see all india radio band . for sanskrit term see akashvani term . for other uses see akashvani . this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message all india radio type government organisation country india availability national motto bahujan hitaya bahujan sukhaya 1 headquarters sansad marg new delhi 110001 india owner prasar bharati launch date 1930 webcast gir.fm delhi gir.fm kolkata official website www.allindiaradio.org www.newsonair.nic.in air headquarters in new delhi all india radio air officially known since 1956 as k shv literally voice from the sky is the national public radio broadcaster of india and a division of prasar bharati . established in 1930 2 it is the sister service of prasar bharati s doordarshan the national public television broadcaster . air has covered more than 99 % of the indian population as per the latest information given by minister of information and broadcast . all india radio is one of the largest radio networks in the world . its headquarters is at the akashvani bhavan in new delhi . akashvani bhavan houses the drama section the fm section and the national service . akashvani bhavan hosts doordarshan kendra delhi . contents 1 etymology 2 history 3 domestic services 3.1 vividh bharati 3.2 baluchi programme on air 3.3 other services include 3.4 regional services 4 external services 5 other services 5.1 digital radio mondiale drm 5.2 news on phone service 5.3 direct to home service 5.4 documentaries 5.5 central drama unit 5.6 social media cell 6 see also 7 references 8 external links etymology edit main article akashvani term k av ni is a sanskrit word meaning celestial announcement or voice from the sky heaven . in hindu jain and buddhist mythology akashvanis often featured in stories as a medium of communication from the heavens to mankind . akashvani was first used in the context of radio by m. v. gopalaswamy after setting up the nation s first private radio station in his residence vittal vihar about 200 yards from air s current location in mysore in 1936 . 3 akashvani seemed to be an appropriate name for a radio broadcaster and was later adopted as all india radio s on air name in 1956 . history edit during the british raj broadcasting began in july 1923 with programmes by the bombay presidency radio club and other radio clubs . according to an agreement of 23 july 1927 the private indian broadcasting company ltd ibc was authorized to operate two radio stations ; the bombay station began on 23 july 1927 and the calcutta station followed on 26 august 1927 . however on 1 march 1930 the company went into liquidation . the government took over the broadcasting facilities beginning the indian state broadcasting service isbs on 1 april 1930 on an experimental basis for two years and then permanently in may 1932 . on 8 june 1936 the isbs was renamed all india radio . 2 on 1 october 1939 the external service began with a broadcast in pushtu ; it was intended to counter radio propaganda from germany directed to afghanistan iran and the arab nations . when india became independent in 1947 the air network had only six stations in delhi bombay calcutta madras lucknow and tiruchirappalli ; three radio stations at lahore peshawar and karachi fell in the share of pakistan . the total number of radio sets at that time was about 275 000 in india . on 3 october 1957 the vividh bharati service was launched to compete with radio ceylon . television broadcasting began in delhi in 1959 as part of air but was split off from the radio network as doordarshan on 1 april 1976 . 4 fm broadcasting began on 23 july 1977 in chennai and was expanded during the 1990s . 5 domestic services edit air tower in mangalore karnataka kolkata centre of all india radio air has many services in a number of languages each serving different regions across india . vividh bharati edit vividh bharati is one of the best known services of air . its name roughly translates as diverse indian and it is also known as the commercial broadcasting service cbs . it is the commercially most accessible of the air networks and is popular in mumbai and other large cities . vividh bharati offers a wide range of programmes including news film music and comedy programs . it operates on different mediumwave band frequencies for each city . some programs broadcast on vividh bharati are hawa mahal radio plays based on novels and plays santogen ki mehfil comedy baluchi programme on air edit air is planning on revamping the programme in baluchi language sources claim . 6 other services include edit primary channel 1 national channel 7 regional services edit the headquarters of the regional deputy directors general are located at delhi and chandigarh nr lucknow and bhopal cr guwahati ner kolkata er mumbai and ahmedabad wr chennai and bangalore sr . 8 all frequencies are in khz unless otherwise noted . northern regional service city frequency city frequency city frequency agra 1530 ajmer 603 allahabad 1026 almora 999 barmer 1458 bikaner 1395 chairhara budgam 1485 srinagar 819 srinagar 666 delhi c vividh bharti 1368 delhi d yuv vani 1017 delhi national channel 1215 diskit 1602 drass 1485 gorakhpur 909 jaipur a 1476 jalandhar a 837 jalandhar b 702 jammu a 990 jodhpur a 531 kalpa kinnaur 1584 kargil a 684 kargil b 1584 khalsi 1485 kota 1413 kupwara 1350 leh 1053 lucknow a 747 lucknow c 1278 mathura 1584 najibabad 954 naushera 1089 nyoma 1485 padam 1589 pauri 1602 pithoragarh 1602 rampur 895 rohtak 1143 shimla 774 budgam 1116 budgama 1224 srinagar c 918 tiesuru 1602 udaipur 1125 uttarkashi 1602 varanasi a 1242 sawai madhopur 101.5 northeast regional service city frequency city frequency agartala 1269 guwahati a 729 shillong 864 imphal 822 eastern regional service city frequency city frequency bhagalpur 1458 1206 chinsurah kolkata a 1 mw 594 & 1134 cuttack a 972 darbhanga 1296 jamshedpur 1544 kolkata a 657 kolkata b 1008 kolkata c vividh bharati 1323 patna a 621 ranchi a 549 muzaffarpur a 100.1 mhz muzaffarpur b 106.4 mhz kolkata fm rainbow 107 kolkata fm gold 100.2 western regional service city frequency city frequency ahmedabad a 846 aurangabad 1521 bhopal a 1593 chhindwara 102.2 mhz chhatarpur 675 gwalior 1386 indore a 648 jalgaon 963 mumbai a 1044 mumbai b asmita marathi programme 558 mumbai c vividh bharati 1188 nagpur a 585 nagpur b national channel 1 mw 1566 panaji a 1287 panaji b vividh bharati 828 pune a 792 rajkot a 810 ratnagiri 1143 solapur 1602 sangli 1251 south regional service city frequency city frequency adilabad 1485 bangalore a 612 chennai a 720 khz chennai c vividh bharati 783 khz chennai b 1017 khz coimbatore 999 khz gulbarga 1107 hyderabad a 738 hyderabad b 1377 kozhikode a 684 madurai 1269 khz nagercoil 101 mhz udhagamandalam 1602 khz port blair 684 thiruvananthapuram a 1161 thiruvananthapuram 101.9 mhz thrissur a 630 tiruchirapalli a 936 khz tirunelveli 1197 khz vijayawada a 837 visakhapatnam tirupati a 1075 gautam 456 pondicherry 1215 parbhani a 102.0 external services edit the external services of all india radio broadcast in 27 languages to countries outside india primarily via high power shortwave band broadcasts although medium wave is also used to reach neighbouring countries . in addition to broadcasts targeted at specific countries by language there is a general overseas service broadcasting in english with 8 hours of programming each day aimed at a general international audience . the external broadcasts were begun on 1 october 1939 by the british government to counter the propaganda of the nazis directed at the afghan people . the first broadcasts were in pushto beamed to afghanistan and the north west frontier province . soon broadcasts began in other languages including dari persian arabic english burmese japanese chinese malay and french . the external services broadcast in 16 foreign and 11 indian languages with a total program output of 70 hours per day on medium and shortwave . external service transmitter sites location number of transmitters kw frequency drm aligarh hpt 4 250 bengaluru spt 6 500 100 kw chennai madras 1 100 720 khz mw gorakhpur 1 50 guwahati 1 50 jalandhar goraya 1 300 702 khz mw khampur delhi hpt 7 250 khampur delhi spt 2 500 kingsway delhi 3 50 kingsway delhi 2 100 kolkata chinsurah mogra spt 1 1000 1134 khz and 594 khz kolkata a 1142 khzmw mumbai malad 1 100 nagpur spt 1 1000 1566 khz mw panaji hpt 2 250 rajkot spt 1 1000 1071 khz air urdu 1080 khz 2 megawatt vividha bharti tuticorin 1 200 1053 khz mw two high powered fm stations of all india radio are under installation in amritsar and fazilka in punjab to supplement the programs put out from transmitters operating from jalandhar new delhi chandigarh and mumbai and to improve the broadcast services during disturbed weather conditions in the border regions of punjab . today the external services division of all india radio broadcasts daily in 57 transmissions with almost 72 hours covering over 108 countries in 27 languages out of which 15 are foreign and 12 indian . the foreign languages are arabic baluchi burmese chinese dari french indonesian persian pushtu russian sinhala swahili thai tibetan and english general overseas service . the indian languages are bengali gujarati marathi kokani kashmiri hindi kannada malayalam nepali punjabi saraiki sindhi tamil telugu and urdu . the longest daily broadcast is the urdu service to pakistan around the clock on dth and on short and mediumwave for 12 hrs . the english language general overseas service are broadcast 8 hours daily . during hajj there are special broadcasts beamed to saudi arabia in urdu . the external services of air are also broadcast to europe in drm digital radio mondiale on 9950 khz between 1745 2230 utc . the transmissions are broadcast by high power transmitters located at aligarh bengaluru chennai delhi gorakhpur guwahati mumbai and panaji on shortwave and from jalandhar kolkata nagpur rajkot and tuticorin on mediumwave . soon all india radio amritsar will start a booster service on fm band too . some of these transmitters are 1000 kw 1 mw or 500 kw . programs are beamed to different parts of the world except the americas and received in very good reception quality in the target areas . in each language service the program consists of news commentary a press review talks on matters of general or cultural interest feature programmes documentaries and music from india and the target region . most programs originate at new broadcasting house on parliament street in new delhi with a few originating at spt bengaluru chennai hyderabad jalandhar kolkata hpt malad mumbai thiruvananthapuram and tuticorin . the external services division of air is a link between india and rest of the world especially in countries with indian emigrants and people of indian origin . it broadcasts the indian point of view on matters of national and international importance and demonstrates the indian way of life through its programs . qsl cards which are sought after by international radio hobbyists are issued to radio hobbyists by air in new delhi for reception reports of their broadcasts . other services edit digital radio mondiale drm edit details of the transmissions and frequencies are as follows 0130 0230 utc on 11715 khz nepali nepal 0315 0415 utc on 15185 khz hindi e.africa mauritius 0415 0430 utc on 15185 khz gujarati e.africa mauritius 0430 0530 utc on 15185 khz hindi e.africa mauritius 1300 1500 utc on 15050 khz sinhala sri lanka 1615 1715 utc on 15140 khz russian e. europe 2245 0045 utc on 11645 gos i english ne asia above transmissions are in addition