Our Very Own Radio Days!!

<This article was published in TANA Patrika in December 1994. It was restored from an old PDF for the benefit of a generation that has fond memories of those AIR days>

It all started when my wife asked me if I could suggest any new songs for her to sing at the upcoming Diwali function. There was this song “vandanam.. vandanam… giri nandini priya nandana…” residing in some deep crevices of my brain, which we had learnt from the (then) popular light music program on the radio called “Ee Maasapu Paata” (song of the month). While trying to recollect this song, I started thinking about all the good AIR (All India Radio) programs we used to enjoy as kids.

Our “Phillips” had a special place in the house – atop an ornate box (which held dirty laundry!). It would be ON from the time AIR signature tune went out till everybody left home for school/office (around 8:00AM). I remember a time when we had to pay Rs. 15.00 per year as a license fee for owning a radio! Yes, my dad showed me the little passport-sized booklet, with the big stamp (which was the license). This practice was later discontinued when the AIR people discovered the concept of advertisements to raise revenue.

“Ee Maasapu PaaTa” – by Chittaranjan was one of our favorites. In this program, he used to teach one song (“Lalitha Sangeetham”) per month to his students (and the audience).  It was ON in the mornings (on a weekday), therefore, we only heard most of these songs while getting ready for school. Nevertheless, they made such an indelible impression on my mind that I remember some of the popular ones even today (approximately 20 years after I first heard them!). Another popular program (at least in our household) was “Sanskruta PaaTam” – by Kesavapanthula Narasimha Sastry. In our curriculum, we had Sanskrit from 5th to 7th grades, and this program helped us quite a bit. This Sanskrit lesson used to begin with a beautiful “Subhasitham” :

“Kaeyura na vibhooshayanthi purusham

na hara na chandrojwala

Ksheeyanthe su bhooshanaani sathatham

Vaakbhooshanam bhooshanam”

On weekends, everyone’s routine revolved around the radio program. The Saturday morning Suprabhatam could be heard from every house in the colony. I got so used to that version of the Suprabhatam that M.S.Subbulakshmi’s version sounded harsh when I heard it later. Remember the “christava bhakti geetaalu” on Sunday Mornings? “Yesu nee naamaamrutham maakentha ruchi ayya”. It sounded like Jikki, but I am not sure. Also, you probably remember “Sree hanumanu guru devudu naa yeda..” (i.e, Sundarakaandam) by M.S. Rama Rao in the mornings.

In those days (early 70’s), “Baalaanandam” and “Baalavinodam” were the most popular programs for kids. Baalavinodam was for the younger kids and was on Saturday afternoons. As a member of the Venkata Ramana Colony Baalaananda Sangham, I had the privilege of participating in this program on a couple of different occasions. Once, I was a cast member of a serial drama (“Sri Krishna Leelalu”), which was on Baalavinodam for a few Saturdays. Since Saturdays were school days, I had to make arrangements at school to listen to the drama. I approached Seshagiri Rao sir – our Hindi teacher – and boasted to him about this great role that I played on the radio drama, and convinced him to bring his transistor (radio) to school so we could all listen to it. My character did not show up in the first two episodes, but I was maha thrilled to hear my name in the “Paatralu Paatradhaarulu” list. I have a feeling that Seshagiri Rao sir started to doubt the importance of my “paatra” in this drama when the list ended with -Kamsudu – Srinivas, Devaki – Gouri, mariyu.. Narendar, Yashodhar, Ravi. Finally, the third Saturday was my BIG day!! I appeared in multiple roles on this day – Once, as a soldier who responds to the “Yevarakkada?” and also as a part of the crowd that rushes to the lake to watch Krishna do his dance on “Kaaleeya”-the snake. I was quite impressed with my performance. From the looks on their faces, my Hindi teacher and the other kids did not share this opinion!

I was a big fan of “Baalanandam” on Sunday afternoons. I was a proud member of the studio audience (yeah!) of this great program on one particular Sunday, and bragged about it for quite a while! Ravuri Bharadwaja was the “Radio Annayya”. Nyayapati Raghavarao & Nyayapati Kameswari were the original “Radio Annayya and Radio Akkayya”. Later, they founded Andhra Baalananda Sangham in Narayanguda, Hyd. They enjoyed being with kids and were extremely popular with them. I had a chance to meet them briefly at one of the competitions conducted by Andhra Baalananda Sangham. That day in the studio, Ravuri Bharadwaja (with his black coat) looked a lot like Mujibur Rehman, I thought. He was a tough disciplinarian in that studio. Well, he had to be, or else he would have had a riot with all those kids! That was my lucky day, because I found out that we would be going on the ever-popular tour of the “Milk Pasteurization Plant” (“paala saraphara kendram”). Those days, this tour was ON once every couple of months or so. It was a “staple” of the Baalanandam program – much like the “rat eradication” program (“Yelukala Nivaarana”) – on early Doordarshan programs. Anyway, I was all psyched up for the bus tour to the plant when I found out that they just play a pre-recorded tour. Boy, was that a letdown! After the tape ended, Mr. Bharadwaja said “mmm mmm Aaa rose milk yentha baagundho!” – to provide continuity, and to make it sound like we (everybody in the room) just returned from the tour. “You are not fooling anyone,” – I said to myself. But when I got home, everybody (including the adults) was asking me how the tour was, and saying how lucky I was to have gone on the day of the tour.

Even as a child, I was a big fan of “Naatakaalu”.  The 3:00pm to 4:00pm time slot on Sundays (immediately following Baalaanandam) had the best Naatakaalu.  I would stand no more than a foot away from the radio as though the thrill would be diluted if I got any more comfortable (on the chair, or the “navvaru mancham” in that room!). I used to enjoy all kinds of dramas,  but for some strange reason – I only remember the following two names now – “Neellu raani kallu” and “Asamardhuni Jeevayaatra”. I used to idolize the talented “radio artistes such as Nanduri Vittal, Jyotsna, Ilyas, Sharada Sreenivasan, Banda Kanakalingeswara Rao, Jeedigunta Ramachandra Murthy, Ravi Verma, Akella Subbaraya Sarma, etc. I always wondered how these people looked in real life.

Do you remember the “sankshipta sabdha chitram”? Abridged, soundtracks of movies broadcast in this time slot on every 3rd Sunday instead of the drama. It is surprising how they would fit a 2.5-hour movie into 1 hour. I “saw” quite a few movies this way! In fact, when I watched “Bullemma Bullodu” – starring Chalam, later, it was very similar to the way I imagined it would be, from the radio soundtrack!

How about “meeru kOrina paaTalu? Sometimes it would take the DJ 2-3 minutes or more to read off the names of people who requested a particular song. My sister and I were quite keen listeners to this program. We had come to the conclusion that a particular town in Karimnagar district (I can’t quite recollect the name now) had a cottage industry of people whose sole purpose in life was to write letters to this “meeru kOrina paaTalu” to request some songs. It is no exaggeration to say that every single show had at least one letter from this town. Of course, all this was before tape recorders (and now VCRs) were popular. Sometimes the announcer would read the first few names from the card and then, to the utter disappointment of the 20 others on the letter, would end by saying “Venkata Rao, Subbamma, Venkaiah… thadhitharulu” or “Venkata Rao, Subbamma brundham”.

Even though we kids never paid attention to the various news reports on the radio,  the distinct styles and accents of the newscasters ring in my ears even to this day –  “Aakaashavaani,  Vaarthaloo chaduvuthundi Yedida Gopala Rao” or “Addanki Mannar” or “Maamillapalli Raajyalakshmi.” Then there was the “Kaarmikula Kaaryakramam” on Sunday afternoons featuring Baalayya (Sri Jeedigunta Ramachandra Murthy), Ekambaram, and Chinnakka (Smt Rathanprasad), conveying useful information to the workers through funny skits. Also, there were the regular announcements and filler programs like “Nilaya vidwaamsula vaadya ghosti” – Instrumental music by the resident (AIR) musicians.

As you would have guessed by now, I miss the fine programs on AIR. I miss them a lot!! From my vacation trips back to Hyderabad, I realized that radio does not enjoy the huge popularity it used to when we were young. The reason, of course, is obvious. Television, with all of its obvious advantages, has stifled a fine medium.

As we used to mimic the announcers at the end
of a program, “inthatitho eenaaTi kaaryakraman samaptham”