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Friday, June 13, 2014

Yuvavani's closure kicks up controversy

Courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Himanshi Dhawan,TNN | Jun 13, 2014, 03.04 AM IST


NEW DELHI: Prasar Bharati's move to shut down the three-decade-old youth-centric radio station, Yuvavani, from June 1 has created a big ruckus. For its part All India Radio, that ran the service in Jammu, Srinagar, Kolkata and Delhi, feels that the service has dipped in popularity and is no longer economically viable. 

However, DoPT minister Jitendra Singh has written to I&B minister Prakash Javadekar seeking the channel to be revived in Srinagar arguing that the decision taken by UPA government to shut down the service was politically motivated. I&B secretary Bimal Julka said that the ministry would examine the matter in light of Singh's objection. 

Yuvavani was started in the 1973 as a youth outreach medium putting out programs on education, skill development, employment, music and arts. But the rapid spread of FM channels in the last few years which are targeted at the youth, led to a sharp decline in the popularity of Yuvavani. 

The radio station was running content for approx 4-5 hours every day on medium wave. A recent survey carried out by the Audience Research Wing of AIR revealed that the weekly reach was 1.8 % in Delhi and 9.9 % in Srinagar. The Kolkata service was shut down earlier.

However, Jitendra Singh said that the decision was ``politically motivated'' and would send out a ``negative signal'' at a time when there is an all out effort to provide fair governance without any discrimination. He also said in his letter that ``large number of youth got opportunity to exhibit their artistic talent from that region through Yuvavani programmes. Further, this programme has been able to create a sense of belongingness among the people and reinforce integration of the local population into the national mainstream.''

In April the Prasar Bharati vision committee examined a report that said that the service was incurring an expenditure of Rs 3.5 lakh a month but was not earning any revenues for the public broadcaster. AIR officials said that based on the committee's recommendation, Prasar Bharati board decided to shut the service. 


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