NINTH PLAN Broadcasting is the most powerful medium of mass communication. The importance of All India Radio as a medium to inform, educate and entertain the masses needs no emphasis in a developing country like India. As a public service broadcaster AIR continues to contribute to the national building process and socio-economic and cultural development of the nation. The thrust areas of Ninth Plan of AIR are: Expansion of Border Area Coverage: (i) North-Eastern region: For strengthening radio coverage in the north-east, replacement of Guwahati-50 KW MW Transmitter by 100 KW MW Transmitter, Silchar 10 KW MW Transmitter by 20 KW MW Transmitter, Imphal-50 KW MW Transmitter by 300 KW MW Transmitter and Kohima-50 KW MW Transmitter by 100 KW MW Transmitter are under implementation. New FM channels with stereo-playback facilities are also being provided at Shillong, Imphal, Agartala, Aizwal, and Itanagar. New Radio stations are being set up at Dhubri, Tezpur, Churachandpur, Dharmanagar and Longtherai.

AIR Kokrajhar in the Bodo Autonomous Council Area (BAC) has already been commissioned and another station at Dhubri in the same area is being commissioned shortly.

A special scheme to set up Community Radio Stations at 10 places is also under implementation. To cater to the small groups of people with different languages and dialects to realise and nurture their cultural and artistic expressions by listening to programmes in their own dialects.

(ii) Jammu & Kashmir:

For the purpose of expansion of coverage, upgradation of 1 KW SW Transmitter at Jammu by 50 KW SW Transmitter, Leh-10 KW MW Transmitter by 20 KW MW Transmitter and replacement of Srinagar-1 KW MW Transmitter by 10 KW FM Transmitter are under implementation. Besides, one 6 KW FM Transmitter at Jammu is also under implementation. In addition, provision of stereo playback facilities in Srinagar studio are also under implementation.

An integrated plan for enhancing the coverage in Jammu & Kashmir area has also been recently approved, which shall be implemented in a set time-frame.

Upgradation of programme production facilities:

Steps have been taken for the improvement of technical quality of programmes. State-of-the art digital equipment is being provided in the studios. Digital based technology which are in use the world over is also being inducted in All India Radio to ensure superior recording and editing facilities.

(i) Compact disc players have already been provided in all the major stations;

(ii) Computerised hard disc based recording, editing and playback system for broadcast are in use in many broadcast organisations through out the world. All India Radio has also planned to introduce such system in the network. To start with major stations have been provided with these facilities.

Audio Refurbishing and Archives:

AIR has established a sophisticated audio refurbishing centre in New Delhi under a UNDP scheme. Old and degraded archival audio materials are being refurbished regularly for digital storage ensuring longtime preservation. A permanent archival centre at Todapur in New Delhi is also planned to be implemented soon.

Extension of FM stereo channel:

The FM stereo service which is presently functional at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Panaji and Cuttack has become very popular and is generating a good revenue for the network. This service is being extended to all the state capitals and important cities.

Expansion of entertainment channel:

As a part of introducing stereo service at state capitals, it is proposed to convert Vividh Bharati Service from Mono to Stereo. The studios at Mumbai, which are originating VB service, were converted to stereo format last year. Digital stereo uplink facility has also been provided.

Expansion and strengthening of External Services:

All India Radio has emerged as a major international broadcaster transmitting in 16 foreign and 9 Indian languagues for a total duration of about 70 hours per day. AIR External services cover about 80 countries of the world except two American Continents. These external services are radiated with the help of 15 number of high power short wave transmitters. The following measures have been undertaken to strengthen these services:

(i) Establishment of five additional high power short wave transmitters of 250 KW each at Delhi (Khampur) and replacement of two existing high power shortwave transmitters of 250 KW each at Aligarh.

(ii) Broadcasting of external services programmes on Internet.

Replacement of old transmitters with new transmitters:

Schemes have been undertaken to replace old transmitters with high power transmitters as per ITU assignments to overcome shrinkage and strengthen the primary grade service. High power transmitters are being provided at Jodhpur-300 KW MW Transmitter in place of 100 KW, Nagpur-300 KW MW transmitter in place of 100 KW, Imphal-300 KW MW transmitter in place of 50 KW, Nazibabad-200 KW MW transmitter in place of 100 KW, Indore-200 KW MW transmitter in place of 100 KW, Kohima-100 KW MW transmitter in place of 50 KW and Port Blair-100 KW MW transmitter in place of 20 KW.

Besides the above, a 1000 KW MW Transmitter at Rajkot and several 20 KW MW transmitters are included under the replacement scheme. 1 KW MW transmitters at a number of places are being replaced mostly with 10 KW FM transmitters. With there replacement, Vividh Bharati Service at quite a few places will get shifted from medium wave to FM.

New Broadcasting House:

There has been a long felt need for providing studio facilities for the broadcast of various services from Delhi. Therefore, a scheme to set up a New Broadcasting House at New Delhi, at an estimated cost of Rs.60 crores was approved by the Government in February 96.

The new complex will house studios equipped with latest state-of-the-art technical facilities for the External Services Division, News Services Division and Home Services.

Research & Development:

The Research Department of All India Radio is engaged in the development of systems which are not available in the open market, formulating plans for introduction of new services and technologies in the network. Some of the activities are highlighted below:

(i) AIR News-on-Phone: All India Radio has started an interactive broadcasting service for providing AIR News-on-Phone. Through this service, listeners can access a capsule of the latest news highlights.

(ii) Radio on demand: It is an interactive radio service developed and recently started by AIR in Delhi. Here the listeners telephone the broadcasting house and dials the pre-published music code number to register the demand for a particular music. The music stored in the computer server gets retrieved and automatically linked to the FM transmitter for broadcasting.

(iii) Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB): AIR joined the select group of braodcasters on 1st April 1998 by introducing two hour daily transmission of Digital Audio alongwith one FM Channel on experimental basis.

Staff Training Institute :

The Staff Training Institute located at Kingsway, Delhi caters to the training needs of staff of All India Radio & Doordarshan. Strengthening of Staff Training Institute is proposed under the plan.

Another Staff Training Institute has been set up at Bhubaneshwar (Orissa).

Radio Networking through INSAT:

All the broadcasting centres of AIR throughout the country have been networked through satellite for the relay of national and regional programmes. 18 Uplinks are available for uplinking the programmes in different state capitals to be used by the regional and local stations of respective states. Aizwal, Kohima, Imphal and Agartala are being provided uplinking facilities during the current plan. Uplinking facilities at Jammu are also proposed.

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