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All India Radio

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting

About All India Radio

All India Radio is a constituent of Prasar Bharati, India’s Public Service Broadcaster functioning under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. All India Radio, Port Blair is one among 366 broadcasting centres in the country as on date.

The main function of All India Radio is to plan, produce and broadcast programmes to listeners. These broadcast include a good deal of entertainment, information and education programmes intended to aid development alongwith news and current affairs. The principal ingredients of All India Radio programmes are music, talks, interviews and discussions, news casts, services for specific groups (Women, Childs, Youth etc.) and outside broadcasts. Eminent music artists are invited and stage programmes are organized before invited audience.

All India Radio, Port Blair is a vital link for the islanders owing to far flung and scattered geographical nature of the islands.

The Radio Station comprises of

Studios
Transmitting Centre

History

The Radio Station of All India Radio, Port Blair was started on 02.06.1963 with a 1KW Medium Wave (MW) Transmitter and radiating on a 40 Meter mast and temporary studio located near Haddow. Under IVth Five Year Plan, it was decided to upgrade the power of the transmitter to 20KW. A new site was acquired for the transmitter at Brookshabad near Brichgunj Cantonment area for the installation of 20KW Transmitter and the antenna system. The 2x10 KW BEL HMB 104 MW transmitter was taken into regular service in November1975 through “L” aerial .Later 115M mast was installed replacing “L” aerial for transmission.

The Andaman & Nicobar Islands stretch to a distance of 800 Kms from North to South and 50 KMs from East to West. Directional coverage was considered necessary in order to serve the Islands better by improving the coverage. Hence a 120M mast as a passive element was installed in the year 1986. The coverage of MW transmitter was found to be satisfactory along coastal belt but inadequate deeper in the Islands due to rocky and forest terrain. Therefore, under 7th Five year Plan, a 10KW NEC Shortwave (SW) Transmitter was commissioned in April, 1989 to provide a support service to MW broadcast so that all the islands are covered with radio signal.

The Studios were upgraded to Permanent Type IIR studios in March, 1992.

As 2x10KW MW transmitter had become old, it was decided to replace the transmitters during IXth five year plan. Accordingly, a modern state of the art 100KW MW Transmitter Thales was commissioned in the year 2003 and the entire Andaman & Nicobar Islands have come under the radio coverage of the primary channel of AIR, Port Blair.

An additional radio channel in FM band was envisaged to provide superior FM stereo quality signals to the listeners and a 10KW FM transmitter, co-sited with the studios was setup in the year 2005.

Radio Channels

Radio Channels being transmitted from AIR, Port Blair:

1. Primary Channel	It carries local programme contents in addition to News and current affairs on 100KW MW transmitter. 1^st Transmission : 05.25 - 09.30/10.30hrs 2^nd Transmission : 12.30 - 15.00/15.30hrs 3^rd Transmission : 16.00 - 22.30/23.00hrs
2. SW Channel	10KW Shortwave transmitter carries the same Primary channel programs. 4760 KHz: (15.00 - 08.45) hrs 7390 KHz: (08.45 - 15.00) hrs
3. FM Channel	It carries Vivid Bharati Programs on 10KW FM Transmitter - 05.25 - 10.00hrs and 16.00 - 22.30/23.00hrs

Coverage

With the commissioning of 100KW MW Transmitter on 22.07.2003, the entire Andaman & Nicobar Islands had come under the radio coverage of the primary channel of AIR, Port Blair. However due to falling of mast, primary channel is carried on 10Kw MW transmitter through “L” aerial at present.
With the addition of 10KW FM Transmitter with effect from 22.06.2005, the Vividh Bharati programme are available on FM mode which covers the main land and adjoining area.

Programme on Primary Channel

All India Radio, Port Blair broadcasts about 13 hours of programme daily on Primary Channel.
The programme is broadcast in six languages (Hindi, Bangla, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and English) and one local dialect(Nicobari).

The programmes composition

Sl. No	Programme	Broadcast monthly		Percentage
Sl. No	Programme	Hrs	Mts	Percentage
1.	Music	174	25	42.13
2.	News	84	21	20.37
3.	Spoken Word	68	39	16.57
4.	Tribal dialect(Nicobari)	15	20	03.70
5.	Drama & Feature	06	05	01.47
6.	F&H Programme	22	56	05.54
7.	Children’s Programme	03	22	00.81
8.	Women’s Programme	06	43	01.62
9.	Armed Forces Proframme	04	30	01.09
10.	Publicity & Others	08	42	02.10
11.	Youth Programme	19	01	04.60

AIR Port Blair broadcast twice daily shipping schedule which is very important for the Islanders. AIR Port Blair covers Live Independence day and Republic day function.

Studios and Transmitting Centre

The present setup of the Radio station comprises of Type IIR studios and Transmitting centre.
Studios and 10KW FM Transmitter are co-sited.
The transmitting centre housing 100KW MW Transmitter and 10KW SW Transmitter is located about 15 KMs away from studios.

Co-ordinates of Studios	Latitude 11⁰ 45’ N
Co-ordinates of Studios	Longitude 92⁰ 45’ E
Mean Sea Level	60M
Co-ordinates of Transmitting centre	Latitude 11⁰ 36’ N
Co-ordinates of Transmitting centre	Longitude 92⁰ 45’ E
Mean Sea Level	15M

Studios

Type IIR studios consists of Talk, Drama, Music studios and Edit Room for recording/production.
Transmission Booth each for Primary channel and FM channel have been provided for transmission of programs.
The studios are equipped with Hard Disc Based Recording Systems (HDBS) for digital recording/ production of programme.
Procurement of digital consoles is underway to replace existing multi-function stereo analog consoles.

Control Room

Control Room is the hub interconnecting all studios.
It controls the programs being fed to the transmitter.
It houses Radio Networking (RN) equipments for receiving programs being uplinked from other stations and Studio Transmitter Link (STL) equipments for feeding programs to non co-sited MW and SW transmitters.

10KW FM transmitter

10KW FM transmitter is co-sited with studios.
It is connected to 6 bay antennas on 60 M self supporting towers for radiation of FM channel.

Transmitting Centre

100KW Medium Wave transmitter and 10KW Short Wave transmitter are housed at transmitting centre for radiating Primary channel.
Due to the fallen 115M and 120M masts, the primary channel program is being radiated through L-aerial with 10KW standby BEL MW transmitter at present.
10KW SW transmitter is radiated through the dipole aerial provided between 30M self supporting towers.
A scheme has been approved under XI plan for conversion of existing 100Kw MW transmitter to Digital (DRM) mode.

RNU

The Regional News Unit (RNU) of All India Radio had been started at Port Blair wayback in 1975.
AIR news plays vital role in catering to the information needs of the people in this highly strtegic region.
At present, AIR broadcasts two news bulletins in the morning(0705--0715hrs) and evening (1900-1905hrs) besides a host of news based programmes.
News On Phone service and digitilaztion of existing RNU have been approved in XI plan and are under implementation.

Establishment

The Station comprises of Officers and Staff from different sections for carrying out various activities of the station.

Programme

The section plans, produces programmes for Broadcast to Listeners. Outside Broadcasts and Invited Audience Programmes are planned and conducted.

News Unit: News bulletins, Weekly, Fortnightly News programmes are produced by the section.

Engineering

The section is responsible for ensuring smooth transmission of programmes. The Studio and Transmitter equipments are maintained by the section. The civil infrasturucture and electrical installation of the station are also maintained by the section in coordination with Civil Construction Wing of AIR & DD.

Administration and Accounts

All Establishment matters, Accounts, Book keeping and house keeping functions are dealt by the section.

Sl. No	Name	Designation	Phone No.
1.	Shri C.Mookan	Director (Engg.)	230682
2.	Ms. Mumtaz Bano	Head of Programme	232545
3.	Shri D.V.S.Deep	Dy. Director (News)	232541
4.	Shri A.Dhanasekaran	News Correspondent	242667
5.	Smt Lalita Nair Nirdosh	Assistant Director (OL)	230287
6.	Smt Meena Prakash	PEX (Commercial)	230287
7.	Shri S.Loganathan	AE & Security Officer	232540

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