From home! Preparing, uploading, and airing of 'Maan Ki Baat,' that too in two regional languages – Bengali and Santhali? Is it a joke?"
It sounded like a joke initially but a team of programme persons including Programne Executives, Transmission Executives, and Assistant Directors transformed it into a reality. The draft script came; it was divided and distributed, translated into both the languages with utmost precision. Voicing over was a hurdle.
" Don't we have approved voices among us? Why not utilize them in the programme." This time our Hon'ble Prime Minister has spoken with a number of Covid 19 patients and doctors which has to be incorporated in the speech as well. How do we do that sitting in the house? This is All India Radio, anyway, which has a huge galaxy of Drama artists. We can request them to record those dialogues over phone. Consequently, all the inputs poured into the mailbox of one of our program officers, who edited and prepared the capsule of Maan ki Baat in Bengali for broadcast with utmost sincerity. It was a challenge for the program officer editing the Santhali version of the PM's speech, without knowing the language at all. Ultimately, he succeeded in sending it after 2AM in the morning with his Pex Co-ordination, Head of Programmes and Enginneering colleague staying awake along with him at different corners of the city. The final broadcast was successfully accomplished by our Control Room colleagues.
This determined effort has opened up a new horizon of broadcasting for us, as a result of which all the programme people started planning, scripting, interviewing and producing short duration programmes from their homes. A few of them who have editing software in their home workstations submitted edited capsules and helped others in preparing their programmes online.
With such commendable support from our fellow broadcasters, All India Radio, Kolkata resumed airing Bengali programmes once again after an unprecedented gap of eight long days by harnessing digital platforms. Akasvani Kolkata has succeeded in making its social presence felt even while maintaining social distancing . Now, the programmes are being broadcast through one single channel combining Geetanjali, Sanchayita, FM-Rainbow, FM-Gold and Vividh Bharati Kolkata. Apart from broadcasting different types of musical programmes, this combined AIR channel is also airing several awareness programmes on Covid-19, which includes interviews/bytes of doctors, health workers, environmentalists, people providing food and shelter to the underprivileged and old as well as of celebrities/common people. The duration of the broadcast is gradually increasing signaling the possibilities of restoration of the six-channel broadcasting set up very soon. Dedicated Radio listeners are back with their personal mails, and phone calls in our live shows.
AIR Kolkata runs five channels, namely Geetanjali (Kolkata A), Sanchayita (Kolkata B), FM-Rainbow, FM-Gold, and Maitree (not to mention Direct to Home or DTH service) simultaneously. Total broadcast time of which is approximately 101 hours and for that purpose we need around 30 announcers/presenters/RJs throughout the day. During the ongoing lockdown phase, it was virtually impossible to run the gigantic system for want of manpower.
In such an unusual and difficult situation it is great to see Akashvani exploiting creative versatilities of its people working from home on virtual platform. At the same time, our Engineering and Administrative colleagues have come forward to provide their support during this trying time.
Contributed by : Jhavendra Kumar Dhruw Raipur,jhavendra.dhruw@gmail.com
Contributed by : Jhavendra Kumar Dhruw Raipur,jhavendra.dhruw@gmail.com