Enchanting Radio Nepal

Among many facts and events about our country we learnt in our Social Studies class at school, Radio Nepal is one of them. Although many of us admit to have never been keen on listening Radio Nepal, being a media student the importance of Radio Nepal can never be overlooked. But after visiting Radio Nepal, the seemingly gloomy sounding voice –“Namaste yo Radio Nepal ho”-that reminds us of Radio Nepal, changed for better.

Radio Nepal was established on 1st April 1951. Initially, the transmission covered duration of 4 hours and 30 minutes through a 250 Watt SW transmitter. Over the years, Radio Nepal has strengthened its institutional capacity considerably and diversified itself in terms of programme format, technical efficiency and coverage. Radio Nepal airs programmes on Short Wave, Medium Wave and FM frequencies. Regular broadcasts cover duration of 18 hours everyday which includes about 2 hours of regional broadcasts 09:45 hrs. to 11:00 hrs. in the morning and 18:00 hrs 18:30 hrs in the evening. FM Kathmandu, the first FM-Channel covering Kathmandu valley and adjoining areas was started in 1995 from its premises at Singh Durbar, Kathmandu.

As we made our way inside the music studio of Radio Nepal, photographs of music legends welcomed us. The mere sight of such a jaw dropping music studio brought out the singers in each of us. There were pianos, harmoniums, guitars, sitars, even vibraphone (the only vibraphone in Nepal) and a host of other instruments that we laid our hands on. This is the place where the songs are recorded, many of which have ended up becoming classic in the Nepali music fraternity.

Next we headed to one of the many state-of-the-art studios of Radio Nepal. There was live program being aired in one while there was another studio that was studio cum news room. None of us could help laying our hands on the microphone in the recording studio where we got totally lost hearing our own voice.Then we made our way to the music library that probably boasts of the largest Nepali music collection in Nepal.

As we were scribbling notes of everything we were being told, everything that caught our fancy, we were led into a room for a pleasant surprise. There we were greeted by the legendary singer Meera Rana. Everyone was totally in awe of her presence and then began the photograph and autograph session. There could not have been a better end to our visit to Radio Nepal.