Close on the heels of the merger of Amruthavarshini (100.10FM), a classical music channel, with ‘Ragam’, a national channel, the iconic FM Rainbow (101.3 FM), the only public service Kannada Frequency Modulation (FM) entertainment channel, will shortly be merged with All India Radio (AIR) Bengaluru channel presently transmitted on Medium Wave, sources said.
According to reliable sources, 101.3 FM Rainbow will stop its present entertainment programmes from July 16, and start transmitting AIR - Bengaluru content presently being transmitted on Medium Wave. “The monthly duty chart had been put out only until July 8 but was extended till July 15 on Thursday,” an FM Rainbow staff member said. However, when contacted, senior officials refused to comment on the issue.
This has sparked outrage among a section of Kannada listeners, Govindarajanagar MLA Priya Krishna has now written a letter to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah appealing to him to ensure the FM Rainbow channel is not shut down. “The merger will reduce Kannada programming on the channel to 5 hours from 17 hours. FM Rainbow is part of the Kannada identity in the city and the merger is essentially an imposition of Hindi and we will fight against it,” he told The Hindu.
