Finally Voice of America (VOA) Bangla has ended its radio transmission on July 17,2021.For a few years it was only on air on medium wave (1575kHz..its long standing medium wave frequency) after terminating its short wave broadcast.And a release was posted VOA website regarding this a few days before July 17th about this
https://www.insidevoa.com/amp/5964085.html?__twitter_impression=true
Thanks for the link forwarded by Mr.Prithwiraj Purkayastha ,VU3TQD a BCDXER turned amateur radio operator from Jorhat Town from my home state Assam.
In 1980s when I began to tune into VOA Bangla there was two one hour transmission and in the evening it was from 1600 to 1700utc.Later in early 2000s the morning transmission was reduced to half an hour and eventually it was discontinued after sometime.And only one hour night transmission was on air for sometime.And then one hour transmission was reduced to two half hour transmission at night and the 2nd transmission was the repeat of first.And again after sometime VOA Bangla ended its shortwave transmission and only broadcasted on its long standing medium wave frequency on 1575kHz.And I thin due to several reasons I did not listen to this station for a long time as such sometimes just checked its reception on 1575kHz on rare occasions.Last time I came to know that VOA Bangla was on air on 1575kHz during 1800-1830utc now-a-days.
I listened to the last day of the program besides world news and the program aried voices of presenters broadcasting news..audio clips of famous personalities interviewed by VOA Bangla,,audio clips of various feature programs of VOA Bangla..and the audio clips of listeners Mailbag Program Mitali...
Here is the audio clip link of at the beginning of VOA Bangla on 1575kHz on July 17th(2021) at 1800utc:
https://app.box.com/s/yom9fmux87a917zj1d3fw436lanntzll
And the link to the audio during last a few minutes of broadcast at 1828utc:
https://app.box.com/s/i09nte1uepbat8z61qgysjn6i9lwk3c8
Me & Voice Of America (VOA) Bangla:
It was way back from early 1983 during the one of the most troublesome period of recent political history of Assam along with BBC Bangla ,BBC Hindi ,I,first came in touch with Voice Of America(VOA) Bangla & Hindi Service.And though I lost in touch with those stations after sometime due to my study etc.Later from 1989 onwards I again begun again listening to VOA Bangla along with other stations.And after April 1997 ,I began to correspond with VOA Bangla Service.Several of my letters were read and mentioned in their Listeners Mailbag Program .."Mitali".The programs contents were very informative and specially I like their magazine program "Potamac Theke Padha...".I like their presenters dramatic unique style of presenting programs.And in my ears still comes the voices ofVOA Bangla........presenters...Iqbal Bahar Choudhury..Asim Chakrovorty Ramen Paine .Rokya Hyder Masuma Khatun Dilhara Hasim Segufta Nasreen Queen..Sarkar Kabiruddin Syed Ziaur Rahman Ashraful Alam Anis Ahmed...& Iqbal Ahmed,Koffe Khan etc and from Dhaka with regular reports on current affairs mainly ..Matiur Rahman Choudhury, Amir Khasru Zahurul Alam . and .from Kolkata ..with regular reports Paramasish Ghosh Roy..and many others including a few of the presenters who joined VOA Bangla during the last decade and recently.
VOA Bangla & Assam Connection..:
VOA Bangla's 50th anniversary was celebrated on Janaury 1,2008. They aired a special program marking the golden jubliee year on Janaury 1,2008. I missed the program on shortwave. But I heard about 40 minutes of VOA-Bangla's Live Calling In Programme on January 9,2008 during 1600-1700UTC transmission on 11500kHz about 50 Years of VOA Bangla & Its Fan Club. Before the Live Call In Programme then Head of VOA Bangla Mr.Iqbal Bahar Choudhury gave a brief history of VOA Bangla right from January 1,1958. I was surprised by one key information about VOA Bangla in late 50s-60s perhaps from Mr. Mr.Iqbal Bahar Choudhury himself that one Assamese person from Assam, one Late Ranjan Bora who had great knowledge of Bangla worked in VOA Bangla for a long time. He settled in USA & died there.I searched the net extensively on the internet I could not find any details of him.And also I requested a few of my Radio friends for any information about him but they also could not help me.
Potomac Theke Padda..My Favourite Program On VOA Bangla:
A Post by Me in then Bangla DX Yahoo Group wayback in 2003..
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February 16, 2003 I heard the magazine program of VOA Bangla Service "Potomac Theke Padda" in the morning show (From 0130 to 0200 UTC on 25mb) presented by Sarkar Kabiruddin. The program highlighted some Bengali Radio Stations of United States of America. And in the program I also heard brief recordings of their broadcast like station identification announcements, Bengali songs by Runa Lila. The presenter also gave brief history of radio stations broadcasting in Bengali.In the Program, comments of two persons behind Nabin Bangla Radio Station in Michigan State was aired. They didn't have any previous broadcasting background but they have very well connected with print media i.e. newspaper/magazine media. That had helped them in the project. They also highlighted the cost factor of their broadcast. I made a short note on that feature. But I lost track of it. So, please discuss with other dxers/VOA Bangla Service about the program for more accurate details.
I'll send an e-mail to Bangla Service of VOA to rebroadcast the feature in near future. Also I'm not aware if VOA Bangla Service had previously broadcast any feature on that topic.
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Snaps of VOA Bangla Staff ..From A Calendar of Voice of America from 2001 Calendar
More inputs/monitoring updates etc soon.
73
Gautam Kumar Sharma(GK)(VU3WTI)
(Abhayapuri)(Assam)(India)
