is to invite and recognise the contributions of prominent personalities from Kochi such as V R Krishna Iyer,” Koyyal said.
Another plan relates to promote kathaprasangam by broadcasting one kathaprasangam every week. A total of 10 kathaprasangams will be aired as part of this initiative, he said. T M Abraham, vice-chairman of Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademy will inaugurate the series. On November 4, the station is organising a kavi arangu at U C College, Aluva.
On November 1, the Kochi FM station is holding a get-together of all its staff and retired officials at its campus in Thrikkakara.