AIR Chennai to mark 80 years of service with special programmes

All-India Radio, Chennai, will celebrate completion of 80 years of service as a public broadcaster on Saturday, June 16. Established in 1938, it has the distinction of being one of the six AIR stations operational at the time of Independence.

AIR started with two channels and now has six terrestrial and 3 DTH and Digital Radio Mondiale channels. To mark the occasion, the Chennai station of AIR will be broadcasting special programmes on Saturday, including the journey of Light and Carnatic Music in AIR Chennai, selected topics of Thenkachi K Swaminathan's Indru Oru Thagaval and 80 years of reminiscences from other fields.

The voice recordings of yesteryear personalities including C Rajagopalachariar, M S Swaminathan, M S Subbulakshmi, R K Narayan, Kribananda Vaariar, Pulavar Kiran, Bharati Dasan, Ki Va Jagannathan, Thiru Vi Kalyanasundaram, Mu Varadarasanar, Thenkachi K Swaminathan and Sivaji Ganesan, among others, would be broadcast.