In praise of AIR
When we were kids, we had no TV at home; even if we had had TV, with a 40 feet or so of Antenna — which is a pain to set up in our kind of homes clay tile roofing — all we could have gotten was DD. So, most of our electronic entertainment was via Radio, and especially, AIR.
Everybody at home had his/her own radio time — my grandfather started at around 5:45 am or so with “Auspicious music”, English News Bulletin, Devotional music, local news and then Delhi news. Then, my mother got to tune to some movie songs. Again, it was time for the English news (in the middle there was an uncomfortable 15 minutes of Hindi news which none of us could understand). Then, it was time for some classical music or movie music depending on our mood and preference. And, in the evenings, it was again news, music, and may be an occasional drama or so. Of course, there were sports programmes — but nobody at home paid much attention to any of that. Any case, on the whole, I have very good memories of AIR, and especially their music and literary programmes.
That is the reason why I found the following sentences (emphasis mine) in this blog post jarring (link via Desi Pundit):
Their programming needs some serious upgrading to be at the level of a satellite radio station and to appeal to a wider variety of audiences. Talk shows, news, current affairs, finance, sports (cricket, in particular, preferably live) are some of the things that would fit in well should they choose to upgrade. Being the first South Asian channel on satellite radio, they have the potential to draw a sizable audience, maybe they already are. But that audience certainly deserves better, translation we don’t need a clone of All India Radio.
So, who says AIR does not have talk shows, news, current affairs, finance, sports (cricket, in particular, preferably live)? I do not know now; but till recently, they did, and most probably, they still do. So, I find this kind of potshot at AIR ill informed at best and arrogant at worst.
Tags: All India Radio, Doordarshan
