Fascination for the Radio

The sound from the radio has always fascinated me. My earliest memories recall a Made-in-England 8-band Bush radio, a gift from a family friend, from the famed Paints dealer on Ashoka Road, Salar Masood & Sons. Almost fifty years later it remains a working model. It has undergone minor repairs and sat in my father's friend Adam Khan's Silicon Electronics for two years unattended. Vacuum tubes have been replaced but I have seen to it that it still functions. Sound from it is so different and deep. Connected to it was a 10-feet long copper-wire mesh antenna near the ceiling that also helped support cobwebs! There was a special wall shelf out of reach of children on which this was placed in the living room and was operated only by the elders.

The radio was on every morning and evening, without fail. All India Radio, Bangalore was the most tuned in station even though Mysore was where the first radio broadcast was made in India in 1936. The first broadcast was unofficially made in 1927 itself. Besides, “Vividh Bharthi” was tuned on Shortwave for its transmission of Hindi film songs. Its “Binaca Geet mala” every Wednesday was a great hit, due to its presentation by Amin Sayani whose voice still echoes! Hotels became famous not because of its preparations, but people flocked due to the presence of a radio there. Not every home had a radio in the 1950s or 60s. Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Broadcasting Corporation also was famous for its broadcast of hindi songs at convenient times. Here is a picture of the hotel, Meenakshi Bhavan, which was famous for Binaca Geet Mala!! Meenakshi Bhavan as it is today, in Krishnamurthypurm.
I must add here that my father who did his Diploma in Sound Engineering in one of the earliest batches at the Technical Institute in Bangalore in 1949, worked at the Radio Station for a short period after his passing the diploma. He later worked as a sound recordist with distinction in the film industry in Bombay between 1951 and 1957 under a few reputed companies before he had to return to Mysore. While there, he has recorded many songs of films and one particular film he used to mention was "Phakheezah" in particular and he used to narrate how Lata Mangeshkar rehearsed before a recording. See picture of my father at a radio studio in the early 50s.


Programmes of AIR Bangalore that were much sought after were “pakshinota” (bird’s eye view of the programmes for the week every Sunday morning), Pradesha Samachara (Area news), Kannada news and Chitrageete (film songs). But the one that attracted most was the Sunday afternoon show of “sound track” of Kannada films: members of family would sit close to the radio (with volume blaring!) to listen. None would dare talk in the middle!

What Live telecasts of cricket matches of today were Ball-by-ball commentaries of Cricket Test Matches of bygone days. When any team toured India, radios did extra hours. Also for Davis Cup Tennis and Ranji Trophy cricket matches. Radio was a great source for entertainment and information to everyone at home, besides the newspaper, “Taayinaadu”. The Hindu was also widely circulated, but we subscribed that kannada paper.

People would curiously inquire, as part of conversation, which radio their home had, if they had one at all. The next question was which brand and how many bands it had! More the bands, more the envy! Radio owners were looked at with awe, much like those who owned wrist watches or even cars or scooters. Those were such days.

The late 1960s saw the advent of the transistor radio. It had the greatest advantage of portability and it required no cumbersome external antenna. That was much to our amazement. It had become a great fashion, at least to some, to show off their ownership of transistors. They would keep them in shoulder bags, play with a loud volume as they went walking or on their bicycles. The main idea was to get noticed, not to listen to programmes! To accompany the Bush, our first transistor was a National Panasonic 3-band. After our 4-day taxi-tour in 1969, we saw the car driver Ganesh using one to pass off time at leisure and he was ready to sell that imported set from Japan after our return! He sold us for Rs.800/-, a substantial sum of those days. It served us for a long time and gave us great joy until I gifted it off to a friend who is using now.

The 1970s saw me explore the depths of Shortwave bands esp. on the Bush radio. One Shankar came with the information in 1973 that his father had tuned in to the BBC on the 31-metre band and was listening to live cricket commentary of the Test Match between West Indies and England. That opened the door to a world of its own – the hobby of “Shortwave listening and DX-ing”. More on it later.

I came home, located the 31-metre band on the Bush, patiently turned the analog needle as slowly as I could, because I found so many different stations crammed between one another so closely! I later came to know that just 5 kHz separated them. I finally ‘caught’ what I was looking for - cricket commentary from the BBC! It was an excitement I can never forget. Though commentaries were aired before but they were relays from AIR Bangalore on Medium Wave, which was 'nothing special'. It was a ‘turning point’, in every sense! That was also when I learnt what those numbers meant on that analog dial.

I did enjoy the commentary, learnt so much from it – language and also the game itself, by persistent listening. There were some very renown commentators behind the microphone like John Arlott, Alan McGilvray, Fred Trueman, Christopher Martin-Jenkins, Lindsay Hassett, Bill Lawry and so on. Their voices are taped from the 2-in-1.

2-in-1, the radio cum tape-recorder was the next step that happened, thanks to one HM Srinivas, a late colleague and music lover. He helped me buy my first 2-in-1 with stereo speakers in 1986. Even till 1987, the telecommunications dept. was collecting a nominal fee (Rs.15/- per annum) for every radio set bought and we had to pay it at any Post Office (the govt. stopped it later).

Coming back to the hobby of listening to Shortwave bands, I learnt that they had hundreds of broadcasting stations at any given time. Signals came from all corners of the globe. I came to know how climate and the earth’s ionosphere and even sun spots aided or disrupted shortwave broadcast over esp. over long distances. In the late 70s, I had begun spending lots of time searching for something new. Mostly I used to hear languages I never heard and with some experience, I came to identify some of the foreign languages as well. Many foreign stations broadcast English programmes also at set times every day. It sounded interesting to hear them. By then, BBC and Radio Australia had become familiar for their cricket transmissions. I was now ready to explore other stations on the air. I was to know that this new hobby was known as “DX-ing” (meant searching for stations from unknown distances).

One fine night, closely sandwiched between two others, a station was heard, though not clearly. I was delighted when the announcement went as “Radio Korea”. Link to Radio Korea
They also announced the address for listeners to write back which I soon did mentioning some information about the time, frequency of broadcast and content. After some days, much to my glee, I got a reply from them, ‘verifying’ what I wrote. It was called as a “QSL” card. A couple of years later I could record my voice (comments on the station) and send the cassette to Radio Korea which they broadcast as part of a contest. It had won a prize. Listening to my own voice on the air was hair-raising at that time!

I had by then been appointed by them as one of five 'official monitors' in India. This signaled the beginning of a new era for me in this hobby, post 1980-81. We were sent coupons to cover postage that we incurred to send reports of their broadcasts and program contents on a regular basis. It was a great feeling!

After some years, I had collected some 200 cards from 55 different stations. I came to know later that it was a great fancy among listeners and that there were other giants who were experienced listeners that counted them in thousands! There was one TK Soundararajan in Thanjavur whom I met at his home once. We discussed Radio! I now came to know that there is even a QSL card museum


In 1986, I came across Mr.Vasudev Parikh in Bombay who was also an ‘official monitor’ for Radio Korea. I met in his home following exchange of letters, only to learn that he had been born in 1920; that he was one giant in the hobby with a listening experience dating to the 1930s! Radio clubs are still in existence in various parts of the country and this man was also a respected member of one or two, because he had the rare privilege of monitoring a few other radio stations like BBC, Voice of Germany, Voice of America, etc. I too got a chance to monitor the BBC for a short while that helped me realize my dream!

The dream was a ‘digital radio’. I had seen it with Mr.Parikh and upon his suggestion, I was able to buy one in Madras with the help of another radio-enthusiast, Harsha. It is a Sony 7600D. Tuning was easy now, no knob-turning – but all digital. I used to get program schedules from a few stations and I knew which frequency had to be fed directly into it.

Many friends are brought together by this wonderful hobby, Harsha is one. He is more of a HAM now. I have no idea of Mr.Parikh as we seem to have lost contact. When he was active, he seldom missed sending a greeting card on my birthday.

Radio stations used to send out to its listeners complimentary gifts like pennants, posters, stickers, cards key-chains, t-shirts, pens, and whatnot to sustain audience interest. We felt great displaying them. It was a great pleasure to take part in various contests esp. in Radio Korea, which awarded many little gift prizes for the winners. Probably judging my enthusiasm, they retained me as its monitor for 16 years on the trot. It had become common for my local friends to inquire me how I was doing with the hobby, esp. at Radio Korea. Such was the interest.

Mid 90s saw another phase when the Idiot Box began to dominate through Cable Network and the radio audience gradually made their shift. It happened in many countries and a drastic reduction in audience was noticed. Technology too was progressing with the advent of World Wide Web and many stations saw no point in their radio broadcasting. So some of the big ones stopped broadcasting and went on line with the Internet. The whole scenario changed. But a few stations have remained in the old ways.

A friend’s family was visiting us in the 1990s. The young boy asked in great awe what that gadget was – I had switched on my Bush Radio to show them the ‘antique’ was still working! We had to explain what a radio was!

Soon after we entered the 21st century, people thought that the radio would be pushed to unheeded corners. But no, FM Radio seems to have revived the radio though not in the same variety in shortwaves. In my opinion it is more of a nuisance because it is available on mobile phones and cars and everywhere in such an "impressive" manner that people have stopped "listening to the beautiful world of silence". Satellite radio is also available for those who have the real inclination for quality of sound and listening pleasure in their homes.

A person in Bangalore, Mr. Prakash has a hobby of ‘collecting’ radios. He has a fleet of 800 of them! See photo.

The greatest advantage with the radio compared to its fierce competitor, the Idiot Box, is that while it is on, people can do other things while just lending an ear and you can carry it around too, wherever you want. Thanks to Marconi. Radio is here to stay on. One day our Bush radio may become obsolete, but the Radio will never be.

Take a look at this guide.
This is a beginner's guide to SW listening.
And another.

Maddy''s Ramblings blog has this to say, picturesquely described. (Listen to AIR's signature tune in the little widget in the blog) It brings me old memories too.

(Radios pictured at the beginning:
Bush EBS 51, National Panasonic, Philips 2-in-1, Sony 7600D and Sangean.)