Obituary:Mr. K.KASTURI, former Station Director of All India Radio has breathed his last on 16.12.2020 at Chennai.

K. KASTURI(1924-2020)

RESUME of KKASTURI, Former Station Director, AIR

Mr. K.KASTURI, former Station Director of All India Radio has breathed his last on 16.12.2020 at Chennai.Born in September 1924, he has served All India Radio for 34 years as Programme Executive and Station Director.He joined A.I.R. in the 1940s as Program Executive at, AIR,Chennai . He was working in CBS, AIR, Chennai when Commercial Broadcasting Service was introduced in 1960.He had worked in many places like Trichy, Coimbatore, Mumbai, Delhi, and Trivandrum in the capacity of Station Director.His main fields of activities were programmes for youth (schools & Colleges), coverage of outside events, over-the-air talks with important personages, Sports commentaries etc.

Has written nearly a thousand scripts pertaining to these broadcasts. Notable among the programmes written / produced / presented by him were.

1. Over-the-air talks with Sir Alexander Fleming, Norman Consins, Jesse Owens, R.K. Narayan & others.

2. Presentation of broadcast coverage of public meetings of Prime Minister Nehru, President Rajendra Prasad, Vice-President Dr. Radhakrishnan

3. Presentation of radio coverage of World Tamil Meet (1968)

4. Conduct of Inter Collegiate and Inter-school Quiz contests over the air and in the campuses.

5. Presentation of documentaries on the 2000-year-old Hindu Temples of Srirangam and Triplicane, the 1500 years old St. Thomas Basilica, Neyveli Lignite Operations.

6. Running Commentaries on

• Ranji Trophy cricket matches

• National Olympic meet at Madras in 1968.

• Exhibition Tennis matches featuring, Frank Sedgman, Neale Fraser, Ilie Nastase, Chuck Mackingley and Ramanathan Krishnan.

After Retirement

1. Written ten articles in Bhavan's Journal on Indian Philosophical subjects.

2. Has translated the entire Ramayana into English (yet to be published)

3. Studied the phonetics of the alphabet of Indian languages and has devised a common Romanized script for the major Indian languages.

As a mark of respect to the departed soul, AIR, Chennai has broadcast a Tribute Programme for the late Shri.K.Kasturi on 07.01.2021 at 0800 PM.

Contributed by: T. RAJENDIRAN , DDG(E), AIR, CHENNAI .