Mr Yogendra Pal, Honorary Chairman of the DRM Indian Chapter was one of the prominent participants in a discussion hosted by the Indian public broadcaster AIR network on World Radio Day. Here is a report given by Mr Pal after this key debate.
On the World Radio Day 2025, an invited audience programme, titled Raag Radio – Rang Radio, was organised by All India Radio (AIR) in Delhi. Developments in the Radio in the last 90 years, its present position and future possibilities were the themes of this programme.
Mr Yogendra Pal, Hon Chairman – India Chapter, DRM Consortium was one of the five panellists, along with Mr Yogendra Tikko, well known Cinema Artist; Ms K Sita Vasanta Lakshi, Classical Music Singer; Mr Subhash Chandra, Historian & Radio Writer; and Ms Ritu Raijada, Radio Writer & Presenter. The programme was anchored my Mr Amit Arora and Ms Geetika Uniyal, presenters of All India Radio. Dr (Ms) Pragya Paliwal Gaur, Director General, All India Radio was also present in the programme.
Keeping in view this year’s theme Radio and Climate Change of the World Radio Day, Mr Pal mentioned that DRM Digital Radio, already adopted by AIR, is a green technology as it helps in huge saving of electricity consumed by the radio transmitting equipment. It also helps in saving of valuable frequency spectrum as, using DRM digital radio standard, up to 3 high quality audio programmes, along with valuable text and graphic information, can be transmitted from a single radio transmitter.
On a query, Mr Pal stated that medium wave (MW), short wave (SW) and FM frequency bands are equally relevant today for long range, regional and local area coverages respectively. He added that DRM digital radio is the only approved standard which works equally well in all these radio transmission bands. He added that DRM digital radio has lot of important features which aren’t available in analogue radio. He outlined the important Emergency Warning Functionality (EWF) of DRM digital radio to inform the public about the disasters. He added that DRM digital radio receivers automatically get tuned to the radio channel carrying disaster information, if tuned to some other channel, and can even be switched on full volume, in case they are in sleep mode. The disaster information can also be provided in multiple languages.
On the query about relevance and importance of radio in the today’s digital era, acknowledging the role of radio in connecting people, spreading awareness and fostering communication globally, Mr Pal mentioned that radio in general and public service broadcasters in particular are much more important today in order to provide authentic information when so much of fake and unverified information is available on the social media platforms. He further added that DRM digital radio has enabled AIR to provide a 24-hour news channel too to its listeners from the existing transmitting network.
