The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Morning transmission of FM music channel gets under way

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Saturday, Jan 26, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Morning transmission of FM music channel gets under way

Deepa Ganesh

BANGALORE: Finally, the long wait is over. All India Radio now has an exclusive classical music channel, and it is the first of its kind in the country. Amritavarshini – FM 100.1 MHz, the channel that will cater to both Hindustani and Carnatic music lovers is launching its morning transmission on Saturday, at 6 a.m.

The channel, which was functional only in the evenings (6 p.m. to 11 p.m.), will now have morning transmission (6 a.m. to 9.30 a.m.) too, exactly four years after its inception.

“The original plan was to have one in Lucknow also. But only the Bangalore plan materialised,” says S.S. Hiremath, Station Director, All India Radio, Bangalore. This channel, which will cover about 100 sq km and 30 to 40 lakh people, will fulfil the needs of serious listeners of music. “AIR has always had a 30 to 50 per cent music component. In fact, in a recent survey that we conducted, as a pre-launch programme in Bangalore, we learnt that most of our listeners felt radio is the most suitable medium for music and insisted that we have a music channel. That is one of the main factors that gave us the confidence and go ahead with this project,” he explains.

As enthusiastic as the listeners themselves, the Amritavarshini team has an interesting line-up of programmes, conceived after much thought and research. N. Raghu, programme executive, who has been designing many of the programmes for Amritavarshini, has modelled them based on current requirement as well as those that have been popular in the past.

For instance, there is “Indra Sabha” which will have CD reviews, book reviews, profiles of artistes and interviews with visiting musicians. “Madhuvana” will be a daily capsule that will announce music events across the city. And for all those who fondly remember “Sangita Paatha” from the good-old days of AIR, there will be “Amrita Gurukula,” which will have vocal and instrumental music lessons. Every month there will be special theme-based programmes too. Something that most AIR loyalists will eagerly await for is music from their archives. “We have the biggest archives and we will take all our past masters to our listeners,” says Mr. Hiremath.

Between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Amritavarshini will tie up with a Carnatic music DTH channel working out of Tiruchirapalli. “Right now, our Carnatic component is higher, but we will gradually work out a balance between both classical music forms,” explains Mr. Hiremath.

For listeners who have suggestions and requests, it can be mailed to varshini.blr@gmail.com. Students who wish to get notations of the music lessons on the Amrita Gurukula programme, can make an email request and it will be sent immediately.

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