A Visit to Radio Nepal

As a part of our field study, our class was taken on a tour to Radio Nepal which is located inside the Singha Durbar. Since it was my first visit to a radio station, I was excited beyond words and filled with new found energy. But the long wait outside the premises drained all my energy. Finally, after about an hour we were granted the permission to enter. It was not an easy task to locate Radio Nepal inside the spacious Singha Durbar. After wandering here and there for quite some time, at last we somehow reached our destination.

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. FM Kathmandu, the first FM-Channel covering Kathmandu valley and adjoining areas was started in 1995 from its premises at Singh Durbar, Kathmandu. The short Wave transmission of Radio Nepal is estimated to reach listeners throughout the kingdom. Medium Wave transmission covers 70% to 80% of the population.

The Broadcasting Headquarters at Singha Durbar in Kathmandu has two broadcasting houses consisting of one drama studio, two music studios, one reporting studio, three continuity studios, one news studio and seven programme production studios. We visited the music studio first which was equipped with a 24 track recording facility. The most interesting feature of this studio was a Vibrophone, a unique musical instrument found only in Radio Nepal. This studio as told to us is open for hiring purposes for anyone desirous of recording music digitally. The attractive part: Studio charges here are relatively reasonable compared to other private studios. Foreign broadcasting Stations also make use of Radio Nepal’s Studio facilities and transmitters for live and other broadcasts on a rental basis which clears any doubt about inefficiency of its facilities.

Our next stop was one of the programme production studios. It felt great to see the working mechanism of a radio station in practical. After the production studio, we were taken to the recording studio. All of us were so enthralled by the fancy gadgets and couldn’t help but give it a shot. Putting on the head sets and recording our voice we did feel like a pros. But, while some failed miserably others proved that their knack for the work. We also got to see a Radio Jockey busy at work interacting with his callers. Meera Rana, the veteran Nepali singer added some glamour to our trip. Currently, she looks after the tape department of the station. The music library at Radio Nepal can boast of a collection of about 40,000 songs.

In the age where everything is headed towards technology, Radio Nepal is also making some modest effort to cope with the technological advancement. It uses the latest development in computer and digital radio. Also, it has initiated the task of digitizing old songs and mastering on digital format due to its large storage capacity, high fidelity and low cost. The old songs of yester years are getting a new life in the form of CDs.

The complex also has one open air live theatre facility for functions and musical performances. Like other transmitting stations, the Head quarters also has a 100 KVA stand by diesel generator to cope with occasional power failure.

All in all , the visit to Radio Nepal was informative, enthralling and fun at the same time.