Radio always fascinated me. As a child I listened to movie songs, English and Urdu news on the radio purchased by my father for a sum of Rs 75/-from a radio dealer at Residency Road Srinagar, near Holywood restaurant and bakery shop. It was Telesonic radio set, with a wooden body and two small electric bulbs inside the cabin.
The parts are made in England and weighs about 5kgs. During our childhood and even latter radio played indispensable role.
Amin Sayani as I remember was a popular RJ from Bombay who presented his sponsored “Binaca Geet Malla” from Radio Ceylon, a Colombo based broadcasting company, that was produced each week on Wednesdays. It ran from 1952 to1988 and latter shifted to the “Vivid Bharti” Service of All India Radio in 1989 where it ran until 1994 under the title ‘Cibaca Geet Malla’.
It was the first radio count down show of Indian film Songs, and has been the most popular program in the country during its run. Every Wednesday, listeners from subcontinent would tune into Radio Ceylon and listen to their favorite songs with their favorite show host Amin Sayani. His mesmerising voice made him a super star, he had a big fan following then and even now.
Another most iconic Broadcaster in the history of Radio in India remains Melville De Mellow. His voice held millions of Indians in thrall. Radio broadcasting had begun in India in the late 1920s.
Lady English News casters of yester years from AIR such as Lotika Ratnam, Roshan Menon, Pamela Singh, and others like Surjeet Sen, Vijay Deniule became house hold names, capturing their authoritative and subtle reading style.
Melville De Mellow too conferred the padma Shri by the Government of India in 1963 in recognition of his service to broadcasting.
I remember that listeners in Kashmir would tune in to BBC Urdu service, that would provide elaborate updates of world affairs to listeners.
In latter years Radio comedy from Radio Kashmir Srinagar like Zoon Dub, with its humorous character, ‘Ramba’, played by another veteran Broadcaster Farooq Nazki was a real treat to listeners in Kashmir.
Like Binaca Geet Malla it too had a long run and made its participants very popular, few of them were conferred with Padam Shri including veteran Broadcasters, Marayam Begum, Pushkar Bhan, and Som Nath Sadhu. My friend Bashir Arif who opted Radio service in the same ministry and rose to the level of Dy.
DG played the role of a child artist as “Nazeer Lalla” in the same entertaining “Zoon Dub” program. Chakur tu Rouff from Radio Kashmir Srinagar, was another popular programs among the listeners, followed by ‘NIZ’ sahab, ‘Machama’, and Wadi key Awaz etc.
Legendary Broadcasters in Kashmir who made themselves favorite in Kashmir from 1954 onwards were News Broadcasters, Abdul Rashid Bandey (Naqasbandi), Who like Melville De Mellow had Golden Voice, and remained tall among the equals like Moti Lal Kazanchi, and Kashmiri news caster, Prem Nath Harnain.
Radio Announcer with very impressive and dominating voice was late Ab Hamid Khan, who unfortunately became a victim of ‘Tarik e Muwallat’ movement.
Luckily he made a re-entry in latter years after a court order that proved him innocent. Late artists like Nikki Appa, Monahar Prohotey, M Sultan Pandit (Mugal Dar), Pran Kishore, Bashir Bhat and many others will go down as the best performers of Radio Kashmir.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.