All India Radio 'stages' its news bulletins

Special Correspondent
Thiruvananthapuram: When thousands of radio listeners tuned
into the afternoon and evening news bulletins of All India
Radio (AIR)Thiruvananthapuram station on Wednesday, they
would hardly have known that they were becoming part of an
epoch-making event.
They were, because the bulletins were broadcast for the first
time from outside the studio, from the stage on which meetings
and seminars to mark the golden jubilee of the regional news
bulletins were in progress.
The afternoon bulletin was presented live even as a seminar
on 'Radio:Scopes and Challenges' was in progress in the
specially erected pandal on the AIR station premises and the
evening bulletin in the presence of luminaries including
Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy, the former Chief
Minister K. Karunakaran, Revenue Minister K. P. Rajendran,
poet O.N.V.Kurup, film maker Adoor Gopalakrishnan and P.K.
Bandopadhyaya,Director-General (News), AIR.
The 'staged' bulletins were a treat to watch with neither
any hiccup nor any last-minute rush.
The experience and professionalism of the AIR team was in
full flow as Sushama read the 12.30 p.m. bulletin and
veteran newscaster Ramachandran went on air after a break
with his well-remembered 'Kauthukavaarthakal.'
The AIR team also had a surprise up their sleeves: a phone
-in with writer-orator Sukumar Azhikode, who was supposed
to participate in the seminar, but could not do so due to
other pressing engagements.

Interaction
Interacting live with Forest Minister Benoy Viswom, who
inaugurated the seminar, Prof. Azhikode likened All India
Radio and its regional news bulletins to a river in steady
flow, its presence refreshing and constant.
Inaugurating the seminar, Mr. Viswom said he was confident
that AIR would be able to face the challenges posed by
technology and the new culture of entrepreneurship if it
could answer the question on whose side it wished to stand,
on the side of the makers of the nation such as Gandhiji
and Nehru and the poor and downtrodden or on the side of
the rich and the affluent. He was certain that AIR would
stand by the former.
M. K. Sivasankaran, former station director, AIR,
Thiruvananthapuram, gave the keynote address. B. R. P.
Bhaskar, veteran journalist and social critic,D. S. Malik
Additional Director General (News), AIR, K. P. Mohanan,
Editor,Asianet, G. Sajan, Assistant Station Director,
Doordarshan,Thiruvananthapuram, R. Parvathy Devi, journalist,
K. A. Muraleedharan, station director, AIR, Thiruvananthapuram,
spoke.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/23/stories/2007082350850200.htm