Close To 100 Positions, Including That Of Station Director, Lie Vacant At AIR’s Trichy Station That Serves 9 Districts
D Madhavan | TNN

It is a station with a 72-year history and one of the six radio stations in service since the pre-Independence era but today, All India Radio Trichy faces a shortage of staff and barely has enough people to bring out its programmes.

There are 100 vacancies at the Trichy station, including the posts for station director, deputy director, two assistant station directors and 15 programme executives. AIR Trichy currently employs 110 people in its three sections — programmes, engineering, administration. Since it is so short-staffed, the station only does three to four hours of original programming as opposed to its 11-hour capacity.

“The problem is not unique to the Trichy station. Across the country, AIR stations are facing the same problem as the Union government has halted recruitment since 1991. The government has not promoted officials based on seniority and performance since then citing litigation by affected persons,” said regional convener of Association of UPSC Recruited Programme Officers for AIR and Doordarshan (AUPO) N Tamilvannan.

The Kodaikanal station has not had a station head for a decade, while Madurai has not had a station director for the past six years. In Trichy, the assistant station director has had the additional charge of station director for the past one and half years. The Dharmapuri station does not have staff and is attached to the Trichy station.

“Delay in filling vacancies in key posts not only affects the smooth functioning of the organisation but also delays key policy decisions at the station level,” said sources in AIR.

Except Chennai, the rest of the stations in the state are run by a single programme executive as against the norms set under the Formulation of Ad-hoc Staffing Norms for Prasar Bharathi notified on March 3, 2000. The norms say each station should have at least five programme executives and five transmitter executives, apart from assistants, including announcers and music artists.

“There has been no career growth here. Many of my seniors retired at the same position at which they were recruited. With 25 years of service, I am still working as a programme executive, as I was recruited in 1986 though UPSC,” said an official of AIR.

Years ago, the public service broadcaster was the most vibrant in the country. The chief minister of the erstwhile Madras state C Rajagopalachari inaugurated the Trichy station. “Good morning, Tiruchirapalli. This is Rajaji. You are hearing first broadcast of AIR from Tiruchirapalli,” he had announced after he inaugurated the station on May 16, 1939.

During its initial days, the station covered just 20km and transmitted only for a few hours a day. It functioned out of a single room on Williams Road in the Cantonment area in the heart of the city. “In the initial years, our operations were restricted to testing frequencies and having small bulletins on education and music. We had a 5KW medium wave transmitter that was slow and difficult to operate,” said assistant station director V Srinivasan.

Slowly, the station expanded its operations to include education, music, art and culture, agriculture and programmes for women and children. It tied up with the education department and started school broadcasts in July 1940. A month later, the station published a channel guide, ‘Vanoli’ (Radio). “In March 1961 the then chief minister K Kamaraj inaugurated a 50KW medium wave transmitter, which increased our coverage area,” said station director for engineering S Periyaswamy.

But though their coverage area has increased over the decades, the lack of fresh talent has led to lack of creativity in programming. Many of AIR’s experienced professionals are about to retire in the next few years.

“We are not sure how long this uncertainty will continue. We tried everything: petitions, agitations, litigation but nothing has worked.

Two cases related to hiring for AIR are pending in the Supreme Court. There are vacancies at all levels in the organisation. Posts for around 800 programme executives in the class one category across the country are lying vacant,” said Tamilvannan

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