Adlabs FM swamps Prasar Bharati's Jammu offering

With the launch of the FM radio station owned by Adlabs Films Ltd in Jammu, most of Prasar Bharati's programmes relayed from Jammu Radio Station and also from FM Rainbow Radio have gone off the air in Jammu and Kashmir.

With the airing of the BIG FM 92.7 private Radio station of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group round the clock in Jammu, all the news bulletins of Radio Kashmir, Jammu (RKJ), have been snapped because the frequency allotted to this private radio station clashed with that of the RN (Relaying Network) link of Jammu radio, informed sources in RKJ's engineering wing told Business Standard.

All the news bulletins relayed by Radio Kashmir, Jammu, from New Delhi are received at Jammu via the RN link and later transmitted across the state. But as the BIG FM's powerful frequency at 92.7 MHz clashes with that of the RN system of Jammu, no news bulletins in English, Urdu, Hindi and Dogri has gone on air smoothly for about 20 days.

Sources said Dogri news bulletins from Delhi, which serve over 6 million Dogri-speaking people in the region, are the most affected as the engineering wing at the Jammu Radio Station is not in a position to locate the frequency. Even the directorate's important instructions that are being fed to every radio station at least five times a day are also being not received.

The jamming has also affected affected All India Radio Jammu Station's Vividh Bharti and FM-Rainbow Radio relayed from Delhi. FM Radio Stations were launched by Parsar Bharti from Jammu, Srinagar , Baderwah, Poonch, Rajouri and Nowshera a month ago. Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priyaranjan Das Munshi had inaugurated the first FM Radio station at Srinagar.

The sources said the problem occurred soon after the Reliance Group's BIG FM Radio Station started testing last month. But despite the jamming of Jammu transmission even during the testing period no steps were taken to look into the problem for remedial measures.

Station Director (AIR Jammu) T Angmo brought the matter to the notice of senior officers of the AIR Directorate at New Delhi. With this the Jammu station has suffered a nearly total breakdown. No steps have been taken from the AIR Headquarters.