A radio broadcaster’s dream…

– Sohan Kumar

In the month of May 2012, I went to Iran participate in the 12th International Radio Festival of Iran. Along with this, 4th Radio Forum was also Organized. This festival is organized by IRIB every year from 2000 under the ages of Asian Broadcasting Union.

Baring 2011, this festival has been organized every regularly. This year it was organized from 15th May to 17th May in the city of Zibekenar in the province of Ginnar on the north western part of the Islamic Republic Of Iran, on the sandy banks of biggest natural lake of the earth, that is, Caspian Sea.

From the point of view of a Radio person it is a very big event and it is the dream of every radio programmer to be a part of this event.

Representatives of around forty countries take part in this festival, where entries are invited in various radio formats from member countries of ABU many months before this event. All the entries compete with in its own category and the Producer of first five in all categories are invited as foreign delegates in this festival.

This being my first visit to any foreign country, I was very excited about this. My flight reached Tehran early in the morning on 14th May. As all the details of flight were already sent to the authorities in IRIB so their representatives were present at the airport to receive us. Straight way we were taken to Persian Isteghal Hotel. For the whole day all the foreign delegates stayed in same hotel. For lunch, we were taken to the radio station where officials of IRIB hosted lunch for all the foreign delegates.

Next day, special tourist buses were arranged and we were taken to Zibekenar. Zibekenar city is around 380 km. towards North- West of Tehran. This journey was very enjoyable As opposite to general perception, this region of Iran is full of greenery. We were moving along a river for miles. The road was very broad and it was an express way. There were many long tunnels on the road and a new rail line was being laid.

We reached our destination around 8.15pm and around 9.00 pm formal inauguration of the function took place. After that a sumptuous dinner was there for all the participants.

Next day was the first day of 4th Radio forum in which delegates from many member countries presented their papers. All papers were either in English or Persian. And translators were there to translate them in to other language.

All the papers which were presented in the radio forum were published in a book which was distributed amongst the participants. Most of the papers were concerning the changing role of Radio in the ever changing world, regarding radio and impact of globalization etc. Many new ideas/concepts were shared in that forum.

Ali Intezari, faculty member at Allmeh Tabatabai University of Iran presented his paper on the topic Radio’s Task in Constructing Polarization as an Alternative Concept for Globalization. One thing which was very much clear from that function was that for them radio is a very serious medium. And their research in the field of radio is very much original. IRIB makes the arrangements of trainers from foreign countries. At the university level so many research projects are under taken especially in the field of radio.

Next day the Radio forums continued and in the evening prize winner in various categories were given trophies and citations along with cash prizes in a very impressive and creatively staged function. Some of the legendary radio drama artists of yesteryears were also honored. The whole function was broadcast live on one channel of TV. On the suggestion of one member, all the foreign delegates planted a tree on the bank of Caspian Sea to commemorate the function.

Being an Islamic country, every function started with national anthem of Iran and recitation of some verses of holy Quran. And unlike us they clap after the completion of national anthem.

On the whole, this was an excellent opportunity to be a participant of this function.