This is the fourth episode in the long
and interesting history of radio broadcasting in India’s
first capital city Calcutta, or Kolkata as it is known today. We look at the intriguing story of American
radio broadcasting stations in or near Calcutta.
We go back to the year 1928, and we
discover that one of the early shortwave stations in the United States made a
special broadcast beamed specifically to the city of Calcutta. The date was December 26, which is known as
Boxing Day in countries associated with British backgrounds.
This special broadcast was on the
air from the two General Electric shortwave transmitters W2XAD & W2XAF in
Schenectady New York which were operating at the time with 25 kW and 40 kW respectively. The programming was produced in the studios
of mediumwave WGY and it featured speeches by congressmen from Washington DC
and from visiting Indian officials.
In 1943, All India Radio Calcutta
carried spasmodic programming that was produced by locally resident personnel
at a nearby British army base. Around
this time, there was a British soldier serving in the front lines in Assam and
his wife was ill in hospital in England and not expected to survive. The soldier was removed from battle and flown
to Calcutta where he recorded a message to his wife and this was transmitted
back to England. It is reported that the
wife revived, and recovered completely.
On April 1, 1944, the Indian
government gave official approval to the American forces stationed in India for
the installation of six local stations at 50 watts each, including
Calcutta. However, as time went by,
there was somewhere around a score of these little local entertainment radio
stations on the air throughout the widespread dominion of what was British
India at that time. These Armed Forces
Radio Service AFRS stations were allocated Indian style call signs in the series
beginning with VU2Z.
The new Calcutta station was
allotted the callsign VU2ZU and it was inaugurated with 50 watts on 1355 kHz
during the summer of 1944. Shortly
afterwards, a new 1 kW mediumwave transmitter arrived and this was installed
and officially inaugurated on the same frequency with due ceremony on Thursday
September 7 (1944).
With the increase of power and lack
of interference on the mediumwave band in those days, AFRS VU2ZU was heard
during the dark hours of the early morning and verified in both Australia and
New Zealand. As time went by the
transmitter level at Calcutta AFRS diminished until the power output was rated
at just 300 watts. The station closed
forever on April 22, 1946. The need was over.
A shortwave outlet had been
inaugurated at Calcutta in August 1945 and this transmitter was heard also in
both Australia and New Zealand under the callsign VU2ZZ. The initial frequency was 14983 kHz, though
it was heard subsequently on 14870 kHz.
Curiously, daily programming from
the new AFRS VU2ZZ was a relay of the regular AIR service from Delhi, followed
by special programming in French. It is not
known whether the French programming was beamed to the previous French
territories in South East Asia, or to what had been the French territory at
Pondicherry on the south east coast of India, or perhaps both. This AFRS shortwave station was closed in
January 1946.
Two questions remain unanswered
regarding these two AFRS stations at Calcutta during World War 2. The first question: Where did the French
programming come from, for broadcast over shortwave VU2ZZ? Was it American VOA programming? or part of
the overseas service from All India Radio?
Or produced locally? Or perhaps from some other source, such as the BBC?
The second question: Where were the
two AFRS stations located? It would be
reasonable to presume that mediumwave VU2ZU and shortwave VU2ZZ were
collocated, at the same American base near Calcutta, though this is might not
be the case. During World War II, the
Americans operated four major bases near Calcutta beginning in early 1944; they
were all located south of Calcutta, they were all rather near each other, and
they were all associated with the American air force. One American base, Chakulia, had been
established by the British two years earlier.
Nearly twenty years later, the
American involvement in Calcutta became evident again. This is what happened.
It was back in the year 1963 that
negotiations between the governments of the United States and India resulted in
an agreement for the Voice of America to establish a giant mediumwave station
on the edge of the city of Calcutta. It
was intended that this new facility would also be available for the broadcast
of programming on behalf of AIR, All India Radio, and also for Radio Free
Asia.
This
plan
for this huge medium wave station would be at a power level of one megawatt, and
after 5 years, VOA would sell it to the Indian government for just R1. A transmitter, apparently already in storage,
was procured for this new relay station; and it was in fact 2 transmitters at
500 kW each, manufactured by Continental Electronics in the United States.
However,
when the information about the projected high powered American radio station
near Calcutta was printed in the newspapers in India, public opinion rose up
against the project, and the Indian government cancelled their agreement with
the Voice of America to establish this station, over the issue of Indian
non-alignment in regional politics. The
American government then transferred the entire project from Calcutta to nearby
Thailand.
(AWR Wavescan/NWS 281)