Golden Jubilee Celebration at AIR Pasighat.

A history was created when the first station of All India Radio in Arunachal Pradesh (Then NEFA) was inaugurated at the historical town of Pasighat on 6th March 1966. It was inaugurated by Late Kuttick Moyong, Political Assistant and a renowned political leader of that time. Initially the power of the transmitter was only 1.5 Watt covering only the township of Pasighat. The Office, Studio and Transmitter was all set up in one SP type wooden government quarter near the present Deputy Commissioner’s office. Late M.N. Raichaudhury, Programme Executive, who later retired as DDG, HQ New Delhi, was the first Programme Head of the Station. He joined in January 1966. Late P.K. Singh, Assistant Engineer who joined in February 1966, was the first Engineering Head. Shri Jatin Morang, who is retired now, joined AIR, Pasighat as the first announcer on contract basis on 1st February 1966. Later he along with Late Takit Darang joined as regular Announcers on 1st December 1966. The Station began its broadcast with Assamese as its langiage of broadcast.

The artists whose voice was recorded first at the studio of AIR, Pasighat in 1966 was Late Okir Gao who presented a Ponung (Adi folk song). At that time all artist payments were made by AIR, Guwahati. As recalled by Shri Jatin Morang during those initial days contractual announcer used to get Rs.5/- Per booking, leader of folk song too got Rs.5/- Per presentation and a talker used to get Rs.15/- Per talk.The name of AIR, Pasighat came to limelight in 1969 with the beginning of the broadcast of 5mnts Adi(Local dialect) news at 5.30 PM which was relayed from AIR, Dibrugarh. Up gradation of the station was bound to take place in order to reach out to more and more people of interior villages. So the power of transmitter was upgraded to 10 KW in 1991. It was formally inaugurated later by former Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Shri Gegong Apang on 27th January 1996. By that time the station was already shifted to a new building(The present establishment).

Another important change occurred to the station in 1996 with the introduction of Adi dialect as the station’s language of broadcast in place of Assamese.The station started Hard Disk Based Recording (HDBR) in 2004 probably one of the first station to do in the entire North East Region.The station got its first group A officer with the posting of Late S.N. Prasad, ASD in 1971 and the only station Director it had was Shri D.C. Kachari who retired from the station as SD on 31st January 2001. Many officers of both Programme and Engineering cadres have served the station and some are still serving.

AIR, Pasighat had the privilege of having visited by many dignitaries. The most prominent ones were B.K. Nehru, Governor of Assam in 1968, Dr. Bhupen Hazarika in 1973 and Ajit Panja, Minister for I&B in 1988, P.K. Thungon and Gegong Apang, both former Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh visited the station several times. The station also had the privilege of doing OB coverage of a few VVIP visits in and around Pasighat which can now be termed as historic event. Some of those VVIP’s names are: Indira Gandhi (1968), PV Narashimha Rao, Rajiv Gandhi (1986 & 1988), R. Venktaraman, HD Devegowda (1996), Morarji Desai (1977), Dr. Daying Ering (1970), B.N. Singh, the first Governor of Arunachal Pradesh (1987).

In its continuous effort to produce Programmes of archival value based on folklores and mythology of local tribal community AIR, Pasighat won 2 National Awards.

1.“Nene Ponung” a musical feature written by Jatin Morang and jointly produced by S.P.Vittal, ASD, H.N. Patra, PEX, Jatin Morang, Announcer and Takit Darang, Announcer won special award in ABU contest in 1977.

2.”An Eternal Voyage” a musical feature written by Shri Oshong Ering and produced by J.B. Nabam, TREX and assisted by A.Morang, TREX won merit certificate in Akashvani Annual Award in 1998.

As the motto of All India Radio goes “Bahujana Hitaya,Bahujana Sukhaya” it has been constant and untiring endeavour of AIR Pasighat to disseminate information, knowledge and entertainment to its listeners by optimum use of all available resources. The station serves a population of above 1 lakh covering a major portion of East Siang District, parts of West Siang, Upper Siang and Dibang Valley Districts. Technically speaking a 10 KW MW Transmitter can radiate signal up to 35 KM of aerial distance. But due to geographical reasons radio signal is weak at some pockets and some places within the listening zone do not even receive signal at all. Moreover the age of the existing transmitter has crossed 25 years and so at times interruptions do occur in transmission and the reach also has reduced substantially. But as and when the ongoing work of up gradation of transmitter from analog mode to DRM is finished and commissioned, it is hoped that transmission quality will improve tremendously and coverage also will expand as the power of the transmitter is going to be 100 KW. 

Apart from the above programmes the station also special airs weekly programmes such as Siang Diary, Face to Face and Voice of the Youth. To facilitate broadcast of local advertisements, infomercials and announcements an exclusive time slot has been kept at 6.35 PM daily. Since the station does not have News Unit most of the listeners do not fail to tune their radio sets during this time slot. With a view to earn revenue by facilitating commercial advertisements, sponsorship of Programmes etc.The station has a dedicated commercial cell. The station has a very rich collection of folk song particularly of Adi community. Some collections are very exclusive and rare. About 60% of recorded materials in analog tapes have been digitized so far.

With a view to popularize the indigenous folklores and music and also to create awareness about the need of preserving indigenous culture the station has been organizing an annual event called “Siang Music Festival” for the last few years. The journey of AIR, Pasighat has been long and arduous but replete with innovation, adventure and excitement all along. The station has proudly completed 50 years of service to people and the journey goes on. At this juncture the station looks back with pride for its achievements although it had to live through thick and thin at times and looks ahead to explore the unexplored with renewed zeal. To commemorate the completion of 50 golden years on 06.03.2016 the station humbly organized a few activities like mass social service ,beautification of office premises, broadcasting of special programmes incorporating special messages from important personalities of different fields, interview with Senior Citizens, senior artists , Live phone-in programmes etc. and a staff get together.