KOHIMA— Akashvani Kohima, erstwhile All India Radio (AIR), on Thursday, launched the Pochury dialect daily news broadcast during a programme held at its premises.
The Pochury dialect programme can be heard from 11:35 am to 11:50 am at primary channel 639 KiloHertz and FM Tragopan 103 MegaHertz at 11:55 am.
The programme executive (coordinator), Rachel Shimray, informed that the approval for news of Pochury dialect was given in October 2020 but could not pursue further due to the COVID pandemic.
In October 2022, the Pochury Hoho and staff had a meeting where verbal assurance was given that the programme would start. It was also informed that the director general of Akashvani had given a written approval for the news earlier this year. Accordingly, seven persons were selected and given training to run the programme.
Akashvani Kohima has a summer and winter fix point chart. The summer schedule will end in September and winter will start in October according to which timing will also change for the programmes.
News editor, Asonuo, said the addition of the Pochury dialect news is a momentous occasion and urged the Pochury community to be keen listeners of radio programmes.
“As a public broadcaster, constructive feedback and suggestions from listeners are necessary to reach a larger audience,” she said.
She requested the readers to disseminate correct information and properly translate the news stating that most of the listeners are from rural areas where newspapers and other mediums of information are not easily accessible. She further informed that the Regional News Unit (RNUs), Akashvani Kohima, would now cater to 15 dialect news bulletins with the addition of the Pochury dialect news, besides the two regional news bulletins in Nagamese and English.
Currently, there are 46 RNU functioning in different parts of the country. 478 news bulletins in 77 regional languages/ dialects including English and Hindi are being broadcast from RNUs for duration of nearly 38 hours. It included 255 headline bulletins on FM and other frequencies, she added.
Siewatho S Nyusou, vice president of Pochury Hoho, gave a brief background on how it started. He stated that the seeds for the inclusion of the Pochury dialect in Akashvani Kohima had been sown a long time back when a delegation of Pochury met with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and made the request back in 1994. He stated that the delegation was told to include Pochury dialect programme soon, which was delayed.
Nyusou has termed the occasion as a ‘Red Letter day’ for the Pochury community.
With the launch event, Nyusou expressed hope that youngsters would be motivated to learn the Pochury dialect.
Also speaking on the occasion, the head of Akashvani Kohima, LK Mulony, said, “The launch is a great achievement for the Pochury tribe as well as for Akashvani Kohima.”
He informed that the programme would run for 15 minutes for now and gradually increase to 30 minutes from October 1 onwards. He assured that Pochury dialect programme would get an equal time slot of 30 minutes like the rest of the dialect programmes from October 1.
The director general of Akashvani, Dr. Vashudha Gupta, in her greetings, has termed as a great achievement for Akashvani. The DG also requested the people to be keen listeners and asked for their prompt feedback in order to serve them better.
The Pochury dialect programme was first broadcast live on June 1 from 11:35 to 11:50 am consisting 10 minutes news of news and 5 minutes of Pochury music. Vizhula Nyusou was the first news reader.
Meanwhile, a programme was also organised in Meluri to celebrate the launch programme. Prior to introducing the Pochury dialect programme, the slot has been used for playing Pochury songs.
