AIR special transmission in Urdu to Middle East for Haj Pilgrims

All India Radio will broadcast half an hour daily service in Urdu to Saudi Arabia for HajPilgrims from 1st December 2006 to 29th January 2007.

Details as foll :
DATE : 1st Dec, 2006 to 29th Jan, 2007
TIME : 1100 - 1130 IST ( 0530 - 0600 UTC)
PROGRAMME : Special service in Urdu for Haj pilgrims
FREQUENCIES : 11730 (Khampur, Delhi), 15770 (Aligarh), 17845 (Khampur, Delhi)

RTI 2006 Top Ten Taiwan News Stories Contest

Radio Taiwan Intl 2006 Top Ten Taiwan News Stories contest

http://www.rti.org.tw/big5/activities/2006_top10news/english_index.aspx

RTI has recently put this interactive webpage on The National Radio Museum

http://museum.rti.org.tw/index.asp?lan=en

HCJB Australia Listener Survey

----- Original Message -----
From: "HCJB Australia English" <english@hcjb.org.au>
To: "Alokesh Gupta" <alokeshgupta@vsnl.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2006 10:53 AM

Dear Listener of HCJB World Radio,

Thanks for contacting us in Melbourne, Australia. You are important to us, and we appreciate hearing from you. Your opinions will help us know and serve you better. Please take a few minutes to click on the following link and complete our listener survey:

www.hcjb.org/worldwide/australia/hcjb_australia_listener_survey.html

Thanks for listening and providing this useful information.

God Bless,
Glenda
HCJB Australia Response Coordinator

AIR must 'tune in' to local flavours: Experts

Wednesday November 22 2006 09:59 IST
BHUBANESWAR:Faced with increasing competition from news channels and a fast dwindling audience, All India Radio seems to have finally woken up to the situation. It has gone back to the drawing board and begun planning a series of initiatives to bring listeners back to its fold.At a two-day conference of the heads of regional news units of AIR of Eastern and North-Eastern Regions held at Puri on November 19 and 20, the directors felt that local content should be given more time-slots in news programmes.Radio is often looked upon as a medium which caters to local populace. It has a wider penetration in rural areas and the most important medium to source information for the masses in the villages and remote areas.Hence, the experts observed that local content should top the priority list, said news editor of AIR Cuttack, Akhil Kumar Mishra. National and international happenings, it was decided, can come next.Once considered a powerful medium, the humble radio set took a backseat ever since cable television made inroads into households. Even in rural areas radio is being considered passe, as more and more villagers are hooked to satellite channels. People even shifted allegiance to DD 1 as it more than made up for their daily dose of entertainment, mostly dominated by local programmes till FM stations came on the scene.Thanks to the popularity of FM service, radio, once again seems to be regaining its pride of place. However, FM's limited reach has confined its popularity to urban pockets. The conference also touched on this point.The participants felt that its reach should be further expanded and FM's sound quality be exploited to air news programmes. The Cuttack FM station has already started airing hourly headlines of two minutes duration from 6 pm to 10 pm.The function which was attended by Director-General of News, AIR, Uma Kanta Mishra and Additional Director-General Akshya Rout discussed incorporating the latest technology in presenting news items, upgradation and innovations. Besides, it focused on cultural and social aspects of news presentations.P K Bandopadhyay, who would succeed the present director general was present.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20061121233804&Page=Q&Title=ORISSA&Topic=0

Voice Hindi test txn

Voice Hindi noted with test txn on 15515 with talks in english/hindi/punjabi.

Schd for this test txn : 0430-0730 UTC on 15515
Reports to : india@cvc.tv

Here's another BBC - spotted at World Social Forum

2 New postcards with BBC Hindi advertisments

India Post has released two more meghdoot post cards with advertisement of British Broadcasting Corp, Hindi service.

I&B Ministry plans Digital Delhi project

Friday - May 26, 2006
Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
The Information & Broadcasting Ministry (I&B Ministry) has drawn a new plan to phase out all analogue transmissions and to turn India completely digital in the coming Five Year plan (2007-12). The deadline for the project, Digital Delhi, has been set as 2010 and thereby India will go completely digital by 2015. In this project, Prasar Bharati will take the lead by ensuring digital terrestrial broadcast for all Indian cities by 2013 and this will extend to both All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan (DD). The conversion of cable and satellite (C&S) homes from analogue to digital, the first step would involve providing conditional access to C&S homes and then converting them to digital technology by 2015.I&B Ministry also plans to take no chances with set top boxes, which will not be imported as per the present recommendations. Experts have drawn a detailed plan for indigenous production of digital set top boxes (STB's) to avoid controversies. Indigenous STB's should have digital analogue conversion capability for delivery of digital signal to the subscriber along with conditional access and address-ability features.The experts have also recommended that national standards for the manufacture of digital signal receivers must be established before indigenous production commences. In order to make digital conversion a complete success, testing, publication and adoption of technical standards for terrestrial digital transmission must be done by the government. This must also include adoption and publication of digital standards for cable television. The plan, which is to be implemented in a phased manner during the Eleventh Five Year plan, also recommends the creation of a body that will have a single regulator for both content and carriage.
http://www.televisionpoint.com/news2006/newsfullstory.php?id=1148637627

AIR to launch new FM channels

Monday - May 22, 2006Televisionpoint.com Correspondent
The All India Radio (AIR) will launch 25 FM Rainbow channels across the countrysoon, said Prasar Bharati CEO K S Sarma soon after the inauguration of the 102MHz FM channel at Visakhapatnam recently. After Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam is thesecond city to have an AIR FM channel in the state. A third channel will belaunched in Vijayawada in June this year. The channel in Vizag will have a reachof about 60 kilometres.Inaugurating the channel, Vizag MP Nedurumalli Janardhana Reddy said the AIR isthe most expressive embodiment of national integration. The MP said the AIRprogrammes were the backbone of the agricultural economy and suggested that moreinnovative entertainment and educational programmes be formulated to reach outto more people. Answering a query, he said that an FM station in Srikakulamwould be ready by 2007 March and Vijayawada station by June this year.

http://www.televisionpoint.com/news2006/newsfullstory.php?id=1148296900

Prasar Bharati CEO K.S.Sarma retires in June

Indiantelevision.com Team(22 May 2006 12:30 pm)
NEW DELHI: Indian pubcaster Prasar Bharati would soon be headless unless thegovernment, too busy with other issues like reservation for backward classes ineducational institutions, hurries up.
On 30 June 2006, Prasar Bharati CEO KS Sarma retires after serving an overfive-year term that can be easily termed a roller-coaster ride.The present chairman of Prasar Bharati, veteran journalist MV Kamath, wasappointed during the tenure of previous government, headed by the right-wingBharatiya Janata Party. Meanwhile Sarma, a veteran of Prasar Bharati (he officiated as the DG ofDoordarshan when he was a joint secretary in the I&B ministry in the mid to late1990s) has seen over five ministers at the information and broadcastingministry, which controls the purse strings for the publicly funded PrasarBharati.Despite allegations of nepotism during a time when DD used to outsourcemarketing of big events, including the money-spinning cricket matches involvingIndia, a wily Sarma has come out unscathed.It was during Sarma's tenure as the CEO that DD floated its subscription-freeDTH service, which raced ahead of the country's first pay TV DTH service, DishTV, in terms of subscribers.For the financial year ended march 2006, for the first time Prasar Bharaticlocked a gross revenue of Rs 12.38 billion with Doordarshan clocking Rs 9.68billion and All India Radio 2.7 billion that signified a growth of 67.67 percent.

Some of the achievements during Sarma's tenure included the following:
1. Increased focus on pro-active in house marketing of properties.
2. Successful execution of media campaigns on behalf of government departments.
3. Rationalization of rate cards to suit the changing market conditions.
4. A strategic shift from Sponsored Programmes to Self Financing Scheme.
5. Introduction of blockbuster Hindi Feature Films on DD National and marketingthem in-house.
6. Leveraging AIR's vast network and unprecedented reach.
7. Narrowcasting programming strategy.
8. Publicity support for programmes to create awareness, especially among C & Saudience.
9. Improved billing and housekeeping efforts.

(Indiantelevision.com)

Prasar Bharti's 24-hour Malayalam radio channel to begin this month

7 May 2006 TRIVANDRUM -
Prasar Bharti, the federal government-owned broadcasting corporation, will start a new 24-hour Malayalam radio channel in Kerala from May end, its Chief Executive Officer K.S. Sharma said here yesterday. Inaugurating the Trivandrum branch office of Prasar Bharti's marketing division, the eighth in the country, he said the new channel would offer music, drama and features besides the usual programmes. Prasar Bharti would make special effort to translate good content from Malayalam classics to other languages and broadcast it through its national channel, to show the nation what Kerala culture is.He said with Prasar Bharti opening marketing divisions in various cities, it was providing single window service to customers to book advertisements on AIR and Doordarshan channels from anywhere in India. Sharma said that the new Malayalam radio channel was among eight radio and 18 television channels being launched by the Prasar Bharati. These channels would broadcast programmes through Direct-To-Home (DTH) service.The senior officer said that the Prasar Bharati, launched in the early nineties with the government funding, is now able to stand on its own feet.The corporation has pushed Star and Zee TVs behind in revenues by earning Rs12.5 billion through advertisements alone.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2006/May/subcontinent_May232.xml&section=
subcontinent&col=

AIR to broadcast exclusive programme for CRPF personnel

Srinagar, April. 23 (PTI): Aiming to lessen the strain faced by CRPF personnel entrusted with maintaining internal security in Jammu and Kashmir, the local All India Radio station has decided to start a new programme which will feature songs exclusively requested by them.
The programme 'Hello CRPF' will be aired by Radio Kashmir from today, station director G H Zia said adding there will be repeat broadcast of the programme on Monday from the commercial broadcasting service of the station. IGP CRPF, Kashmir, A P Maheshwari welcomed the gesture of Radio Kashmir and said the programme will go a long way in entertaining the jawans who are serving in difficult situations in the state. CRPF recently replaced Border Security Force from the internal security duty in Jammu and Kashmir.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200604231554.htm

Post card with ad of BBC Hindi

Recently India Post released a meghdoot post card with advertisement of British Broadcasting Corp, Hindi service.

Background :
India Post introduced Meghdoot Post Card on September 2, 2002. Meghdoot is priced at 25 paise that is half the cost of the regular post card. The writing space available on the address side of the regular post card is made available for advertising in multicolor in case of Meghdoot. The rate of the advertisement is Rs.2 per card and the minimum order for print is 100,000 cards. Meghdoot is printed by Security Printing Press at Hyderabad in sheets of 8 cards, although some have been supplied to post offices by the press in sheets of 4 and pairs of 2 cards.Being a postal stationery article with an advertisement, its area of distribution is determined by the advertiser, as its design and copy. In addition to the post offices in the area of its distribution the Meghdoot is also made available in limited quantity of 2000 cards at select 8 philatelic bureaus that handle postal stationery, namely Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, and Mumbai.

31 radio towers to be set up in 15 states

New Delhi : Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs, P. R. Dasmunsi on Monday in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha informed that the Government propose to set up 31 radio towers in as many cities spread over 15 States.
Of these, five are in Andhra Pradesh (Kakinada, Hyderabad, Vijayawada - 10 KW each; Karimnagar - 5 KW and Srikakular - 1 KW), four in Maharashtra (Aurangabad, Amravati, Sholapur - 10 KW each and Oros - 5 KW), three each in Uttar Pradesh (Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Vararnasi - 10 KW each) and Uttaranchal (Bageshwar - 5KW and Gairsen, New Tehri - 1 KW each), two each in West Bengal (Darjeeling, Coochbihar - 10 KW each), Tripura (Agartala - 10 KW and Longtharai - 5 KW), Tamil Nadu (Madurai, Tirunelvelli - 10 KW each), Karnataka (Gulbarga, Bellary - 10 KW each) and Rajasthan (Udaipur, Bikaner - 10 KW each) and one each in Gujarat (Junagarh - 10 KW), Haryana (Rohtak - 10 KW), Madhya Pradesh (Ujjain - 5 KW), Manipur (Imphal - 10 KW), Orissa (Rairangpur - 1KW) and Punjab (Jallandhar - 10 KW).
In the information, it is mentioned that some of the cities where Doordarshan towers exist, radio towers have not been set up as FM radio channels/additional channels are proposed to be set up on these Doordarshan towers. Towers are set up subject to approval of the schemes, availability of the funds and the necessity of putting a new tower. In up-gradation/replacement schemes where FM transmitter is replaced, no new tower is required.
http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=17200

New website of TWR India

In the latest edition of HCJB-Dx Partyline there is an interview with Shakti Verma, technical director of TWR- India. Allen Graham interviewed him during HFCC conference. In his interview Mr Verma advised about the new TWR India website :
http://www.radiovv.org/
He also announced that TWR India will start verifying listeners reports with e-qsl's .

Contact details for TWR India as foll :
Address :
Trans World Radio - India
L - 15, Green Park
New Delhi - 110016
Phone : +91 11 26515790
Email : info@twr.in

Latest edition of DxPartline can be heard at :
http://www.hcjb.org/mass_media/dx_partyline/dxpl_audio_files.html