Radio: The nostalgia and beyond
Radio is a world without borders. It moves with you, it lives with you and it can be part of your life even at work or travel. The story of radio and its evolution was the subject of the audio-visual presentation by Delhi-based writer and broadcaster Mr. S. Gopalakrishnan for the students of the Velammal Knowledge Park recently.
Aptly titled ‘Broadcast Media Trends: Transforming the Future’, he took the audience to the mesmerizing world of radio, its history and future. Mr. Gopalakrishnan, who began his broadcasting career with All India Radio (AIR) in 1985, immediately after college, continued with the organization till 2007, when he decided to explore new avenues in broadcasting. At AIR, he was associated with its Central Archives. Later, he joined as Director of Programmes at Sahapedia, an online encyclopedia on the Arts and Heritage of South Asia, and Content Head of Radio Mango of the Malayala Manorama group in the United Arab Emirates. Presently, he is hosting a popular podcast in Malayalam, Dilli Dali, which covers various subjects ranging from art and culture to politics and current affairs. An award-winning author, he has seven books to his credit and received Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 2013 for best prose in Malayalam.
Mr. Gopalakrishnan began his interactive presentation with the quote of Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” This is applicable to broadcasting as well.
His first memory about radio is the Murphy radio they had at their home in Kottayam, a small town in Kerala.
“Radio told me that there was a bigger world. Radio only told me that India had produced some of the greatest musicians of all time, from places including Tamil Nadu. The radio only told me that people talk Tamil in Sri Lanka and Singapore,” he shared those memories. “The radio only told me that my world is not just Kottayam, my world is bigger.”
From AM broadcasting to FM, and now podcast, radio is taking new forms. In a way, podcast is the future radio, according to him. On the other hand, radio is nostalgia for many people. However, if we do not move forward, nostalgia can be a suffering, warned Mr. Gopalakrishnan, referring to a quote from Milan Kundera’s novel, ‘Ignorance’ (1999) - “The Greek word for ‘return’ is nostos. Algos means ‘suffering’. So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return.”
James Clerk Maxwell
The history of radio begins from Scottish mathematician and scientist James Clerk Maxwell, who predicted the presence of electromagnetic waves. Later, in 1888, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-1894) was able to conclusively prove the presence of these waves and concluded that Maxwell was right.
Nikola Tesla
In the next step, Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla proved that Maxwell is a possibility. He played a major role in realizing the radio that we are talking now. Then, in 1894, Guglielmo Marconi and JC Bose made breakthrough in the radio system, specifically for making wireless. In 1909, Marconi got Nobel Prize while Tesla was still alive. Ironically, Bose did not get Nobel Prize, though he demonstrated his wireless millimetre wave (microwave) experiments a few months before the wireless experiments by Marconi, he pointed out.
Another major development was the setting up of the first radio station, at San Jose, in California, by American inventor Charles David Herrold (1875-1948). He began experimenting with audio radio transmissions in 1909, and made entertainment broadcasts on a regular schedule, said Mr. Gopalakrishnan, showing a short film on that station. That was the beginning of a long journey for radio broadcasting, which gained strength over the years.
He also explained what is AM (amplitude modulation) transmission and FM (frequency modulation) transmission and how the new technological advancements revolutionised broadcasting.
Walter Kauffman
Coming to the Indian story of broadcasting, he said the signature tune of the AIR was composed by Walter Kauffman, a Hugarian Jew, who was a refugee lived in Bombay and Calcutta. By that time broadcasting was active in Bombay, and started composing for them, and later he got the chance to compose the signature tune for the AIR. For this tune, composed in raga Shivaranjini, legendary Indian conductor Zubin Mehta’s father Mehli Mehta played violin.
During 1921 to 1936, there were amateur radio clubs in Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and Lahore, and they did amateur broadcasting. In 1927, Indian Broadcasting Company was established. In April 1930, the Indian Broadcasting Service, under the Department of Industries and Labour, commenced its operations on an experimental basis. Lionel Fielden was appointed the first Controller of Broadcasting in August 1935. It was on June 8, 1936 that the Indian State Broadcasting Service became All India Radio.
Gandhiji at AIR
Mr. Gopalakrishnan also shared some interesting and informative facts about All India Radio. One was on Gandhiji’s visit to AIR, only once, on November 12, 1947. He came to the studio to address more than two lakh refugees from Pakistan gathered at a camp in Kurukeshtra. Later, on many occasions AIR aired his post prayer speeches. During the period of the British rule, though he was invited to AIR, he refused the invitation. He had two reasons for this. The first reason was that he did not want to come to the radio run by the British. Secondly, he said if he was invited, the person inviting him might lose his job, because, if he got a chance to talk over the radio, he would tell the people of this country that no one should listen to the radio run by the British.
Another interesting thing is that AIR has an eight-hour long radio autobiography of actor Sivaji Ganesan. This is a recording done by Radio Ceylon, and a broadcaster from Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) came to Chennai to record it.
Mr Gopalakrishnan played these audios, and also the documentary on Tagore by Satyajit Ray. AIR has 28000 hours of recording in its archives in various formats, he said.
With the advent of technology, radio is getting stronger and as per data, 89.3 percent people in the UK tune in each week. In the US and Ukraine, this is 93 percent each while in Switzerland it is 88.8 percent. However, in India it is yet to catch up to that level. “If people are not listening to radio in India, it is not our problem, it is not radio’s problem, the problem lies with the content,” he, observed, adding that the radio is resilient across the world.
Till 2010, the money spent on making a radio station was huge, but it has come down drastically now, and now a computer or a smartphone can become a radio station, he said.
He also said the next radio is podcast, which is in the
initial stage in India. In on-demand radio, you can customize what you want to
listen to. Another major audio invention is Club House, which is a new
experiment where, unlike the traditional radio, the listener can interact, he
said, adding that only constant innovation can make media successful. “Radio
allows you to think, radio allows you to work while listening to it,” he
pointed out, adding that customised radios are the future radios.
To watch the video, click here
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