About: a look back at the times of vintage Valve Radios in Tamil Nadu, India. And sounds of that time.

Many decades ago, in the 1970s and 1980s, in the bygone days, when Television was yet to happen, and modern-day radios and transistors were just beginning to find space on the Store shelves, I recall the simple pleasures of listening to the vintage ‘Valve Radios’. You had to switch it on and wait for donkey years for it to warm up when a beautiful fluorescent green glow indicator tells you that it is ‘on air’. Then you tune it with a knob, which pulls an indicator across a AM/SW, KHz/MHz wavelength lighted scale-screen. You also had press keyboard buttons or turn-switches to choose a Radio band. The only brands available then were, PHILIPS, MURPHY, BUSH…and the kind.

I first started listening to the radio during the school holidays in my native village in Tamil Nadu. The radio waves were mercilessly controlled by the State Government with prime slots being full of farmer friendly programmes. How to grow your crops, what fertiliser to use, how to identify pests and crop diseases: experts dishing out all kind of cow dung and buffalo-wash advice. Awfully boring stuff for a kid like me studying in a happening English-medium Boarding School and with the sound of music ringing in my ears. Films songs occupied the next best slots with dedicated timings, which were not too many. And you had to look-up the local Newspaper to find the schedule.

The influence of cinema, as the only means of entertainment, was loud and film songs were always in the air. Yesteryear Tamil Hero M G Ramachandran (MGR) and Shivaji Ganesan film songs rendered by the iconic TMS (T M Soundararajan) were ‘top-of –the-valve chart’ stuff. TMS used to change his voice to suit MGR and Shivaji and by the tone I could guess whether it was an MGR or a Shivaji film. We had memorable song lyrics those days with likes of Poet Kannadasan being extremely popular. Two types of Film songs were played on the Radio: one whatever the Radio Station chose and the other -listener’s song requests. Hit songs had many listeners queuing-up for them to be played and one could guess the song, based on the movie name and the huge request wish list.

Radio Ceylon – Rupavahini– effortlessly beamed from nearby Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) out-witted the Local Stations – All India Radio – and had Tamil households in a swoon. They had at a very early stage mastered the art of commercial radio broadcasting with various ear-capturing programmes. I still remember the name of Radio Jockey K S Raja who was perhaps the first kind of such ‘Wave Superstars’. And his opening of the day with Birthday Wishes (Pirantha naal vazthukal) and songs had a never-ending fan following.

Meanwhile, years rolled by valve radios were hitting the attics and transistor radios and tape-recorders were flooding the markets. MGR & Shivaji made way for Actors Rajinikant & Kamal Hassan and TMS was overrun by the likes of singers S P Balasubramanian and Yesudas. ‘Foreign made’ was becoming fashionable and Japanese Radios available in the smuggled goods markets did roaring business. It was almost mandatory for any Indian travelling to Ceylon to return with a National Panasonic Transistor Radio cum tape-recorder.

I bought my first National Panasonic in the late 1970’s and thanks to my thinking in English became an addict of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The Voice of America – though around – could not be heard and it sounded almost seriously iron-clad Russian. I religiously listened to the hourly news bulletins – sometimes perched on top of my pet Buffalo – book readings, story-telling, plays, and of course ‘Musical shows’ – The Gloria Hunniford Show being my all time favourite. She had a fabulous soft-as-silk, warm, and mesmerising voice, which prompted me to write to her with a song request. She replied with a signed photograph (it did not disappoint) and played my song request all the way from England! I still treasure that black & white photograph, which arrived by monkey-mail.

Oh, those were the Radio blaa blaa times!