BBC Bangla () is the

Bengali language Bengali, also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Bangla (, , ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. ...

service of the BBC World Service, inaugurated in 1941 for Bengali audiences worldwide especially the ones in the

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

region, which includes the sovereign state of Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura.

History

BBC Bangla was launched on 11 October 1941 with a 15-minute programme under the BBC World Service. BBC Bangla's headquarters used to be Bush House, but since 2012, it has been broadcast from

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

as well as from BBC bureaux in Dhaka and Kolkata. In September 2022, BBC Bangla announced its cessation of radio broadcasts due to financial reasons. On 31 December 2022, BBC Bangla officially ceased broadcasting on radio after eighty-one years of service, following the ''Parikrama'' program. Despite this, it continued its existence on television and the internet.

Broadcasting

The programmes of BBC Bangla are broadcast on

FM radio FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting that uses frequency modulation (FM) of the radio broadcast carrier wave. Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to transmit high fidelity, high-f ...

mediumwave Medium wave (MW) is a part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM broadcasting, AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. Duri ...

and shortwave, their website and their

internet radio Internet radio, also known as online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not ...

and video services. BBC Bangla reaches over a million Bengali speaking people. Its radio and online services have listeners from many Bengali communities including those in

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

Tripura Tripura () is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a populat ...

and

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

Programming

BBC Bangla mainly focuses on news-based daily programming and sports news. They also broadcast entertainment programmes, news analysis, and discussion about daily newspapers' lead stories. In addition, they respond to and discuss messages and opinions from the audience.

Broadcasts on FM Radio

BBC Bangla stopped its radio broadcasts on December 31, 2022, after 81 years of service. *

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

- FM 100 *

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

- FM 90.4 * Barisal - FM 105 * Comilla - FM 103.6 * Cox's Bazar - FM 100.8 * Thakurgaon - FM 92 * Chittagong - FM 88.8 * Rangpur - FM 88.8 *

Rajshahi Rajshahi (, ) is a metropolis, metropolitan city and a major Urban area, urban, administrative, commercial and educational centre of Bangladesh. It is also the administrative seat of the eponymous Rajshahi Division, division and Rajshahi Distr ...

- FM 88.8 *

Sylhet Sylhet (; ) is a Metropolis, metropolitan city in the north eastern region of Bangladesh. It serves as the administrative center for both the Sylhet District and the Sylhet Division. The city is situated on the banks of the Surma River and, as o ...

- FM 88.8 *

Khulna Khulna (, ) is the third-largest city in Bangladesh, after Dhaka and Chittagong. It is the administrative centre of the Khulna District and the Khulna Division. It is the divisional centre of 10 districts of the division. Khulna is also the seco ...

- FM 88.8

Bangladesh Songlap

BBC Bangladesh Songlap () was a live programme of the BBC Bangla service broadcast in association with Bangladeshi satellite channel Channel i from 2005 to 2015 in three seasons. The main focus of this programme was questions from the general public to relevant authorities about important issues.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:BBC Bangla Radio stations established in 1941 BBC World Service foreign language stations British Bangladeshi mass media British Indian mass media