Radio Times (1980s)

Time Period:Good old 1980's.
Place:Andhra Pradesh.

In a way we are the last generation of Radio Media
but again,now the wheel has turned back with revival
of F.M.Radio.

We used to have a big radio, with numerous bulbs
(Valves) in it, and it’s internal anatomy constantly
attracted me and even paid the price for opening
it.Later we moved to transistor radios.
As most of might be remembering we used to pay Radio
licence in post office for the listening the radio
programs(Back in U.K now I am paying the T.V. licence
for receiving the T.V. Signals),once the license
barriers are lifted somewhere in early 80’s ,all the
big Radio stamps joined my Stamp collection.

Typical Radio day,used to be stared with Suprabatham
(on Saturday) or some other devotional broadcast or
Gandhimaragam on Fridays ,followed by
Padipantalu(Still I remember the signature tune of
that program) and it created awareness about
Sasyarakashana and Endosulphan and Mono Chrotophos
measures (mothadulu).

So now time would be 6:50 A.M,Time for Regional
news,followed by National news at 7:05 AM from
Delhi,We used to listen all the development and
welfare activities going on the country thru voices of
Duggirala Puranaih,Addanki Mannar or Mammallipalli
Rajyalaxmi.
Even our ears are exposed to Sanskrit
News(Sampadi varta shuyantam Baladevananda Sagarah ….
This bit is kept in a recent Pedababu movie as well,
Apart from India,Germany also broadcasts Sanskrit
News) and evenings with Monotone Urdu Kabri.

8:00 am will be English news (It took years to
understand what they are saying,BBC or VOA(Voice of
America) is much more clearer than AIR( All India
Radio). Now we used to change the Band and used to
listen Hindi songs from Ceylon Radio until 8:30 and
time for school.

When we return back for lunch at 12:30,again another
dose of National news followed by Karmikula
Karayakram (Program on Workers), followed by Prantiya varthalu(Regional news).

Palvancha has got a geographical advantage of
receiving all the four stations(HYD,VJD,Kadapah and
Vishakapatnam) but not Vivadbharathi.So we used to
change the stations to get the songs, all the times
(and thus gained lot of superficial knowledge on
Telugu songs and helped in Telug Antayakshri in
later stages).

Sunday afternoons after 2’o clock English news will be
our favourite programme Balanandam,and raptly followed
for many years, and I got introduced to Sindbad
sahasa gadhalu and even Alladin Adbuta dweepam
through the Audio Serials.and after this their used
One hour Natkam (Play), and I used to follow it as well.

I am not a fan of great Cricket commentary, but once I
listened to Telugu Cricket commentary,and listned
carefully about the Skylab doom stories(1980).

Sometimes to kill we are forced to listen Lalgudi
Jayaraman Violin recital or Carnatic Vocal.

Even I listened to KTDM F.M Radio station for it songs
and became mute listener to the local talent,and AIR
become bridge between me and world happenings.
Life used to revolve around the radio,and the Radio
routine followed almost 12-14 years after wards it
succumbed to the dark forces of T.V media and
moreover we also fell onto the Competition conveyor
belt and lost what we are, where we need to go.


Tailpiece:There is one program on Teaching Sanskrit ,
the signature tune of that program is Barthruhari
Subhasitham and it ends like this..
….Na stanam, Na lepnam, Vagbhushanam,Bhushnam.(This
poem again I read in 10+2 Sanskrit Subject, The
meaning of the poem is For a person Pefumes or
ornaments or flowers are not the real decorations but
his Vakku (or Communication skills) will be the real
decoration, so one has to master on it.