AIR, Allahabad will be celebrating its 71st anniversary on 1.2.2019. Allahabad station of All India Radio came up in the year 1949 with a low power, medium wave transmitter and studios in a rented building at 7-9, Thornhill Road (Now Dayanand Marg) which was subsequently acquired for construction of permanent type III studios on 19th February, 1965. The old transmitter for Primary Channel was also replaced by another 1 KW BEL transmitter on 1st January, 1966.
In the year 1981 the transmission was shifted to newly constructed building having type III studios, transmitter hall and receiving centre situated in the same premises. The new office building was constructed and taken over from CCW on 18th August, 1986.
In the station, technical equipments etc. have been maintained as per broadcasting standards. Regular measurements and maintenance work were carried out to achieve high quality performance to the extent possible.
The Channel 'A' Transmitter of 1 KW was replaced by 2x10 KW MW transmitter installed at Jhunsi, Andawan village which is 15 Kms from studios. The digital STL link alongwith Service Channel is also provided through Microwave link. The coverage area of MW Transmitter is approx. 80 Km and covers the district of Allahabad, Kaushambi, Fatehpur, Chitrakoot, Mirzapur, Pratapgarh, Sultanpur, Sant Ravidas nagar, Amethi and Jaunpur. The Primary channel covers about 235.35 lakh population. The main language and dialect of programmes are Hindi, English and Urdu.
Vividh Bharti service started on 1st Jan 1966 in the same campus i.e. 7-9, Thornhill Road, Allahabad, with 1 KW MW Transmitter. This MW Transmitter was replaced by 2x5 KW FM transmitter on 01-06-1995. Now this transmitter has been replaced by 10 KW RVR make FM transmitter which became operational since 04.12.2014. The coverage area of FM Transmitter is about 60 KM and covers the district Allahabad, Kaushambi, Pratapgarh, Sant Ravidas nagar and Jaunpur. The population covered by this channel is about 40.17 lakh.
Allahabad, being an important cultural centre, the music and drama studios are extensively utilised for different kinds of programme recordings along with the Talk studio, which is used to record VIP's talks, discussions etc. For the rural and Yuv-vani sections a number of OB coverages are being done using latest OB equipment available with the station.
During the last Maha Kumbha held in the year 2013, a low power FM Transmitter of 100 W was set up on the temporary basis for two months and a channel 'Kumbhvani' was started during that period.
For Kumbh 2019, a dedicated channel "Kumbhvani" with 1 KW FM Transmitter has been set up with transmission of 16 hrs. daily for the period of 12.1.2019 to 5.3.2019. This channel broadcast exclusive important programmes of Kumbh mela. On main bathing days, national level commentary are planned to be originated from AIR, Allahabad. For the first time, AIR, Allahabad is live streaming its Kumbvani channel on U-tube.
Name and Designation of Engineering & Programme Heads of the Station.
Name of Engg. Head : Shri B. R. Jaiswal, Dy. Director (E),
Telephone :Office - 0532-2423338
Mobile :9415800159
Name of Programme Head : Shri. Manjul Kishore Verma, Asstt. Director (P)/ Programme Head
Telephone : Office - 0532-2423530 Residence : 0532-2622622
Mobile: 8004926250
E-mail: allahabad@prasabharati.gov.in
Source & Credit : Shri. B.R. Jaiswal, DDE