23-06-2025
From The Hindu, June 24, 1975: Two-hour TV programmes in Madras from Aug. 15
MADRAS. June 23.
The Madras Television Centre will start transmitting two-hour programmes daily from August 15, it was officially announced to-day.
Sixty per cent of the transmission time from 7 to 9 p.m. will be devoted to educational and informative programmes, and the rest to entertainment such as films, music and dance. There will be two news bulletins daily, one in English and the other in Tamil. Tamil gets 80 per cent of the time, English 12 per cent and other languages eight per cent. Apart from the evening transmission, there will be programmes for primary and pre-school children twice a week in the mornings.
The Centre, which will initially use a one-kilowatt transmitter and a 36 metre high temporary antenna, will cover an area of 19 kilometre radius. It will start full-scale operation from mid-January 1976 using a 10 kw transmitter and a 175 metre high transmission tower now under erection. It will then have a range of 90 k.m., upto Tirupati, and the duration of the programmes will be increased to four hours.
Mr. T. R. Muralidharan, who has taken over as Director of the Madras Centre, told newsmen to-day that a task force was working hard to begin transmission on the target date.
