17th Sep 2019 09:09:PM Editorials
Eastern Sentinel Arunachal News

Last Sunday, the nation’s first public service broadcaster Doordarshan turned 60 and almost silently. Although there hasn’t been much fanfare surrounding the event, for millions of Indians of the bygone generations, it was time to get nostalgic and recapitulate those good old days when it used to be the indisputable and principal source of home entertainment. For the current generation who has grown up in the current age of satellite televisions and internet, it will be rather hard to fancy what Doordarshan once upon a time meant to the Indians cutting across all ages. It is thus the time to remember this trusted companion, but for whom it wouldn’t have been possible for the nation to graduate to this fully blossomed age of public broadcasting today.

It was a very humble beginning way back in 1959 on September 15 and the ‘laboratory’ was the studios of the All India Radio when the first experimental broadcast was made with a small transmitter with signals beamed to television sets in living rooms in and around national capital only. By 1972, services were extended to Mumbai and Amritsar and then to seven other cities by 1975. Then on April 1, 1976, coming out of the tutelage of AIR, Doordarshan became a separate department in Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. But 1982 will be counted as a remarkable year in its history since on August 15 that year a national telecast service commenced from its own TV studio in New Delhi named DD1 that captured public imagination in no time. And with colour live telecast of 1982 Asian Games in Delhi, Doordarshan permanently became something very own for the common people. Throughout this particular decade, people remained engrossed in their favourite serials, films, film songs, live test & one day cricket matches and so on. Sunday mornings were exclusively reserved for telecast of some iconic serials that were so popular that streets displayed bandh-like looks during air-time. As its outreach spread, the entire electronics industry with TV set manufacturing in particular also saw boom that resulted in employment of lakhs of technical people. Recalling the atmosphere of those yesteryears, it will not be an exaggeration, now standing in 2019 to say that yes, Doordarshan, its iconic logo and the opening scroll were the inseparable parts of the daily Indian life and a phenomenon altogether.

Things have changed so much and we now are a part of an age where satellite broadcasting coupled with internet-based platforms have redefined our ways of getting entertained. From an age of ‘few choices’ we have zoomed into an era of ‘what to watch’. But still, that old charm will surely be missed and Doordarshan of old will always be something to recall again and again.  


Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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