Those Were The Days: The magic in the airwave that mesmerised Madras

Radio is the theatre of the mind. Though it came decades after mankind began flying, radio was still sheer magic for the masses.

Some even believed that Lilliputian people lived within the radios. In his only live radio broadcast in November 1947, Mahatma Gandhi said, “This is miraculous power. I see Shakti, the miraculous power of God, in it.” Afterall, Akashavani itself means an oracle from heaven.

In the early days when radio was still an unproven technology and before the government could venture into it, the amateurs did. One of the first broadcasting facilities in India was set up here in Madras way back in 1924 by Carnavalli V Krishnaswamy, a Manchester-educated electrical engineer of the Corporation of Madras who established the Madras Presidency Radio Club.

Chronologically, it was just four years after the Marconi programmes in Europe and two years after the famed British Broadcasting Corporation began functioning. The club’s station began its broadcast from Holloway’s Gardens in Egmore. The first batch of wireless sets was procured from the British Marconi Telegraph Wireless Company. Almost 100 recorded programmes of music, both instrumental and vocal, and stand-up comedy shows were broadcast in the first year. But enthusiasm aside, it did not have sufficient financial back up. When the club ran into financial hurdles in 1927, Krishnaswamy convinced his employer, the city Corporation, to take over the station. Thus, in 1929, Madras Municipal Broadcasting Service began operating from Ripon Building, the Corporation headquarters.

But radio technology had come to stay and the government wanted to slowly monopolise the proliferating radio clubs all over India. After a banquet, the then Viceroy Lord Linlithgow changed the “clumsy name” of the then Indian State Broadcasting Service to All India Radio. “To go on air” was a providential pun for AIR. All India Radio’s tune was composed in 1936, based on Raga Shivaranjini, by a Czech Jewish refugee named Walter Kaufmann.

The Corporation of Madras, which inherited Krishnaswamy’s transmitter, sanctioned the earliest radio broadcasting transmitter of South India to the Government Museum, where it is occasionally displayed.

As elsewhere, the All India Radio took over broadcasting with a 250-watt medium wave transmitter in 1938, and worked from a garden house on Marshall’s Road in Egmore which overlooked the Cooum river.

Though it was inaugurated by Governor Lord Erskine, Madras by then had an Indian government headed by C Rajagopalachari. In his inaugural speech, the premier said, “Madras people can now laugh for a joke cracked in London.” Explaining the technology as much as he could get it across to an uninitiated public, Rajaji said: “The air carries the noise like a bullock cart.”

The inaugural day had Nagaswara maestro Tiruvengadu Subramania Pillai performing the inaugural concert, followed by vocals by DK Pattammal. S Rajam gave a concert on the second day, along with Govindasami Naicker (violin) and Madras A Kannan (mridangam). The same team performed a concert on AIR’s golden jubilee celebration 50 years later.

Six little booths equipped with loudspeakers were installed at the beaches (Marina and Triplicane and George Town beaches) and parks (Robinson Park, Panagal Park and People’s Park) to be operated in the evenings. Small, indoor receiving sets were also provided in 14 Corporation schools.

It was AIR’s luck that Victor Paranjoti, who was avidly involved with Western Classical music and Conductor of the Bombay-based Paranjoti Choir, became the first station director. He introduced a substantial musical content in the programming. The musical bent of the Madras station was due to his interests. Victor would anonymously mingle with the crowds on the Marina and parks to get a first-hand feedback.

AIR supported writers and musicians, and it soon became a status symbol to be a radio artiste. It had the widest set of music equipment available and nurtured talent.

There were situations when senior musicians demanded at least a rupee more than their rivals to boast their superiority. Many old fashioned artistes refused to accept cheques, and instead insisted on receiving cash and coins. Many would often bring along son or nephew, who would squat on the station floor and count the payment.

Most importantly, AIR supported underage artistes, too, but with the condition that the parent should come to collect the payment. Renowned Carnatic vocalist Balamuralikrishna, who was only 12, and S Balachander, who was slightly older at 14, were among those whose confidence skyrocketed because of radio performances. Teenaged Balachandar joined because AIR had a host of instruments he could lay his hands on. It was at AIR that young Balachander, who was a staff artiste, began his romance with veena.

The station’s move to a new premise on the Marina, to the rear of the present landmark, came in 1954. The station then had a 1 KW MW Collins transmitter. Rechristening All India Radio to Akashavani sparked protests twice, and the decisions were revoked after the then chief ministers of Tamil Nadu intervened.

When Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, a time when private radios were still rare, almost 1,00,000 people gathered around the public radio sets in Madras to get updates.  Almost a 100 years after the world’s first radio broadcast, it is still the most pervasive, accessible, and affordable mass media available in the developing world.