P.V. Krishnamoorthy, veteran broadcast journalist , died at his residence in Chennai on Wednesday afternoon. He was 98. He is survived by his two sons, including P.K. Balachandran, a Colombo-based journalist.
Born in Yangon, Myanmar, on April 1,1921, he did graduation in English literature there and as a World War II refugee from the Southeast Asian country, he joined External Services Division, All India Radio (AIR), as news reader/announcer in 1944. He went on to become Station Director of the AIR in Chennai and Kolkata and of the Doordarshan Kendra in New Delhi and Mumbai.
He played a key role in ensuring the country-wide expansion of Radio Rural Forums. As one of the pioneers of Indian television, he was involved in a number of international projects, using the medium of television for education. He was associated with the production of 1,320 hours of TV programmes on science education in four languages beamed to 2,400 villages. He was made the first Director General of Doordarshan in 1976 and held the post for three years.
In an interview with The Hindu in August 2017, he said he was for the medium of TV to be used for development and social upliftment, even though he was not opposed to giving importance to entertainment.
An avid connoisseur of art and music, he was elected as Vice-Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, which presented the Tagore Akademi Ratna (Fellowship) to him in 2012. A recipient of several honours and awards, he was the first broadcaster to receive the Media Ratna award of the Indian Broadcasters Forum in 2011.
One of his grandchildren, Kanishkaa Balachandran, is a chief sub-editor with The Hindu.
