The Vividh Bharati was started on 2nd October 1957 as a service of light entertainment to complete with Radio Ceylon which had begun directing a commercial service to India on powerful short-wave transmitters. Earlier, AIR had banned film music on its programmes, for It was felt that music was too cheap and vulgar to be broadcast on AIR and its regional services. Sponsored programmers were introduced in May1970. Initially, a daily five four programmes was put out and 60% of the time was devoted to film music. The rest of the time was given to devotional music, short please, short stories and poetry recitals. The proportion of film music on Vividh Bharati remains 60% why classical and light classical music, folk and Regional music constitute around 20% of transmission time. The channel also carries two news bulletins and some spoken word programmes. Music constitutes 40% of total programs broadcast over AIR comprising classical, light, folk, film and music in the regional languages.