Bangladesh Betar

Bangladesh Betar
Ethnic and linguistic discrimination and economic neglect by the politically-dominant West Pakistan led to the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. On March 7, 1971, Bangobandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave a speech at the Racecourse Ground and urged "his people" to turn every house into a fort of resistance. On 25 March 1971, the Operation Searchlight was crackdown by the brutal Pakistani invaders including a virtual massacre of the intelligentsia of Bangladesh. Bangobandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in his declaration of independence called upon the people to resist the occupation forces through a message in the first hour on 26 March 1971. On 26 March 1971, Bangladesh Betar was raised as "SWADHIN BANGLA BIPLOBI BETAR KENDRA" with the voice of impedance. With that broadcast the entire nation got back its confidence, courage of conviction and strong optimism. The broadcast was done from a 10 KW transmitter in Kalurghat Radio Station, Chittagong. During the whole period of Liberation War, Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra successfully carried out its intellectual war like an organized second front of the war of liberation and aired its patriotic songs which greatly inspired the freedom fighters and freedom seeking people.
Since then, Bangladesh Betar, the national radio network has been discharging the honorous responsibility of disseminating information, education, entertainment with utmost commitment, honesty and objectivity. It functions to support nation building efforts of the government upholding social values and the country’s rich historical and cultural heritage. Betar has been playing a pivotal role towards developing a knowledge based information society taking advantage of its unique and distinctive capacity as the cheapest and most versatile medium to reach to the grass root level. At present, Betar with the help of 15 medium wave, 2 short wave and 13 FM transmitters has the strongest logistic network reaching across the breadth and length of the national boundary and beyond. Apart from the central News Desk, spewing out hourly bulletins incorporating latest national and international events, Betar as a true public service broadcasting medium has been propagating programmes and news from its 71 studios round the clock reflecting national requirements through 12 stations and 6 units namely External Service, Transcription Service, Commercial Service, Population -Health & Nutrition Cell, Traffic Channel and Farm Broadcasting.

Current Events
a. Betar signs agreement with NHK


Bangladesh Betar and NIPPON HOSO KYOKAI (NHK), Japan signed an agreement on September 17, 2010. Under this three year tenure agreement, Bangladesh Bater will re-broadcast NHK Bangla program everyday at 21:00 to 21:45 (BST) with FM transmitter on 97.6 MHz in Dhaka, 105.4 MHz in Chittagong, 105 MHz in Sylhet, 102 MHz in Khulna, 105 MHz in Rajshahi, 105.4 MHz in Rangpur and 101.2 MHz in Comilla simultaneously. For the re-broadcast service, Bangladesh Betar will earn about US$ 71,175.00 annually. In addition, NHK will provide technical assistance to Bangladesh Betar. NHK will also extend training facilities for employees of Bangladesh Betar.
A K M Shameem Chowdhuri, DG Bangladesh Betar and Makoto Harada, DG, International Planning and Broadcasting Department, NHK signed the agreement. High officials of Bangladesh Betar were present on the occasion.

b. Prime minister inaugurates 1000-kilowatt MW transmitter of Bangladesh Betar at Dhamrai
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally launched 1000- Kilowatt MW transmitter of the Bangladesh Betar by pressing a button at the Super power Transmission Centre, Dhamrai near Dhaka on December 09, 2009 . She was talking to local people in a video conference after inaugurating the newly installed 1000-kilowatt medium-wave transmitter. The prime minister understand the need for building a science and technology based modern Bangladesh free from hunger and poverty by implementing the "Vision 2021". The Prime Minister said her government, after assuming office through a free, fair and credible election on December 29, is working relentlessly to build a self-reliant Bangladesh through implementing it election pledge. She said apart from bringing down the prices of essential commodities, her government has undertaken various programmes for self-employment of the country's young generation.
Information Secretary Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury briefed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina about the transmitter, its utility and on the whole of the installation project. Information Minister Abul Kalam Azad, members of parliament, high officials of Bangladesh Betar including Md. Mahbubul Alam, DG, Bangladesh Betar and a large number of local people were present on the occasion.

Project in a brief:

The project ended in June 2009.
To strengthen the MW radio broadcasting of Bangladesh Betar, Dhaka by replacing the 36 year-worn out valve type 1000KW Medium Wave(MW) transmitter by a new solid-state 1000KW MW transmitter.
Efficiency of the new transmitter will be much better than the existing one. 95% area of the country will be covered by this high quality transmitter.
The new transmitter has the energy saving provisions which will be helpful to avoid huge electricity consumption.
The new modern solid -state transmitter is compatible to future DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) broadcast.
A generator of 1500KVA is included to meet power failures.
Cost (revised) about 350 million (BDT) .

c. Bangladesh Betar Summer Programme Schedule
Bangladesh Betar has rescheduled its summer programme as schedule mentioned below:
• The morning programme will start from 06-30 am and will continue up to 10-30 am instead of closing down at 10-00 am from the regional stations Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, Rangpur. Both AM and FM transmission will follow the new schedule.
• For Dhaka station afternoon transmission will start from 02-00pm instead of 02-30pm.
• Midnight transmission of Dhaka Kha will be broadcast from 630KHz AM Band and 100MHz FM Band from 12-00 midnight to 03-00am. Besides this, world music programme transmitting from 100MHz FM Band at 03-05pm daily, will be re-broadcast from the same band from 11-05pm to 12-00pm .





Acheivement









Due to glorious contribution of Bangladesh Betar (Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra) during liberation war in 1971 the organization has been awarded the highest national honour "Independence Award -2006"





The programmes produced by the brilliant programme producers of Bangladesh Betar have received international acclamation several times. Few of those awards are mentioned below:
1982: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Prize for Children Programme. (Producer- Firoz Islam)
1982: ABU Prize for Musical Sketch (Producer- Md. Abdur Rouf)
1984: ABU Engineering Prize 1983-84 for Calculation of HF Field Strength Using a Pocket Calculator (M.A.Rashid and Dr. C. S. Rao)
1985: Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcast Development (AIBD) Prize for Drama (Producer- Kazi Mahmudur Rahman)