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BTV Khulna

Bangladesh Television KhulnaorBTV Khulna is a BTV-affiliated relay television station broadcast from Khulna, serving southwestern Bangladesh. Established on 11 March 1977, it relays programming from the main television station of BTV in Dhaka.^[1]

There have been multiple attempts to convert BTV Khulna to a full-fledged regional television station, with none of them being successful to this day.^[1] It is headquartered in the Khalishpur ThanaofKhulna.

History[edit]

In the 1960s, when BTV was a part of Pakistan Television, as Bangladesh itself was part of Pakistan at the time, there were plans to establish relay television stations in Khulna, Chittagong, and Rajshahi.^[2] However, experimental broadcasts from the station only commenced in the year 1976, a while after the independence of Bangladesh.^[3] A two-floor building, equipped with a 500-feet broadcasting tower and a high power transmitter, was built for the station in the Khalishpur Thana of the city. It officially went on the air on 11 March 1977. The station initially broadcast using 10 kilowatts of power and spanning 80 aeronautical kilometers.^[1][4] As of 1990, BTV Khulna broadcast on VHF channel 11 with an upgraded 90 kilowatt transmitter.^[5]

During a public meeting in the Khalishpur Prabhati School in Khulna held on 5 March 2011, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced that BTV Khulna will fully commence transmissions as a regional station. Alongside other high officials, the then Director General of Bangladesh Television, M Hamid, visited the headquarters of the Khulna station on 5 October 2012. Later, on 26 January 2013, at a meeting at the Khulna Press Club, M Hamid announced that BTV Khulna will become a full-fledged station, subsequently setting up new various broadcasting facilities and then starting test broadcasts. It was supposed to officially be launched on 16 December 2013, but as the facilities were brought to Dhaka from the Khulna station, this was postponed.^[6][4] The same announcement was made in 2015 by then Minister of Information Hasanul Haque Inu,^[7] and 2021 by Hasan Mahmud.^[8] There were calls by the people of Khulna to take appropriate measures to fully convert BTV Khulna to a regional station from a relay one, thus preserving the local culture of the Khulna region.^[4]

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