Karnataka > All India Radio
A radio transmission centre called Akashavani was started by Dr. M.V. Gopalaswamy, a Psychology Professor of Mysore University at Mysore in 1935 through private effort. The station was taken over by the State Government in January 1941. It was later taken over by the Centre and shifted to Bangalore in November 1955. In the same year, the Bangalore AIR Station commenced its broadcastings through one high power transmitter. The First A.I.R. Station in the North Karnataka region started functioning at Dharwad, on 8th November, 1950. Opening of this station was a boon to the cultural field of North Karnataka. Auxiliary stations at Bhadravati and Gulbarga were started in 1965 and 1966 respectively. Another low power transmitter at Mysore was inaugurated on the 14th November 1974. It was upgraded in 1989 as an independent regional station. The Mangalore Station was inaugurated on the 14th November 1976.
After 1990, seven more A.I.R. stations began to operate at places like Chitradurga and Hassan (1991), Hospet(1992), Madikeri and Raichur(1993), Karwar(1994) and Bijapur(1997). Consequently, the total number of stations has increased from six to thirteen. Among them, while Dharwad, Bangalore and Bhadravati AIR stations have 2 x 100 KW transmitters, Gulbarga and Mangalore have 2 x 10 KW transmitters; Chitradurga has 6KW and Hospet has 2.5 KW transmitters; Hassan, Madikeri, Raichur, Karwar and Bijapur have 2x3 KW transmitters, whereas Mysore has only 1 KW transmitter. It is proposed to equip the AIR station at Mysore with 10 KW transmitter to broadcast the routine programmes more effectively. For the purpose of broadcasting Vividh Bharati Programmes separate low powered transmitters have been set up at Bangalore and Dharwad. Both the Stations are attached with regional news units which brings out three regional Kannada news bulletins daily. The radio stations cover about 96% of the State's population. FM (Frequency Module) stations operating at Bangalore, Mysore, Bijapur and such other places are providing news and music service to the users.
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