National Broadcasting Day 2025: When The Radio Was An Alarm Clock

July 23 marks National Broadcasting Day in India, commemorating the start of organised radio broadcasting. The first radio broadcasting occurred in June 1923 but organized radio broadcasting began from July 23, 1923 by the Radio Club of Mumbai and the first FM broadcasting started on July 23, 1977 in Chennai. Hence, today the FM service turns 48 years old, Akashvani 69 years old and and National Broadcasting celebrates 98 years.

Today, the AIR domestic service includes 470 stations nationwide, covering nearly 92% of India’s geographical area and 99.19% of its population with programming available in 23 Languages.

The alarm clock

Older generations from the 50s and 60s would be nostalgic with their memories of Akashvani’s signature tune which was composed by the German composer Walter Kauffman with the help of violinist Mehli Mehta (father of Zubin Mehta). Akashvani used to play it daily at 5:55 AM and it was like an alarm clock for many people. Radio was very rare and a luxury at that time and one had to pay a license fee of Rs 5 - 10 at that stage. Akashvani and Vividh Bharati started many programs based on Hindi films like Jaimala, Ujale Unki Yaadon Ke, Bhule Bisre Geet, Chhaya Geet, Aaj Ke Mehman and non filmi programs such as Hawa Mahal, Shakhi Saheli and Sangeet Sarita.

Jhumri Telaiya

Filmi personalities from Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan used to come on Vividh Bharati programmes for promoting their films and songs. Vividh Bharati was the most common means to listen to Hindi film songs and all producers would be keen to promote them there. At that time people would write letters so that their favourite songs could be played according to their choice. An interesting association was formed between Vividh Bharati and Jhumri Telaiya, a small town in Jharkhand for writing the maximum letters for recommending filmi songs. This associtaion became so popular that in Hrishikesh Mukherjee classic Abhimaan, Asrani tells Amitabh Bachchan, ‘Your song is very good but we will also promote it on Vividh Bharati by writings letters from Jhumri Telaiya.’

Bahujana Hitaya, Bahujana Sukhaya

With the passage of time, radio has been replaced with mobile apps for the younger generation. However, back then, radio played a huge role in uniting India above regional and linguistic lines. Since 1927, radio has been an important part of people’s life, and Akashvani has been serving to inform, educate and entertain the masses, truly living upto its motto - Bahujana Hitaya, Bahujana Sukhaya.