National Broadcasting Day is annually celebrated on July 23 in India to commemorate the first radio broadcast aired from the Indian Broadcasting Company (IBC) on 23 July 1927. IBC was a private radio station based in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra.
- The Radio Club of Bombay made the first ever broadcast in India in June 1923.
- The year 2022 marks the 95th anniversary of the establishment of the All India Radio (AIR) which was formerly known as IBC.
Background:
i.Radio broadcasting started in India under British rule in 1922 which consisted of programmes by the Bombay Presidency Radio Club.
ii.All India Radio began its journey as a private company called Indian Broadcasting Company ltd (IBC), on July 23, 1927. This is the reason why July 23 is celebrated as National Broadcasting Day.
iii.IBC was eventually taken over by the Indian Government in 1930 and established the Indian State Broadcasting Service (ISBS) which later transformed into All India Radio (AIR) on June 8, 1936.
iv.At the time of independence from the British Raj, there were a total of six radio stations – Delhi, Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Tiruchirapalli, and Lucknow.
- FM broadcasting started later on 23 July 1977 in Chennai.
About All India Radio (AIR):
i.The motto of AIR is ‘Bahujan Hitaya: Bahujan Sukhaya’ and has the purpose of educating, informing and entertaining the masses.
ii.Since 1957, AIR has been officially called Akashvani(means voice or announcement from the skies) and is owned by Prasar Bharati, India’s largest public broadcasting agency.It is the sister service of Prasar Bharati’s Doordarshan, an Indian television broadcaster.
- The name was derived from a poem of the same name by Rabindranath Tagore in 1938.
iii.All India Radio (AIR) is the largest radio network in the world. It broadcasts programmes in 23 languages and 179 dialects.
iv.It has 479 stations across India. The network reaches over 92 per cent of the area in India and is accessible to 99.19 percent of the population of India.
About Prasar Bharati:
CEO- Mayank Kumar Agrawal
Founded-1997
Headquarters- New Delhi, Delhi
