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A look back through All India Radio’s glorious days
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Published on Feb 13, 2017 05:36 pm IST
Murphy radio seen at one of the oldest radio shops in Jhumri Telaiya, Jharkhand, India. AIR was born on June 8, 1936. Urdu humourist Sir Syed Ahmed Shah Bokhari (before the formation of Pakistan in 1947) was the first director general. PC Chowdhuri was independent India’s first DG. (Sanjeev Verma /HT photo )
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AIR played a sterling role during Partition and the refugee influx, uniting families. Accessed by just 4,000 radio sets in 1947, on June 3, AIR broadcasted Mountbatten, Jinnah and Nehru’s declarations on India’s partition. Gandhi visited AIR only once -- on November 12, 1947 -- to broadcast a message from Studio 3 to refugees arriving in Haryana from Pakistan. (Rane Prakash/ HT FILE PHOTO)
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A photo taken on 20 May 1995. AIR’s signature tune based on raag Shivaranjini was composed by Walter Kaufman, a director of music at AIR, a Czech Jew who had fled Europe fearing the Nazi onslaught. (HT FILE PHOTO / HC Tiwari)
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Ashok Vajpayee, a radio announcer at All India Radio. After independence, AIR also played a vital role in bringing music, which used to be patronised by princes, to ordinary homes. (HT Photo)
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All India Radio (AIR) office, in New Delhi, India. (Sanjeev Verma / HT Photo)
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A town in Jharkhand caught the nation’s imagination due to the flood of song requests made by its residents to All India Radio’s Hindi film song programmes till the ’80s. In the ‘50s, the AIR National Orchestra (Vadya Vrind) was set up. Pandit Ravi Shankar was its director from 1949-56. Vividh Bharati Service (VBS), AIR’s hit channel for Hindi film songs, started in 1957. (HT Photo)
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Vinay Lal of the Bhadani mica clan. He owns one of the oldest shops of Murphy radio, a brand of radio that used to be popular in Jhumri Telaiya till the ‘80s. (Sanjeev Verma / HT photo)
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Live studio at AlI India Radio (AIR) office, in New Delhi. AIR was the first to introduce hourly news bulletins in the ’80s. The ’90s was the time when Prasar Bharti Corporation took control of AIR and Doordarshan (DD). AIR also began to face competition from private radio stations. (Sanjeev Verma / HT photo)
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Deepika Padukone and Shoojit Sircar at Fever 104 FM Radio studio. In the 2000s, AIR began to adapt itself to new technology. It launched digital satellite home service to cater to all of Indian subcontinent and South-east Asia. FM 2 channel (later called FM Gold) also started its broadcast. (Yogen Shah / HT PHoto)
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Radio Museum at AlI India Radio (AIR) office, in New Delhi. Since 2008, VBS programmes have been available on DTH, making it a 24-hour music channel. (Sanjeev Verma / HT photo)
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