Monday, July 16, 2007

Nagpur AIR enters 60th year


UNI
Monday, July 16, 2007 10:39 IST
The Nagpur Centre of All India Radio (AIR) plans to start several new programmes, which would be the first of their kind in Maharashtra, as it enters the 60th year of its existence on Monday. Station Director Dr Chetan P Naik told UNI that the first day of the jubilee year would be marked with a special programme to be broadcast from 0900 hrs to 1000 hrs on July 16.

The new programmes include a phone-in show featuring people's representatives from Vidarbha, a tele-quiz, a tele-Antakshari, documentary features on the tribes in the region and a 'roaming microphone' broadcast. "Other centres in India already have such programmes, but Nagpur will become the first among the 21 in Maharashtra to have them,'' Naik said.

'Hello Janatantra' would be a live phone-in programme featuring ministers in the Union and the State cabinets, members of Parliament and members of the legislature, from Vidarbha answering questions from the audience, he said. The live tele-quiz would involve listeners calling in on the telephone and being asked questions by the host, and winning prizes for correct answers. There were plans to host on 'Antakshari' show, also live, in which members of the audience could participate by calling in on the telephone and singing a song beginning from the last letter of the one played out from the studio, he said.

"There will be three participants on line at a time. Each participant will have to sing three songs within 30 seconds to win a prize,'' Dr Naik said, adding that later, the winners from each episode would be similarly featured live in the final part of the show. Dr Naik said that the centre would produce documentary features on each of the 16 major tribes in Vidarbha as part of the diamond jubilee celebrations. Each episode would highlight the language, culture, social practices and rituals of a particular tribe, he said.

The roaming microphone programme would take the radio to the doorstep of the people, and, therefore, had been aptly titled 'Radio Aaplya Daari' or 'Radio With You', he said.

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1110116
(Source: Alokesh Gupta & Mukesh Kumar)