9th August 1975. People in Kolkata woke up to the news headline : “Television comes to the grand old city”.. It was the beginning of a regional channel of Doordarshan – the name that has been synonymous with television in India and also instrumental in the sphere of national integration and development.
July 1, 1986. Doordarshan Kolkata got a new and permanent address at Golf Green, housing this large complex, inaugurated by Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India.
Doordarshan Kolkata is equipped with the most modern recording and transmission facilities including 3 digital studios, 1 CB studio and 1 Sync studio. The studios are mainly used for recording, live transmission, news broadcast and ENG recording. The Sync Studio is utilized for sound dubbing.
Other than Bengali, Doordarshan Kolkata also telecasts programmes in Hindi, Urdu, Nepali and Santhali. This is the only Bengali channel to do so.
20th August, 1992. Yet another landmark for Doordarshan Kolkata came with the introduction the Regional Language Satellite Service, with which satellite viewers from all over India and parts of South East Asia could watch the programmes on cable network round the clock.
For Doordarshan Kolkata, it is a mission to provide information, education and entertainment in its purest form. It endeavours to produce flapship programmes for enrichment and empowerment of people. An interesting example is the narrowcasting project of Santiniketan and Jalpaiguri Kendras – a regular telecast of agricultural programmes for the benefit of farmers.
Doordarshan Kolkata has always carved a niche for itself in devising innovative programmes excellent in concept and creativity fulfilling the expectations of the audience.
The sponsored programmes are carefully selected to ensure that they cater to different genres and tastes like social drama, crime and detection, travelogue, comedy show etc.
The news section has always strived to provide insights and in-depth analysis on topics concerning people, art, culture and industry. Presently, there are 8 Bengali news bulletins, one in Urdu and one segment prepared for DD News channel named Metro Scan.
In 2004, the (2+1)Digital Earth Station started its operation, uplinking the DD-Bangla and its feed channel. The Kendra has one Flyaway DSNG which is extensively used throughout east and north-east India. Another hired DSNG van is mainly used for news coverage
The Kendra has 4 terrestrial transmitters, DD-National, DD-News, DD-Bangla and DTT. DD-National, DD-News Channels and DD-Bangla are terrestrially available upto 50 kms and DTT upto 60kms. DTT beams five channels in digital mode.
Right from inception, the mission of this Kendra has always been to strive relentlessly towards the goal for excellence and perfection, in the true spirit of public service broadcasting.