Radio: Radio broadcasting which commenced in India through ** ‘HAM’ Broadcasting Clubs in Kolkata and Chennai in the 1920s, matured into a public broadcasting system in the 1940s during World War II when it became a major instrument of ***** for Allied forces in South East Asia. At the time of independence, there were only 6 radio stations located in the major cities catering primarily to an urban audience.
A Radio Transmission center called Akashavani was started by Dr. M.V. Gopalaswamy, at Mysore University in 1935 through private effort. The station was later taken over by the State Government in January 1941 and it was shifted to Bangalore in November 1955. The first AIR station in the North Karnataka Region started functioning at Dharwad, on 8th November 1950.
In 1964, Vividh Bharathi (CBS) was added to Dharwad unit. Auxiliary stations at Bhadravathi and Gulbarga were started in 1965 and 1966 respectively. Apart from All India Radio (AIR), there is Vividh Bharati, a channel for entertainment that was primarily broadcasting film songs on listener’* request.
Vividh Bharati, which soon began to carry sponsored programmes and advertisements, grew to become a money-spinning channel for AIR. Akasha Vani (Kannada version of AIR) headquarters is at Bangalore and there are regional centres at Mysore, Bhadravathi, Dharwad, and Gulbarga covering broadcasting news, entertainment, sponsored programmes, and commercial programmes, etc.
