ప్రసార ప్రముఖులు/Broadcasters in Telugu
The first radio station of the Indian Broadcasting Company was inaugurated by the British viceroy in India-Lord Irwin on July 23, 1927 at Bombay. The Indian Broadcasting Service was more named as All India Radio in1936. It took two more years for the starting of Telugu broadcasts. The first broadcast went on air from the Madras station of All India Radio on June1,1938.
The first announcer in Telugu was Mallampalli Umamaheswara Rao, brother of Mallampalli Somasekhara Sharma, eminent historian. Prominent programme officials duringthose days at Madras station were Messrs. S. N. Moorthy,Dr. A. Veerabhadra Rao, Achanta Janakiram, Dr. BalantrapuKanta Rao, Buchibabu and Srivatsava. Famous Rajani poets Sri Sri and Jashuva were on the staff for sometime.The present film writer and actor Gollapudi Maruti Rao worked at Madras station.
The present Station Director of Bombay S. V. Reddy served as the Station Director, Madrasduring 1992-93. Between 1942 and '45' additional South Indian Service from Delhi used to broadcast programmes in Tamil and Telugu. Ms. Durga Bhaskar is presently working as the DeputyDirector, All India Radio, Madras.
All India Radio, Vijayawada station had its birth on December1, 1948. Vijayawada, the cultural capital of Andhra has its own importance. Dr.AyyagariVeerabhadra Rao, Station Director during 1950-52 has nourished the organisation.
Eminent personalities on the rolls of Vijayawada AIR, contributed their mite for bringing out qualitative programmes. Among them were Messrs. Rajani, Buchibabu, Banda Kanakalingeswara Rao(Drama),Pingali Lakshmikantham and G. V. Krishna Rao (spokenword), Dr. Mangalampalli Balapwrali Krishna and Sandhyavandanam Srinivasa Rao(Music), Prayaga Narasimha Sastry as rural producer was popular. Ushasri, the best broadcaster in spoken word, was popular through 'Dharma Sandehalu'. Voleti Venkateswarlu and Mallik popularised music programmes. The Vijayawada station takes the credit of bagging an international award, Japan Radio prize for a musical feature on River Godavari entitled "Konda nunchi kadali daka" written by Rajani.
HYDERABAD
Started as a private radio station (Deccan Radio) in 1933, Hyderabad station was taken over by the Nizam in 1935. It was named Deccan Radio in 1939. Later on April 1, 1950, it was taken over by All India Radio. Besides the major language Telugu, Hyderabad station broadcasts programmes in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada and English,
Popular among the broadcasters were A. V. Rao (Annayya in children's programmes), Messrs. Gopichand (rural producer), Stanam Narasimha Rao (drama), Devulapalli Krishna Sastri, Dr. Dasarathi, Ravuri Bharadwaja (spoken word), Vinjarauri Varadaraja lyyengar and Manchala Jaganadha Rao (Carnatic music). Children's programmes were popularised by the couple Radio Annayya and Akkayya (Nyapati Raghava Rao and Kameswari). Kesavapanthulu Narasimha Sastry, with his Sanskrit lessons on the air, taught Sanskrit for over a decade.
Vinjamuri Sita Devi popularised folk music as folk music producer. Similarly, Palagummi Viswantaham popularised light music. Ramamurthy Renu, Veluri Sahajananda popularised spoken word programmes.
M. V. Rajagopal entered IAS after serving as Station Director, Hyderabad. Yuvavani service was inaugurated on December 20, 1970 over Hyderabad. Commercial broadcasting was started on March 21, 1971. Presently, Mr. V. V. Sastry is the Station Director of the main station while Mr.
S. P. Govardhan is the Director of Commercial Broadcasting Service. VISAKHAPATNAM and CUDDAPAH
Visakhapatnam and Cuddapah stations had their birth in 1963. Bezawada Gopala Reddy, the then Minister for Iriformation and Broadcasting, inaugurated both the stations (Cuddapah on June 17, 1963 and Visakhapatnam on August 4, 1963). They started as relay centres of Vijayawada and Hyderabad retrospectively. Visakhapatnam started origination of programmes in 1970 and Cuddapah started origination from November 2, 1974. Adilabad station of All India Radio, a district-level radio centre was commissioned during 1984.
The first independent Frequency Modulation (FM) station was inaugurated in March 24, 1989 by the then Industries Minister J. Vengala Rao. At Warangal, a district-level radio station was started in 1989. Nizamabad went on air in 1990. Mr. P. Upendra, the then Union Minister for information and broadcasting, inaugurated both the stations.
Tirupati and Ananthapur started functioning in 1991. Kurnool station was inauguarated by Mr. K. Vijayabhaskara Reddy. Markapuram station was inaugurated in August 1993 by Mr. Vijayabhaskara Reddy. Totally, there are 12 stations in Andhra Pradesh at present.
News in Telugu started from All India Radio, Delhi before the World War II, produced eminent newsreaders Messrs, Kongara Jaggaiah (who later became a film star & MP), Kapila Kasipati, Srivatsava, Sri Sri (famous poet), Kothapalli Subrahmanyam and Panyala Ranganadha Rao. Regional news unit at Hyderabad started its regional news bulletins after the State formation. News unit at Vijayawada was started in 1980s. Hyderabad and Vijayawada stations started commercial services from March 21, 1971.
Programme officials who worked at the Directorate General of All India Radio, after serving the stations of Andhra Pradesh won laurels. Mention of P. V. R. Rao, Deputy Director General, should be made as he was the brain behind the preparation of AIR manual which is like "Manu Smruti" for broadcasting. He was the Accountant General.
Others like R. C. Rajasekhar (son of Rayaprolu Subba Rao) S. N. Moorthy, B. K. Rao, Rajani, Pullela Venkateswarln
and Satyata Sankarainanchi are popular. Gunturu Raghuraaj, B. R. Chalappthi Rao, Prapancham Sitaram, B. R.
Pantulu, R. A. Padmanabha Rao worked as Directors of programmes at the Directorate. Among the Chief Engineers, V. A. D. Rayulu (son of Viswantha
Satyanarayana), N. V. Lu, M. I. Suryanarayana, V. V. Rao and T. N.G.
Dass, Engineer, Eastern Circle, R. Seshaiah (South Zone) have made their mark.
Programmes in Telugu were being broadcast from Radio Moscow since 1968 have recently been withdrawn. Prominent among the newsreaders from Delhi who had gone there were Kandukuri Suryanarayana, T. Sriramulu, Addanki Mannar, Edida Gopala Rao and Bandaru jSrimvasa Rao, External Services Division of All India Radio had started overseas broadcasts in Telugu from April 1990 (Ugadi). Radio Ceylon channel broadcasts Telugu programmes over its commercial channel regularly.
(Pub. in Deccan Chronicle)