Today - WORLD RADIO DAY - 546

  Today the 13 th of Feb is the 

        WORLD RADIO DAY 

I had an occasion to come across an Original Vintage  Marconi Radio Set in my son's neighborhood at Ajax in Canada,

  This has opened the floodgates of many fond memories of my youth with these instruments of Marvel .



I am not sure if many of you  have heard of the term Valve Radio Receiver Set .  It used to be the sole mode of entertainment by way of listening to Music or News  via the Radio Signal through what used to be called an Aerial which was usually a gauze of copper wire from one end to the other and connected to your Radio Set at Home .

It came with features which included Medium Wave + 3 or 5 Bands . More the Bands , higher the prices and better the reception. 

FM did not even exist in those days .

All India Radio and Vividh Bharathi came a very poor second to Radio Ceylon which had a huge audience in both Hindi and Tamil Languages . Being a commercial broadcaster , its ads for Indian Products were the only ones to be heard in those days . Having been set up by the Voice of America in Colombo , its powerful reach extended across the length and breadth of India and beyond .


The Hindi Broadcasts were there from morning 7 to 10 am . The daily PURANI FILMO KE GEET from 7.30 am to 8.00 am with the final song from KL Saigal and the susequent AAP HI KE GEET with its Signature BEEN Music was  an all time favourite for many . 


The Tamil broadcast from 4.00 to 7 .00 pm was again followed by Hindi Programmes from 7.00 to 10 pm . BINACA GEET MALA on Wednesdays at 8.00 pm and ABHI TO MAIN JAWAN HOON on Sunday Nights at 10.00 pm were never missed .

To day even after some 5 decades  the names of AMIN SAYANI and MAYILVAAHANAN  SUGUNA AND SAROJA always seem to ring a bell and bring back nostalgic memories .

The Daily English News in AIR and  in the Baritone voice of Surajit Sen and not to forget Geetanjali Iyer was an event which was never given a miss in any household .

Over the years , the Valve Radio  slowly lost ground and The Transistor Radio took over.

The major difference is that there was no need for a power supply point and it could be energized with PENCIL AA OR ORDINARY batteries . This made it possible for it to be taken anywhere one wished . Following your sports commentary became very easy .

This was during the Audio Age . Today we are in the the hands of the Visual Media . The Valve and Transistor Radio have become obsolete and a thing of the past and can be found as a Museum or as an  Antique and Fond Pieces of collection in a few homes .

Television has now  come to stay in a very big way . The SMARTPHONE in ones hand is now a combination of a RADIO , TELEVISION AND A COMPUTER, ALL IN ONE GADGET .


But nothing can match the awe of tuning into Radio Ceylon or AIR and listening to all that they  had to offer .

Comments

  1. Murthy12 February 2023 at 20:21

    Very nice

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lakshmi Ayyappan12 February 2023 at 21:11

    The era of radio is unbeatable. You brought in all the nuances of the era of radio mamaji. Beautiful writeup

    ReplyDelete

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