It was little over half a century ago, before the re-organisation of
states that I laid my hands on an imported valve radio to hear the melodious voice of P Kalinga Rao, singing 'Udayavaagali Namma Cheluva Kannada Naadu' over the Mysore Station of All India Radio and glued to the radio to hear cricket commentary.Since then Radio has been my favourite sidekick till today.

The situation changed in early 1960's with the advent of transistor
radios. I our family circle I was the one to purchase a small
transistor. Whenever I start hearing the news, curious people used to
gather around me to have a look at the small imported gadget which was of the size of a pocket dictionary .

Akashavani -All India Radio station at Mysore was started long before it was set up in Bangalore.

As technology developed, the Transistor Radio became small and the
state government owned Radio and Electrical Manufacturing Company,
REMCO  started manufacturing cigarette pack size single band  medium
wave radios.This radio costing around Rs150 then, became an  instant
hit. There was no Frequency Modulation (FM) band then.The shortwave
was ruling the roost and several attempts to get one short wave
frequency to the Bangalore Station of All Indira Radio was not
successful.People preferred shortwave stations as they had a long range and reach.

The Radio had its bad days during the black emergency days of Indira
Gandhi when the people were prohiited from listening to BBC, Voice of
America news broadcasts as they published the true picture of what was happening during emergency.

People were eager to hear the dispatches from India born Sir Mark Tully,  BBC's India correspondent who gave the vivid accounts of interviews with decision making political personalities including Indira Gandhi who was reigning supreme.  

Friends used to congregate at my house to clandestinely listen to news broadcasts as, by then, I owned a 12 band imported valve radio which gave clear signals and voice catching various radio stations.

The Radio lost some of its charm with the advent of Television in the
early 1980's when Indira Gandhi took steps to open hundreds of
Doordarshan Television transmitters all over the country. Since the
coverage of Television signals was limited to a small area, Radio
continued to be the only source of information and entertainment in
rural parts of the country.

 As years passed, technology developed and the Satellite Television
channels made their way into living rooms knocking out the radio
almost completely. By 1990, the Radio was dead as a dodo.

However,  the P V  Narasimha Rao government's  liberalisation policies
opened floodgates of Information Technology and the  union government started giving permission to private sector to enter the broadcasting field. This resulted in the mushrooming of the FM Radio stations all over the country providing employment for many talented youths.                                                                                                                                       
The Radio which was dead, rose like a Phoenix from the ashes and has
started ruling the roost today, thanks to the miniaturisation of
technology.One can hear FM radio in almost all cars, hotels, shopping
malls and homes round the clock despite the advent of I-Pod the new
craze of IT savvy youths. 

Today, the mobile phone which also incorporates FM radio, has become a necessary gadget. Cashing in on its advantage several FM Radio channels have cropped up.

Besides All India Radio main station, as on date there are 13 radio stations in Bangalore. They are -

Long live the Radio.
krishnamurthy.vidyaranya@gmail.com