15 l SRUTI June 2012
COVER STORY
T
he services rendered by All India Radio
(AIR) towards promotion, propagation
and preservation of classical music have no
parallel in the cultural history of independent India.
Music was in the past the preserve of a few in some
princely states. e advent of AIR completely changed
that scenario; it took music to the homes of music lovers,
and gave musicians a country-wide audience. Women
performers and up-and-coming musicians were major
beneficiaries of this exposure.
AIR was mandated to maintain a high standard of
music through a system of
audition. For innumerable
youngsters with talent, a radio
programme was a passport to
prominence and a sure means
of gaining recognition in music
circles all over India. Even
maestros first gained a pan-
Indian audience through AIR;
television was decades away.
News, music and spoken word
features constituted the three
major components of AIR’s
programme repertoire. Music
encompassed classical, folk, light,
and devotional; it also included
Western music.
According to H.R. Luthra,
author of Indian Broadcasting (1986), the first regular
broadcasting station in the world is believed to have opened
in Pittsburgh, U.S.A. in 1920. In England, programmes
were successfully broadcast by the Marconi Co. from
Chelmsford on 23 February 1920. In November 1922 the
BBC, with John Reith as its managing director, went on
air with regular programmes.
Broadcasting comes to India
In August 1921, e Times of India, in collaboration with
the Posts and Telegraphs Department, broadcast a special
programme of music at the request of Sir George Lloyd,
the Governor of Bombay Province (who listened to it in
Poona, 175 kilometres away). It was an ad hoc event, in a
rudimentary form.
A group of enthusiastic amateurs formed a Radio Club
in Bombay in 1923, and it started
broadcasting in June that year. It
was followed by the Radio Club
of Bengal (also known as Calcutta
Radio Club) in November that
year. e transmitters were loaned
by Marconi Company.
e Madras Presidency
Radio Club was formed on
16 May 1924 by a group of
dedicated amateurs led by C.V.
Krishnaswamy Chetty. When
it had to close down in October
1927 due to financial difficulties,
the transmitter was presented to
the Madras Corporation which
launched a regular service on 1
April 1930. is continued till 16
June 1938, on which date All India
Radio took over and started its operations. (See box titled
Madras Presidency Radio Club)
News bulletin
In March 1926, the Government of India entered into
ALL INDIA RADIO
The voice from the sky S. Sankaranarayanan
“Broadcasting in most countries does not base its policy exclusively on pleasing the majority. It is to the advantage
of broadcasting to widen if it can the scope of listener’s tastes…. us we find in most broadcasting organisations
that classical music gains a place which a majority vote would not actually give it and it is undoubtedly true that
the taste for classical music has in many countries been considerably strengthened by this policy.”
– From the first report of the Controller of Broadcasting published in 1940.
16 l SRUTI June 2012
COVER STORY
an agreement with a private company called the Indian Broadcasting Co. Ltd.
(IBC) to operate two radio stations – at Bombay and Calcutta.
e Bombay station, located at Radio House, Apollo Bunder, was
inaugurated by Viceroy Lord Irwin on 23 July 1927. e news bulletin
broadcast on that day marked the beginning of organised broadcasting
in India, albeit by a private company. e Calcutta station was inaugurated
by the Governor of Bengal, Sir Stanley Jackson, on 26 August 1927.
Both these stations provided considerable encouragement to music
and drama. e stations were operating on medium wave on 1.5 KW power.
After running the stations for two years the company went into liquidation
on 1 March 1930. In response to popular demand the Government took
over the two stations from the company and started running them.
From 1
April 1930 broadcasting in (‘British’) India came under the direct
control of the government. e company was re-designated ‘Indian State
Broadcasting Service’ and was placed under the Department of Industries
and Labour. A station at Delhi was opened on 1 January 1936. Meanwhile,
four more stations had started functioning in 1935 – at Hyderabad,
Mysore, Peshawar and Allahabad.
e Government of the Nizam launched a station in Hyderabad on 3 February
1935. (See Hyderabad radio station).
Dr. M.V. Gopalaswamy, Professor of Psychology at the Maharaja’s
College, Mysore, set up a low power transmitter in his house and started
broadcasting on a small scale. e station was known as ‘Akashvani’. He ran
the station for six years with the support of the public and the Mysore
Municipality. On 1 January 1942 it was taken over by Mysore State
(See Akashvani Mysore).
e stations in Peshawar and Allahabad were also private ones.
All India Radio
When the Government decided to draft the services of experienced
personnel from BBC, Lionel Fielden assumed charge as Controller of
Broadcasting in August 1935. H.L. Kirke and C.W. Goyder took charge as
Research Engineer and Chief Engineer in 1936. Charles Barnes joined as
News Editor in September 1937.
Within a short time Lionel Fielden took complete control of the company.
He persuaded Viceroy Lord Linlithgow to discard the name Indian State
Broadcasting Service and adopt the name ‘All India Radio’. In spite of
vehement opposition from his own Secretariat, the Viceroy accepted
Fielden’s suggestion. e new name was officially adopted with effect from
8 June 1936. It became the official date of birth of All India Radio.
With the commissioning of the Lahore station in December 1937, AIR
had five stations and all of them were using medium wave transmitters
with limited reach. “Apart from the name All India Radio and getting
together a group of dedicated young people” observes U.L. Baruah in his
study is is All India Radio (Publications Division), “Fielden and his Chief
Engineer should be remembered
for the short wave coverage of the
entire country which they achieved
quickly by 1938. It was thought
essential to provide a basic short
wave service in order to give at least
a second grade service to the whole
of India and then to supplement this
service with a first grade medium
wave service at important centres;
any future funds which might
become available being devoted
to the extension of the medium
wave service area.” Accordingly,
they commissioned short wave
stations at Bombay, Madras, Delhi
and Calcutta, all in 1938. e first
inter-state relay between Bombay
and Delhi on short wave began
early 1939.
Meanwhile, three more MW
stations started functioning
– at Lucknow in 1938, and at
Tiruchirapalli and Dacca in
1939 (See AIR Tiruchirapalli). A
broadcasting station was opened in
Trivandrum, capital of the princely
state of Travancore, in 1943. It was
known as the Travancore State
Radio Station.
M.V. Gopalaswamy
COURTESY: AKASHVANI MYSORE PLATINUM JUBILEE SOUVENIR
