Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Gautam Sharma on VOA Hindi's swan song

Did you tune into Voice of America-Hindi's last transmission via shortwave on September 30, 2008 ???

If not, then ........ Mere Awaaz Hi Meri Pehchan Hai......

Yes, its by this song by Lata Mangeshkar & Bhupendar, Voice of America Hindi bids good bye to listeners via shortwave after nearly 53 years of dedicated service.There was a special programmes containing feedbacks of listeners via letters & also recorded interviews etc of listeners on the closer of VOA Hindi via shortwave. All long time presenters of VOA Hindi Shova Bedi (who is in VOA Hindi for nearly 43 years), Ashok Sarin & others like Nirmala Joshi,Rashmi Sukla,Vijay Lakshmi, Shashi Prakash etc shared their feelings on their association with VOA Hindi's radio transmission. Also VOA Hindi's New Delhi based representative Kanhaiya Lal Nandan aired his feelings etc. I was listening to this transmission via my Grundig YB 400 Rx on 7430 kHz. I was very sad & depressed after listening to this last transmission of VOA Hindi via shortwave. And I recalled my first listening experience VOA-Hindi wayback in 1983 perhaps during one of the most dark period of my home state Assam's history in my materal uncle's residence at nearly 10 years of age. I think its not a fair decision at all. I don't think BBG had taken into account listeners response & feedbacks etc before taking a decision of closing down VOA Hindi's shortwave transmission.

73 & 55
Gautam Kumar Sharma, Assam.

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