Regular listeners of the All India Radio’s (AIR) Ananthapuri FM, available at 101.9 MHz, were in for a bit of a shock this new year as the most popular Malayalam slots in the morning were replaced with content in Hindi.
According to sources in the AIR, over the past few weeks, listeners have been raising their voices against the change in various platforms and through letters. Changes have also been brought about in the main Akashvani channel available in medium wave. From the beginning of the year, Prasar Bharati began bringing in changes across its regional channels, with some of the popular slots in regional languages replaced by Hindi. While some of the regional programmes were dropped, others were shifted to less popular time slots. The names of the channels have also been changed, with Ananthapuri FM becoming Vividh Bharati Malayalam. “I used to regularly listen to Ananthapuri FM in the morning. For the past few weeks, the programming have been suddenly changing to Hindi at 9 a.m, which then continues for one hour. There is no other option but to switch off at that time,” says Lekshmi, a homemaker. When The Hindu reached out to AIR officials in the State, they said Hindi programmes have been included in two time slots as per directives from higher-ups outside the State. “These changes are part of the new AIR India pattern. They said they wanted one hour each in the morning and evening from our commercial broadcasting service. These are routine changes,” said an official who handles programming. However, other sources in the AIR who were more forthcoming said the changes have been made without any consultation at the local level. “They have replaced very popular Malayalam programmes with Hindi programmes. This is an institution which is accountable to the public, and hence imposing such changes unilaterally is not right. They went back from making similar changes in Kozhikode and Kochi as there was opposition from listeners, who got political leaders to intervene,” said a source. The programming structure has changed in the main channel available in medium wave too. Some of the programmes in the morning slot, which were a mix of short packages, including ‘Pularvettam’, ‘Ayurarogyam’, ‘Prabhatha Chintha’ and ‘Nalla Malayalam’, have been dropped. The time slot for classical music has also been removed, leading to complaints from artistes.
Poet Murukan Kattakada, who took charge as the director of the Malayalam Mission recently, said the move seems to be part of attempts nationwide to impose a monolithic culture by killing all diversity. “Other than through our parents and friends, it was through Akashvani that we imbibed the Malayalam language and culture in our hearts. Although the arrival of cable television did reduce its popularity, AIR was able to regain much of it through its FM channels such as Ananthapuri. It had such a huge impact. As a poet and a lover of the language, it is painful to see such changes,” he said.
Empanelled artistes in Karnataka AIR had protested after a similar action there. Kannada activists also took out protests earlier this month over non-Kannada programming in popular slots.
