Presenters at the Radio Tara studio transmitting programmes on World Space. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

How about waking up to Suchitra Mitra in Sydney or Hemanta Mukherjee in Bahrain?

Radio Tara, a sister wing of Tara Bangla, is aiming to reach Bengali music to every corner of the world through World Space.

Unlike other radio stations that reach the listener through terrestrial links, World Space, a Washington-based company with its India headquarters in Bangalore, uses two geo-stationery satellites that orbit the earth. These satellites pick up musical content broadcast from across the globe and beam them down directly to the radio set.

The set is a special one, receiving about 35 WS channels ? ranging from Gandharv (Hindusthani classical music), NDTV and All India Radio (Hindi) to BBC Asia, RFI (French) and Bloomberg, for financial news. There are dedicated channels for all south Indian languages. Bengali is making an official debut with Radio Tara in February.

?The small accompanying antenna has to face east without a cover for one to receive the transmission, irrespective of where one is,? explains Velu Shankar, WS director, network programming, from Bangalore. A number of companies are marketing WS radio sets. Some include tape recorders and other bandwidths as well.

World Space has another distinguishing feature. The listener has to cough up an annual licence fee of Rs 1,200. ?Since it is subscription-based, there are no commercial breaks. The listener can enjoy the music uninterrupted. The presenters also follow the ?talk little, play more songs? motto,? explains senior vice-president (general management) of Broadcast Worldwide, Amit Chakraborty. ?The concept is a success in the US,? he adds.

Since the sound is digitised, only compact discs are played, ensuring crystal clear reception. ?We already have a bank of 2,500 songs. Soon we will announce an e-mail address where listeners can send their requests,? says Radio Tara production-in-charge Chandan Mukherjee. There are also plans to start one-minute news bulletins, focusing on Bengal and Bangladesh.

Radio Tara has been running on trial mode since end-October. Requests are coming in by post, from Bengalis in remote nooks of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh yearning for a bit of Bengal.

With All India Radio starting its DTH transmission as well (which can be received in 10 languages on one?s television set too, with a set-top box), non-resident Indians are now just a switch away from their mother-tongues round the clock.

Just a pointer for those accustomed to setting their watch by the radio. There is no reference to the period of the day in the WS announcements. The reason is simple. The same transmission reaches people across the country and the continent and beyond.

?We have to be careful never to say good morning or good afternoon as when it is noon in Calcutta, the clock will be inching towards late afternoon in Kuala Lumpur,? laughs Mukherjee.

Operating in Bangalore and set to start next week in Chennai, WS outlets will reach the city by the year-end, with listening posts at popular shop stops.