Washington Bangla Radio on Internet (WBRi) is an online streaming

Bengali language Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second m ...

radio station and associated news and entertainment

web portal A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayin ...

that operated from

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

metro area in the United States. The free service was provided until July 2016 by privately owned WBRi Inc. headquartered at

Germantown, Maryland Germantown is an urbanized census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. With a population of 91,249 as of 2020 U.S. Decennial Census, Germantown is the third most populous place in Maryland, after the city of Baltimore ...

, United States, which also owned the trademark and has been featured in

SPAN magazine Span may refer to: Science, technology and engineering * Span (unit), the width of a human hand * Span (engineering), a section between two intermediate supports * Wingspan, the distance between the wingtips of a bird or aircraft * Sorbitan ester ...

published by the United States Department of State for bridging India-US cultures. Founded in 2008 by Indian-American computing enthusiast Supratim Sanyal, Washington Bangla Radio is one of the oldest legal online Bengali radio stations with a private test stream running from 2005. Washington Bangla Radio pioneered digital music download sales in the Bengali music segment and provides a highly targeted digital sales channel to record companies from Kolkata. Its online store service remains the only MP3 download store dedicated to Bengali music. WBRi became the first

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...

focused

internet radio Online radio (also web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, IP radio, Internet radio) is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted ...

service to broadcast an event live globally from India on Sunday June 21, 2009, when it streamed

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

Music Academy's World Music Day Concert conducted by Abraham Mazumder directly from St. John's Church, the Oldest Cathedral in Kolkata where

Job Charnock Job Charnock (; –1692/1693) was an English administrator with the East India Company. He is commonly regarded as the founder of the city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta); however, this view is challenged, and in 2003 the Calcutta High Court de ...

's Tomb is laid. It subsequently streamed more live events, with the first worldwide live video webcast from Kolkata of Balaka's Kali Puja from BD Block, Salt Lake in 2011. For its contribution to growth of technology-based media convergence, the Gazette weekly published from Montgomery county, Maryland featured WBRi on its front page.

References

{{Reflist Asian-American culture in Maryland Asian-American culture in Washington, D.C. Bangladeshi-American culture Bengali-American culture Bengali-language radio stations Foreign-language radio stations in the United States Indian-American culture Internet radio stations in the United States Radio stations in Washington, D.C. 2008 establishments in Maryland Indian-American culture in Maryland Indian-American culture in Washington, D.C