Prasar Bharati has decided to shut down the national channel of All India Radio (AIR) at Shillong in Meghalaya as a cost-cutting and rationalization measure.
Apart from Shillong, the national state broadcaster of the country has decided to close down the national channel of All India Radio (AIR) at four places namely Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Thiruvananthapuram with immediate effect.
Prasar Bharati has also decided to close down the Regional Academies of Broadcasting & Multimedia (RABM) at these five places.
The move taken by Prasar Bharati was communicated to the Director General (DG) of All India Radio (AIR) Air and has been taken in order to rationalize AIR services keeping in view the cost-cutting measure.
The move would leave AIR with no national channel of its own in these five places, unlike state television broadcaster Doordarshan, for the broadcast of national events.
The national channel, which broadcasts from 6 pm to 6 am, came up in 1987 and played an important role in keeping people abreast with national issues.