All India Radio's (AIR) FM service is expected to cover the entire country within the next two-and-half years, union Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said on Tuesday launching the service in Mumbai.
Inaugurating the new FM transmitter for Vividh Bharati Service, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rathore said around 40 percent of the country was at present covered by the FM service and the remaining 60 percent would be taken up in the next two-and-half years.
At present, 400 FM transmitters are available in India, and 250 more will be added in the next two-three years, he said.
Available on Akashvani at 102.8 MHz, the FM Vividh Bharati Service will serve around 20 million (two crore) people in and around Mumbai.
With its availability on FM, the popular Vividh Bharati can now be heard on mobile phones and while in transit. It will continue to be available on radio on SW and MW.
Rathore said AIR and Doordarshan were "like old friends which we take for granted", but following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's interactions with people on radio, it has now regained its prominence.
"With 92 percent coverage of the country, AIR touches everyone's lives and radio gives us information, knowledge and entertains us without distracting us like television or social media," he said.
AIR Director-General Fayyad Sharyad, renowned broadcaster Amin Sayani, and film personalities Jackie Shroff and Vikram Gokhale were among the dignitaries present.
Vividh Bharati Service was launched in an era when India had no dedicated entertainment channel for the audiences, and a foreign channel, Radio Ceylon, had almost engulfed the entertainment scenario in the country at that time.
It was during the golden era of music that the union government came up with the idea of a premier entertainment channel for the people and set up the Vividh Bharati Service on October 3, 1957.
On that historic day, the first announcement went on the airwaves in the voice of Sheel Kumar Sharma: "Yeh Vividh Bharati hai, Akashwani ka pancharangi karyakram."
The first song played was "Naach re Mayura", penned by Pandit Narendra Sharma, composed by Anil Biswas and rendered by Manna Dey.
Since then, Vividh Bharati Service has played a pivotal role as a premier entertainment channel for millions and also contributed by documenting the treasures of classical music, recordings and interviews of legends of Indian cinema.
Some of these include Sumitranandan Pant, Mahadevi Verma, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Bhimsen Joshi, Ashok Kumar, V. Shantaram, Raj Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman, Gulzar, O.P. Nayyar, Naushad, Madan Mohan and many more.
Initially based in Delhi, Vividh Bharati Service was shifted to Mumbai at Churchate in 1972-1973 and then moved to Borivali in northwest Mumbai in 1988-1999.
Later, it launched live transmission from May 1, 2000, and DTH services on December 16, 2004.
