All India Radio (AIR) should revise time-scheduled of its news bulletins to be audience-friendly. Main evening Hindi news-bulletin should be at 8 pm instead of present 8.45 pm to give ‘Samayaki’ an important time-place at 8.15 pm just after the main news-bulletin in a manner ‘Spotlight’ is placed after main English news-bulletin of 9 pm.
Other programmes presented by AIR News Services Division like ‘Today in Parliament’/ ‘Sansad Sameeksha’, ‘Radio Newsreel’/ ‘Samachar Darshan’ etc. can be between 8.30 pm and 9 pm. This time-slot can be utilised to revive weekly ‘News-Sameeksha’ on Sundays to get feedback from listeners.
Morning main news-bulletins can be at 7.45 am in Hindi and 8 am in English each to be followed by comments from newspapers. Evening news-bulletins in regional languages can be broadcast simultaneously from different AIR stations at 7.30 and 7.45 pm. Morning bulletins in regional languages can be at 7.30 am and 8.15 am. Regional news can be at 7 pm in regional languages simultaneously from all AIR stations. A special bulletin may be designed for rural areas to be broadcast simultaneously in regional languages at 7 am. At remaining clock-hours, nine 5-minutes’ bulletins each in Hindi and English can be alternately relayed instead of giving both Hindi and English bulletins at a particular hour. Format and timings of AIR news-bulletins require such and other drastic changes in view of dominating visual media of TV news-channels.
Madhu Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
