The first proper radio station in Jammu and Kashmir was formally launched on July 1, 1948, Sheikh Abdullah, then the Prime Minister, inaugurated the Radio Kashmir Srinagar station near the Tourist Reception Centre in Srinagar. J.N. Zutshi was the first Director-General of Radio Kashmir. Radio Kashmir Srinagar became most popular when Pushkar Bhan’s Zoon Dab was aired for more than nineteen years from the Radio Kashmir station.
But a Radio station in Jammu had come up months before that. The Radio station in Jammu was established by BP Sharma during the partition of the country and to counter the propaganda of Pakistan that had sent raiders to capture entire Jammu and Kashmir. Sharma set up the emergency Radio station in a classroom of the Ranbir School on December 1, 1947 from where programmes were relayed to counter the claim of Pakistani troops and raiders of having penetrated deep into J&K. The first broadcast was of Maharaja Hari Singh who addessed the people of Jammu and Kashmir asking them stay united against Pakistani intruders.
Later, he shifted the Radio station to its present location near the Raj Bhavan. The Radio station was degraded to the level of being headed by an officer of the rank of assistant station director when Sharma was transferred to Kolkata, Bhopal and other places. | The Dispatch
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