All India Radio Dibrugarh is stepping into the 50th year of its commissioning on February 15 and has decided to celebrate the Golden Jubilee with a yearlong programme.
The radio station, broadcasting programmes with a 300 Kilo-Watt DRM transmitter, the most modern and powerful transmitting station in the Northeast Region, was commissioned on February 15, 1969.
The station has planned a number of series of programmes with a view to connect with more and more listeners during the Golden Jubilee Year.
“We are planning to produce nearly 3000 new and innovative programmes during the Golden Jubilee year. These programmes will be broadcast from March this year and there will be a special theme for each month. Accordingly, coinciding with the ‘International Women’s Day’ the theme for the month of March will be ‘Women’. All the programmes to be broadcast during the month of March will deal with various issues related to women and there will be a sincere effort to sensitise the listeners on women issues,” Lohit Deka, programme head, All India Radio Dibrugarh told Northeast Now.
The theme for the month of April will be ‘culture and tradition’, for the month of May – ‘Family and Societal Life’, for the month of June – ‘Environment Conservation’, for July – ‘Development-Disaster and Sustainability’, for August – ‘Senior Citizen’, for the month of September – ‘Sports’, for October – ‘Health and Hygiene’, for November – ‘Children’, for December – ‘Agriculture and Livelihood’, for January (2019) – ‘Youth’ and for the month of February 2019 – ‘Science and Technology’.
All the programmes to be broadcast during the Golden Jubilee year will start and end with a specially composed ‘Golden Jubilee Signature Tune’. The signature tune has been composed by Syed Sadulla, an eminent musician of Assam. Highlighting the services of All India Radio in general and All India Radio Dibrugarh in particular, six songs and two orchestras have been produced to colour every transmission with Golden Tunes during the year.
The main objectives of the programmes that have been designed to produce during the Golden Jubilee year are – 1) to showcase the glorious services of the AIR station during the last five decades, 2) to connect with more and more listeners with its programmes and 3) to make All India Radio more visible among the new generation as a vibrant and effective medium of information, education and entertainment in the present scenario of media proliferation.
Deka further added, “With a view to fulfill the objectives, the regular infotainment programmes ‘Surar Panchoi’ and ‘Antora’ have been designed with the content of ‘history of Assamese modern songs of AIR Dibrugarh and its lyrics’, ‘history of radio plays of AIR Dibrugarh’, ‘anecdotes from the history of AIR Dibrugarh’ and interview with 52 personalities involved with AIR Dibrugarh in different ways.
Apart from these, with a view to compose a book on history of AIR Dibrugarh, interviews of 30 eminent personalities involved with the station will be broadcast in 104 episodes for a duration of 30 minutes per episode. These interviews will be broadcast at 9.30 PM on Sundays and Saturdays.
The yearlong celebration will formally be inaugurated on February 23 with a daylong programme. On that day the programme will start with a “Run for Peace” from the Old High School Field, Dibrugarh to the Studio premises of AIR Dibrugarh at 5.30 AM. Thereafter, at 7.30 AM two significant personalities – Hiren Gohain, the first Announcer of the station and N M A. Khampti, one of the producers of Arunachalee dialect programmes and a retired Station Director will start the Golden Jubilee plantation programme at the studio premises of AIR Dibrugarh.
The main inaugural function will start at 5.30 in the evening on the same day at the studio premises of AIR Dibrugarh and Dr Nagen Saikia, eminent litterateur will formally inaugurate the yearlong celebration. The prizes to the winners of the Folk Music Reality Show – ‘Lokasangeet Madhuri’ will also be given away at the Golden Jubilee Inaugural Function. The folk music reality show is a very popular programme produced by the station and many organizations including Assam Sahitya Sabha has appreciated All India Radio Dibrugarh for its dedicated service towards promotion and popularization of Assamese folk songs among the new generation.