Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Now, more listeners to tune in to Rainbow

Express News Service

Kolkata, January 6: The AIR-FM Rainbow, a popular group of FM channels ofthe All India Radio (AIR), will now be accessible by thousands of morelisteners living in towns. AIR has said that it is planning to set up atleast three new stations in the state with Rainbow content.A relay station - being planned at a certain height on Rajmahal hills - willnot only cater to the state, but will also reach the population of theadjoining states and clusters on the border.A second station will be set up on Susunia hills (close to Burdwan). Thereis also a plan to reach some towns and semi-urban localities in Midnapore,for which the exact location is yet not clear.The idea - said Brijeshwar Singh, director general, AIR - is to take theAIR-FM Rainbow to the smaller towns as well. The projects are a part of theAIR's growth targets, as being suggested for implementation during the 11thFive Year Plan."Private FM channels are interested mostly in big cities. Rainbow is popularall over the country and our intention is to take FM to the towns as well,"Singh said.The AIR-FM Rainbow, at present is aired from 15 centres in the country.There are 18 other stations that transmit Rainbow content. "The proposedthree stations will relay contents from Rainbow India and Rainbow Kolkata,"said AK Padhi, DDG (ER), AIR.The AIR - with its various transmissions amid competitive commercialisedprogramming of the private radio channels - is still reaching over 99 percent of the population and has an area coverage of over 91 per cent. Duringthe 11th Five Year Plan, various other proposals are also being taken up.While setting up of the new stations will ensure an uninterruptedconnectivity along the highways connecting the city with the hills in thenorth. Singh said that various other measures are also underway to makeradio listening a more pleasant experience. This includes digitaltransmissions of the radio services. Also in wings is a plan to offerselective archival content on the world wide web. It may soon be possiblefor the public to download MP3 files - having music content - from the AIRwebsite, Singh added. To ensure the implementation of various projects, abudgeting of Rs 8,000 crore has been proposed (both for AIR and Doordarshan)in the plan.

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=216478

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