All India Radio’s Chennai station now located on Kamaraj Salai, Mylapore turns 75 next week.
To mark this milestone, AIR will broadcast the speech that Rajaji made at the launch of this radio station. The broadcast is to be on AIR’s Chennai A ( 720kHz) channel at 7 am.
A memorial pillar is also to be unveiled on the campus ( located diagonally opposite the LightHouse) that day.
The station was first opened on Marshall’s Road in Egmore ( the same road where the Institute of Opthamology, commonly called eye hospital is located ) on June 16, 1938 by Rajaji, then premier of the Madras Presidency. The speech that he made at this event will be broadcast this Sunday.
A public function to mark the 75 years is to be held on June 18 at Vani Mahal, T Nagar. Carnatic music maestro Dr M Balamuralikrishna will perform at this event.
K P Srinivasan, Addl. Director General (in-charge) of AIR said that the station moved to the Mylapore premises on July 19, 1954. The popular Vividh Bharathi programme was begun in 1957.
A FM channel was started in 1977.
The station holds over 20,000 tapes of music, drama, talk, shows and specials. The key tapes have been digitized and some Carnatic music concerts of the greats have also been on sale.
These past months, AIR has been broadcasting speeches of national leaders to mark the jubilee.
