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UNIT 2 RADIO :A HISTORICAL

PERSPECTIVE

Contents

2.0 Objectives

2.3 Radio in India : A Look Back

2.3.1 Radio Comes to India
2.3.2 AIR is Born
2.4 Akashvani in the Service of the People
2.4.1 News Services
2.4.2 Educational Radio
2.4.3 Special Audience Programmes
2.4.4 The Commercial Service - Vividh Bharali
2.5 Audience Research
2.6 Let Us Sum Up
2.7 Model Answers
. 2.8 Suggested Reading

2.0 OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit you should be able to :
state the history of radio in the West and in India.
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describe the role of radio in the service of the public and
describe the importance of audience research.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
In this unit we will look at the history of radio, its origin and its growth in our country. This
will help you to recognise its potential so that in the future, you as our enlightened listener,
can contribute to its further development as a mass medium of instruction and entertainment.
Note that we address you as an 'enlightened' listener. Do you know why we do so? You
have opted for this course which is intended to give you skills in writing radio scripts. A
writer for Radio has to be a good and discriminating listener too. So we look upon you not
as a passive listener but as an active one. In other words, "an enlightened listener" can
discriminate between good and bad scripts that are broadcast over the radio. You know'that
radio offers a variety of educational and entertainment programmes. We will talk about them
in section 2.4 of this unit from a historical point of view. But of first importance here is the
history of radio. Some knowledge of the history of the medium, its development arid its
spheres of activity will help you to recognise its potentials and its limitations. This in turn,
will enable you to fashion your scripts to suit the medium. Your scripts can relate to a wide
range of topics such as education, women, children, science. agriculture etc. with the twin
goals of ( I ) reaching a wide section of people and (2) sustaining their interest.

Read the unit, section by section. making your notes in the margin as an aid to memory. You
will find the unit informative and useful.

2.2 GENESIS : IN THE WEST

The word "genesis" means origin or beginning or creation. Here we are going to learn about
the beginning of radio as a medium of communication. Radio originated in the West. The
14 existence of radio waves was predicted long before they were discovered. A professor of
experimental Physics at Cambridge, James Clerk-Maxwell ( 1 83 1-79) made the prediction Radio :A Historical Perspective 1
way back in 1864. Twentyfour years later, in 1888, the German Physicist Heinrich Hertz
(1857-94) demonstrated the existence and propagation (travel through a medium) of these
radio waves. He, however, never realized that one day they would become a means of
communicarion. The New Zealand born British Physicist Ernest Rutherford (187 1 - 1937)
succeeded in sending radio signals through a distance 314 of a mile. Another Englishman,
Oliver I .edge (1 85 1 - 1940) discovered and devised the principles of tuning. How often do
we hear the phrase "tune into the B.B.C."! The word "tune" is used in the sense of adjusting
the controls of your radio set so that your radio receiver can pick up the desired frequency
waves.

It was Guglielmo Marconi (1 874-1937), the Italian Physicist and electrical engineer, who
made use of the knowledge of radio waves and invented the wireless telegraphy as a device
of communication. The instrument used for transmitting marconigrams or wireless
telegrams was named after him as MARCONIGRAPH. In 1896 he took out his first patent.
On December 12, 1901, he succeeded in his first attempt in sending and receiving messages
across the Atlantic from Poldhu in Cornwall, England to St. John's in New Foundland,
Canada. In 1909 Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize for science and technology.
Although Marconi perfected the knowledge of radio waves to put them to some use. spoken
messages could not yet be sent through his marconigraph. It could communicate only dots
and dashes.

What was needed was a Vacuum tube (see Sub. Sec. 1.3.1).The first vacuum tube was made
in 1904 by John Ambrose Fleming (1849- 1945), an Englishman. Fleming's vacuum tube
was called a diode. What is a vacuum tube? What is a diode? A diode is a vacuum tube of a
special kind. A vacuum tube is a sealed glass or metal tube from which almost all the air has
been sucked out so that electrical current can flow between the electrodes within the tube
without the interference of a gaseous surrounding. It is also called a wireless valve. A
wireless valve or vacuum tube thus is known as a thermionic valve. (A thermion is an ion
emitted by a hot body.) Within a diode there are two electrical parts-an anode and a
cathode.

Two years later Lee I)thForest (1873-,1961).an American, improved upon Fleming's
vacuum tube and ~ n b c n t c da triode or audion. A triode has three electrical parts. An anode, a
cathode and a control grid. There are tetrodes and pentodes--of four and five electrical
parts-also in use.

The earliest practical use to which the new invention was put, was to send messages from
ships at sea. The American Navy called the wireless, the "radiotelegraph" and from it came
the abbreviation 'radio'.

In 1906 radio operators at sea heard a man speak, a woman \ing and some music from a
violin. Then came an announcement, 'If you have heard this programme, write to Reginald
A Fessenden at Brant.Rock'. This was the beginning of radio broadcast. But new discoveries
brought in their wake new problems. People thought that the radio would corrupt people and
make them idlers. Big Investments had to be made on broadcasting stations, radio sets etc. I
and public opposition to the radio also had to be overcome.
I
In 1920, an American Westinghouse company engineer, Dr. Frank Conrad began a series of I
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voice broadcasts. He also arranged for the sale of radio sets. In the same year another I
official of Westinghouse built a broadcasting station at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Broadcasting had come to stay. -
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Control of International Air Space
In the early years of this ceolury there was some controversy over the regulation of airspace l
and broadcasting rights. Radio waves like any electromagnetic wave do not follow the I
restrictions of boundary lines of nations. They spread in every direction. Without some , I
control, different stations can broadcast on the same frequency and thus impair reception of
any one programme on a radio set. Have you come across the word "jamming" with
reference to radio broadcasts? This means making reception of a broadcast programme
impossible or difficult by broadcasting another programme on the same wave so that it
deliberately interferes. Hence, as early as 1909, an International Telegraph Union was
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formed in Berne, Switzerland. It kept a record of most of the frequencies of most of the
15 1
 'I he Medium radio stations in the world. Hence a new broadcasting station could take a frequencq l o r I(\

broadcasts which did not interfere with that of any existing station.

Today the bureau is called ~nternationalTelecommunications Union. Since 1947 it has been
an agency of the United Nations. The advances in satellite communication technology have
enabled the instantaneous movement of information between any two points on theearth.
The new technologies have brought in its wake diverse problems both at the national and
international levels. At the international level, a few of the advanced countries are having a
monopoly on global communication resources. Two natural resources-the radio frequency
spectrum and the geostationary orbit are being controlled by the developed countries. The
allocation of these resources are on "first come, first served" basis and favours the
developed countries. Hence the Third World through the demand for KIWCO-New World
Information and Communication Order is seeking for rational planning in the utilisation of
these resources.

Exercise 1
a) Answer the following questions in the space provided.
b) Compare your answers with those given at the end of this unit.
i) Who thought that the radio waves existed and who demonstrated it to be true?
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ii) Who was the discoverer of wireless telegraphy?
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iii) What is the contribution of Ambrose Fleming to the history of radio?
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iv) When arld where was the first radio station built?
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V) In the history of radio what significant step was taken in 1947?
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2.3 RADIO IN INDIA : A LOOK BACK

Let us now examine the coming of radio to India and its subsequent development.

2.3.1 Radio comes to India

I
The first regular broadcasting station in the world, as we have seen, was opened in
Pittsburgh in the USA. Soon after, the first radio programmes were broadcast in the U.K. by
the Marconi Company from Chelmsford, on February 23, 1920. However, it was not until
November 1922 that the British Broadcasting Company, with John Reith as its Managing
Director, began to broadcast programmes on a regular basis.

In November, 1923 a Radio Club was set up in Calcutta which ushered amateur.
broadcasting in India. In June 1924, similar clubs in Bombay and Madras began tramrnitting
programmes for about two and a half hours every day. However, the Madras club closed
down in October 1927. But earlier in July the Bombay station of the Indian Broadcasting
Company was given the government licence for regular tgansmissions, and in August the
Calcutta station of the IBC went into operation. Lord Irwin, the then Viceroy, who
inaugurated the Bombay station earlier, said the following words on the occasion:
'India offers special opportunities for the development of broadcasting. Its distances and K ~ ~ I: A
O H I S I O ~ I C rergpect~vt'
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wide spaces alone make it a promising field. In India's remote villages there are many who,
after the day's work is done, find time hang heavily enough upon their hands, and there must I
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be many officials and others whose duties carry them into out-of-the-way places where they I
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crave for he company of their friends and the solace of human companionship. There are, of
course, too in many households those whom social custom debars from.taking part in
recreation outside their own homes. To all these and many more, broadcasting will be a
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blessing and a boon of real value. Both for entertainment and for education its possibilities
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are great, and as yet we perhaps scarcely realise how great they are.

In a sense Irwin was prophetic. Today for education and entertainment radio is a powerful
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means of communication for the masses of this country especially for those living in remote
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The lnaran Broadcasting Company began with a capital of 15 lakhs of rupees. Four and a I
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half lakhs were spent on the installation of the stations at Bombay and Calcutta. On 3 1st I
Dec., 1927 Broadcast Receiver licences were enforced. There was a fee of Rs. 101- per year I

on every radio set. There were 3,594 sets at that time. In two years thls figure went up two- I
fo1d:In 1930, however, the number of licences went down. I
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The expenditure on broadcasting in the meantime was far in excess of the revenue. The I
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company therefore applied to the Government for a loan which was turned down. The result I

was that the company went into voluntary liquidation in March, 1930.
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2.3.2 AIR is Born II

The 30s were a bad period for the world economy; worse for the Indian radio. The
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expenditure on a radio station was pruned from Rs. 33.0001- a month in 1927 to
Rs. 24,0001- in 1929 and after the Government of India took over, to Rs. 220001- in 1930.
The cut in the budget forced the Indian radio to adopt lower and lower standards until 1935 I
when the Government of India Act was passed. The constitutional pos~tionof broadcasting
was defined in section 129 of the Act. The salient features of this Act lay emphasis on
granting reasonable freedom to
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i) the government of any province or the Ruler of any Federated State such functions with
respect to broadcasting as may be necessary to enable that Government or Ruler\
a) to construct and use transmitters In the Province or State;
b) to regulate, and impose fees in respect of the construction and use of transmitters I
and use of receiving apparatus in the Province or State, and
ii) to the matter broadcast by or by authority of, the Government or Ruler.
0
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In August, 1935 Lionel Fielden of the BBC came to India. He had been recommended to
Lord Willingdon, the then Viceroy of India, by Sir John Reithj the then D.G. of the BBC.
Lionel Fielden is now a mythic figure in the history of Indian broadcasting. He was the first
Controller of Broadcasting in India when the Indian state broadcasting corporation was
controlled by the Department of Industries and Labour. In the five years or so that Fielden
was the Controller of Broadcasting he showed patience, tact and foresight and succeeded in
establishing the radio as a public institution in India.

'I .,ere is an oft-quoted episode in Fielden's autobiography, 'The Natural Bent (1960). It
tells us how the Indian State Broadcastrng Service was rechristened as All India Radio. It

"I had never liked the title ISBS (Indian-State Broadcasting Service) which to me
seemed not onIy unwieldy but al$o tainted with officialdom. After a good deal of
cogitation-which may seem ridiculous now, but these apparently simple and obvious I
I
things do not always appear easily-I had con,cluded that All India Radio would give
me not only protection from the clauses which I most feared In the 1935 Act, but
would also have the suitable initials AIR. I worked out a monogram which placed
these letters over the map of India, and it is now about the only thlng which remains of
me in India......Thus All India Radio was born."

Today All India Radio is known as Akashvani, a name which was glven to it in 1958.
.The Medium The word 'Al\ash\,:~ni'however \\as f'irstused by Dr. M.V. Gopalasw:i~ny,Professor of
Psychology at Mysore. lor a radio ,t:ition he est:~blished at his own residence on 101h
September, 1935. I t used to be on the air from 6 to 8.30 p.m. daily. except on Sundays. The
broadcasts were ol'C:irnatic music and talks in Indian languages on various subjects of
popular interest. His radio station was able to broadcast programmes on a regular basis with
the financial support of the Mysore Municipality and Professor tiopalaswamy's own., until
1942 when it whs taken over by the Mysore State. In 1950 it became part of the AIR
network consequent on the integration of the former princely states.

Lionel Fielden left India in 1940 and handed over the charge to A.S. Bohhari, who had
taught English at Government College. Lahore and had joined the AIR in 1936, and became
Fielden's Deputy in three months. Bokhari went back to become Principal of the college
from where he had come in 1946. P.C. Chaudhuri was the first D.G. of Akashvani in
independent India under Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the first Minister for Information and
roadc cast in^.
Exercise 2 : Instructions

Do the following croshword puz~le:

1)ow.n
I The I'irst Co~itrollerof Brc?;idcasting 01' All Intiiu Radio.
)
2 ) The l'irhr Director General 01' AIR in intlcpentlent Inclia.
3 ) .l'lic year in which Ak:ihIiv:ini was acloptctl :IS the m i i n name I'or the Indian Radio.
Across
1 ) I'he I'irst Director General of the H.B.C.
2 ) l'he I'irst Minihter ol' Intor~iiation:itntl bro;~tlcah~ing
in indcpentfent India.
3 ) The yeiir in which the tlchignation o1'A.S. Hokhari changed from the Controller of
f3roudcahting to Director General.

2.4 AKASHVANI IN THE SERVICE OF THE PEOPLE

Ciow Inany types of programmes are possible in a riltlio broatlcast? Only two type+-spoke~l
worcls ancl ~nithic.Tlic ncws bt~llctins.d o c i ~ ~ ~ i e ~ i t ;tiilks.
~ r i c sdiscussion
, CIC.I';III into thc first
category :tnd :I progralnlric like S~lngeetSarit;~into the second. Now let us exillnine somc of'
them in ~ ~ . c i l tt1cl;iil.
cr
 Radio : A Historic:al Perspective
2.4.1 News Services
1
The origins of a centrally planned National Service for news go back to the Second World
War when news bulletins began to be broadcast from Delhi. However, it was in 1931that
the Central News Organisation (CNO) was formed. Before that date, each station produced
its own bulletins. Bombay and Delhi broadcast news both in English and Hindustani and
Calcutta in ~ e n g a l in
i lieu of the latter.

Fielden defended the broadcasts on AIR in Hindustani and recorded that the AIR had
'tentatively adopted it as a language spoken or at least understood in the greater part of
Aryan speaking India'. 'There is, however', he went on, 'a feeling in the country that All
lndia Radio should assist in the evolution and expansion of a common language for India,
and it is in pursuance of this feeIing, no less than for practical considerations, that All India
Radio is endeavouring to widen the scope of Hindustani.' However, the word Hindi replaced
Hindustani in AIR programme journals in November, 1949. Shortly afterwards newscasts
started in Urdu while Hindustani, a mixture of the two, was not recognised officially as a

All lndia Radio today has a fully developed news service which broadcasts news in 20
languages and 34 dialects. It also broadcasts, apart from the bulletins, newsreels, daily
commentaries on important events and discussions on current events. It provides service to
small newspapers through its slow-speed bulletins in Hindi and English. It monitors
broadcasts of foreign stations by the monitoring services at Shimla and in New Delhi.

2.4.2 Educational Radio

In a way discussions and commentaries on current events have great educational spin-offs.
Such programmes can be classed under non-formal education. Some other types would be
Farm ant1 Home Units of which there are over 60 which deal with agriculture, animal
husbandry, cooperatives, cottage industries and such other matters. Radio Farm Forum was
started in 1949. In 1956 the Pune Station of Akashvani made an experiment in Adult

Another area in which radio has been active since 1967 is family welfare. It covers
education on health and nutrition, immunization, child and mother care and family planning

Apart from the non-formal education mentioned above radio has gone in a big way into
formal education through its school and university broadcasts.

Programmes for schools are broadcast from Calcutta,.Bombay, Madras and Delhi and other
stations for 30 minutes., two or three times a week. However, they have not been received by
a large number of schools due to the lack of infrastructural facilities. At each station there
ire consultative panels of 6 members who advise on the but good teachers do
not always make good broadcasters and the AIR does not always succeed in selecting the
best'people for the school broadcasts.

Akashvani at present broadcasts programmes of the universities of Delhi, Punjab

(Chandigarh) and Punjabi (Patiala). It will soon broadcast progranimes of this university as
well on a regular basis.

2.4.3 Special Audience Programmes

Programmes with a focus on special target groups such as army jawans, women, children
and the youth are called special audience progrunjmes. Some of the programmes mentioned
in the previous sub-section can also go under thih rubric.

Yuv-Vani or The Voice of Youth is a special audience programme, planned, presented and
to a large extent managed by the young people of the 15-25 years age group. The
Programme cominenced on 23rd July, 1969. Can you recall which other world famous event
took place on that day'? Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin set foot for the first time on the
 The Medium By August 1976, the Yuv-Vani service was broadcast from 23 stations. Delhi, where this
service was introduced for the first time had 6000 participants in its programmes in the first
.
six mgnths (in 1969-70) of its commencement. Today it is still very popular on the national
level.

2.4.4 The Commercial Service-Vividh Bharati

In the early Years of our independence, film music was not considered at Akashvani as
radioworthy. In 1950, a Music of India programme was started from Delhi and relayed by
all stations. 'Popularize Classical music' was the catchword spread in 1952 and it did a lot to
improve its status. However, the Indian listener wanted Hindi film music and this was
beamed on to v a r i o ~ s ' ~ a rof
t s India by Radio Ceylon on its commercial service.

In order to satisfy the Indian listener's needs, AIR introduced a new service in 1957 on par
with Radio Ceylon known as Vividh Bharati or the All India Variety Programme channel.
Originally these programmes were broadcast from Bombay and Madras. After 1960 these
Programmes have been made available on low-power mediumwave transmitters also.

Activity
Go to the nearest radio station and find details of its establishment and development. The
staff at the station would be glad to help you. Write a brief history of the radio station that
can be broadcast. Then discuss your script with your counsellor ht the Study Centre.

2.5 AUDIENCE RESEARCH

A pubric service agency must make special effort to find out what the public thinks about its
services. In 1946 the AIR set up a Listeners' Research unit to get information on audience
habits and preferences. There are a nunlber of research units today that conduct audience
surveys. They specialise on individual aspects of the Akashvani programmes such as
external services. commercial services, etc. There is currently a debate on autonomy to
Akashvani and Doordarshan. Radio broadcasts are bringing this debate "live" to its listeners.
This augurs well for an interesting developn~entalphase in the history of radio in our
country.

2.6 LET US SUM UP

In this unit you have learnt about the history of radio in the.west. We have traced it from the
time of the discovery of radio waves till the formation of the first radio stations in the U.K.
and U.S.A.

We have discussed the history of broadcasting in India from the time of amateur rddio in
1923 to the formation of a full-tledged Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to look
after radio broadcasts.

Wehave also placed the four main types of radio services in a historial perspective.

2.7 ANSWERS TO EXERCISES

Exercise I
1) James Clerk-Maxwell, the Cambridge physicist hypothesised in 1864 that radio waves
existed and 24 years later Heinrich Hertz demonstrated their existence and travel
through space.
2) The Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi discovered wireless telegraphy.
3) Before Ambrose Fleming only dots and dashes could be communicated through a
marconigraph. Ambrose Fleming, through his invention of the vacuum tube, made the
communication of voice possible.
4) The first radio station was built in 1920 at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
5 ) In 1947 the International Telecommunications Union became an agency of the United
,' 20 Nations.