For most of its early history, the Gurbani sung and recited at Sri Harmandir Sahib reached a television audience only rarely. India's state broadcaster began carrying occasional live telecasts from September 1959, but only on Gurpurbs, the major anniversaries of the Sikh Gurus, and a handful of other significant religious occasions each year. For most Sikhs beyond Amritsar, hearing the Golden Temple's own kirtan meant traveling there.
That changed after Operation Blue Star, the June 1984 Indian Army assault on the Golden Temple complex that killed hundreds and left deep wounds across the Sikh community. In its aftermath, All-India Radio began broadcasting the Gurbani live, continuously, every single day, a shift from occasional festival coverage to an unbroken daily presence in Sikh households that has never stopped since. What began as a handful of annual broadcasts became, almost overnight, one of the longest continuously running religious broadcasts anywhere, carrying the temple's own daily worship into homes across Punjab and, eventually, across the Sikh diaspora.