An institution, like old wine, matures with age. Through the passage of time an institution becomes a part of history and national heritage.  But aging does not necessarily mean maturing; it leads to decay and decadence. So is the case of All India Radio which is heading towards completing a hundred years in our public sphere.  Radio as a service started with private initiative through Radio Clubs and subsequently as a Public Limited Company by certain enthusiasts. It assumed the status of a public service media apparatus and a catalyst for socio-economic change in post- independent India with a well defined mandate.  From just six stations at the dawn of independence the number is now close to 250 in the public service domain alone and many more run by business houses, media organisations, educational institutions, voluntary groups and NGOs.

        As a part of structured expansion All India Radio added the second station in Odisha at Sambalpur which beamed programmes on 26th May, 1963 from a 20 Kilowatt (10X2) Nippon Electronics Corporation (NEC) Transmitter in the medium-wave (AM) sound propagation mode. (The first AIR Station in Odisha was commissioned on 28th January, 1948 at Cuttack). In its initial avatar AIR Sambalpur was an auxiliary of the state ‘capital’ station, Cuttack with limited programme origination facility. Now it has been upgraded to a 100 kilowatt transmitter, a fivefold increase with adequate digitised studio and on-line post production facility.  It had a singular mandate in consonance with the national aspiration to inform, to educate and to entertain the listeners within its service area.  It took close to 15 years for AIR to consider spreading its service in the state of Odisha which needed information input for better life and living of the people alongside the task of sponsoring and preserving the oral culture in the shape of folk music, oral literature and other socio-religious activities like various fairs and festivals.  Through its march in time, AIR, Sambalpur helped realise the mandate though not fully at least to a considerable and appreciable extent.

        This article does not intend to recall or repeat the contribution of AIR, Sambalpur through the past over 50 years.  The journey has been not entirely satisfying because the hopes and aspirations of the people from any institution like AIR cannot be satiated fully.  As this author had long association with All India Radio, Sambalpur in various capacities since 1968, the rumination may tend to become nostalgic and subjective.  It is therefore apt to avoid such narrative.  Perhaps it would be better, instead of looking back with dreamy memories, to look forward for the task ahead.

        The other day a news item disturbed many broadcast professionals and listeners globally when they learnt that in Greece to enforce austerity measures the Government decided to close down the state funded Public Radio & Television Services.  This did not only hurt the employees because they lost jobs but also annoyed the Greeks because they lost an institution built through years from out of the taxes paid from their hard earned income.  Even the democratic world could not digest this action of the Greek Government as, according to them, it robbed of the Government of a platform over which it could have informed and educated the citizens about the means and measures the Government proposed to put the tottering economy back on the rails.  “How much was saved through this austerity measure?” ask many.

        This becomes relevant in the Indian context because the Public Service Broadcasting System in India does not appear to be very healthy since the day in the name of autonomy a corporate structure was put in place.  Concurrently the broadcasting sector was supposedly ‘liberated’ from Government control and the airwave was opened up because of an epoch making verdict by the Supreme Court of India.  Prasar Bharati, the apex autonomous umbrella organisation was put in a playfield where major corporate and media houses with only entertainment as their motto came up with business modules with FM Transmitters even in small and medium townships apart from the Metros where they had minted money.  This was a great challenge for Prasar Bharati, the Public Service Broadcaster which needed to reorient itself to keep afloat in the new market mechanism.  Commercial Broadcasting had started way back in 1967 when advertisements were allowed over Vividh Bharti Service of All India Radio.  Gradually this was expanded to Primary Channel Stations also during the 80’s.  It requires deeper study if other than Government sponsored advertisements this module in fact brought in any worthwhile revenue from the private corporate business sector, both for All India Radio and for Doordarshan.

        The aforesaid facts indicate that Prasar Bharati was left at a critical juncture to decide for itself an identity – either as a Public Service Broadcaster or as a Commercial enterprise.  Given this kind of dilemma and dichotomy various measures were adopted to cut down expenses and improve on revenue.  This has harmed more than helped the performing artists, the listeners and moreover the well trained, competent and devoted staff.  This however, has not deterred the Government from going on an expansion spree in terms of Radio & Television services under public domain.  Such decisions are driven more by political considerations rather than by practical and pragmatic reasoning. Consolidation rather than expansion should have been the mantra for robust survival. But it was not to be.  Prasar Bharati is yet to decide whether it is a bird or a beast.  If it is a bird it appears to have clipped wings and if it is a beast it has neither teeth nor nail.  Put in place, in the year 1997 as yet it has no cadre of its own.  It inherited from the earlier dispensation all the assets and liabilities – liabilities being more than assets which is compounding by the day.  Autonomy is just a word in the maze of lexicon in the Government dictionary. To quote a cliché, “Autonomy is what autonomy does”.  Autonomy should percolate down to the lowest denominator in a vast organization like Prasar Bharati.  But in effect all the commandments and diktats have to come from the mountain top rendering the station level broadcaster and broadcast managers in pitiable condition. The old, archaic and obsolete methods of house-keeping, book-keeping and finance management need replacement with a genuine autonomous corporate work culture. Multitasking is an answer to this. In all areas of activity multiple persons are engaged for a singular task and in the absence of any one of them work suffers. There is need for reorientation of the workforce by devising new cadre structure and befitting training modules. The private broadcast operators are optimising on the deployment of manpower. Can Prasar Bharati not take a leaf from management manual of private operators to optimise on manpower utilisation? This should not be difficult with the advancement in technology and ultra-modern gadget now available for the broadcaster. IT and satellite technology have come as boons for the telecommunication services. Is Prasar Bharati shy of inducting these means and methods into its system?
   
        Another remarkably disturbing feature of Prasar Bharati is the age profile of its employees. There has been recruitment holiday for decades now for whatsoever reason. There has been no induction of young blood, in the programme and higher engineering wing to bring in new ideas and novelty in presentation and transmission.  Out-of-box thinking appears to be anathema.  Both AIR & Doordarshan are filled with not only with deadwood but some of them are just charcoal. (Take a count of retired, old and near-infirm people loitering in the corridors of various Prasar Bharati formations as ‘Consultants’. The days are not far off when they will outnumber the regular employees).   With this kind of a scenario asking All India Radio and Doordarshan to compete with private FM Radio operators and  satellite TV channels  is like asking for results from a paraplegic in 100 metres sprint in Olympic.  Tennyson’s golden words, “Old order changeth, yielding place to new” renders itself meaningless in Prasar Bharati.  Hence it would not be inappropriate to ask, “Whither Indian Public Service Broadcasting?”

        The author of this essay by no means is a dooms-sayer. With close to 35 years of service in various capacities in many parts of India including the headquarters he has seen the hay-day of All India Radio.  Visionaries beginning with Lionel Fielden, the first Controller of Broadcasting in India had envisioned a robust organization to help shape the destiny of a developing nation and the world’s largest vibrant democracy.  True, they were dreamers, but their dreams were not ephemeral but were realisable.  The destiny of the nation is not dependent on the shape, size and actions of its broadcasting organisations but the Public Service Broadcaster certainly helps shape a nation’s destiny.  Will Prasar Bharati be able to stand up and take this onerous task in its present shape and dispensation?  Or will it go the Greek way and close down because some day some political master may declare Public Service Broadcasting as redundant and propose a quiet burial.

        To come back to the context, All India Radio, Sambalpur has provided yeomen service all through the past 50 years.  It helped the Green Revolution by supplementing the Integrated Agricultural Development Programme (IADP) in the Hirakud command area since the mid sixties; brought out the fading oral culture and literature to the fore in the shape of songs and music; fostered young talents with histrionic and musical abilities; helped retain through enriching programmes the core value of communal harmony and national integration and remains in the collective psyche of the people of the state as an institution adored and despised with equal measure. Is it the time to ruminate, recall and rejoice the meaningful journey of AIR Sambalpur or to remorsefully look at a hazy horizon in the not so distant future? This is what happened in course of the past 50 years; but what is there in store for the next five decades when AIR, Sambalpur will also be called a century old bird chirping and singing, an aged institution and a part of our heritage.  One can only ponder over this and may search for an apt answer. Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister during one of his visits to Broadcasting House in New Delhi, had recorded in the Visitor’s Book, “Forward Radio”.  To borrow from his phrase one can only wishfully say, “Fare forward AIR, Sambalpur”.
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The author is a retired Additional Director General of Prasar Bharati. He can be contacted at abhayapadhi49@gmail.com
 

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