One Medium for all Situations

World Radio Day Special

World Radio Day is an observance day held annually on 13 February. World Radio Day is about celebrating radio, why we love it and why we need it today more than ever. A day to remember the unique power of radio to touch lives and bring people together across every corner of the globe

World Radio Day 2018 will be held on 13 February 2018 around the theme of "Radio and Sports". As we look forward to a year of momentous sporting events that have the ability to unite the hearts and minds of people everywhere. World Radio Day 2018 will celebrate the traditional sports that connect us to our cultural heritage, the grassroots sports that anchor us within our communities, and the inspiring stories that challenge gender stereotypes and provide positive role models for young people around the world. The theme for 2018 is all about the alliance of sport and radio as a force for civic participation and development as well as for celebrating humanity in its diversity. World Radio day 2018 will celebrate radio's critical function in shaping this alliance, by providing a platform for radio stations, and listeners alike, to construct their programs and conversations around Radio and Sports. The sub-themes are:

Radio and Sports build and unite communities

Radio and Sports inspire participation and inclusion

Radio fosters goodwill and inspires humanity

2018 Theme: Radio and Sports

Let's celebrate the traditional sports that connect us to our cultural heritage, the grassroots sports that anchor us within our communities, and the inspiring stories that challenge gender stereotypes and cover, equally, both men’s and women’s sports events.

Coverage of Sports for Peace and Development Initiatives

Through greater coverage of sports for peace and development initiatives, the universal values of non-violence, solidarity and tolerance are recognized and celebrated.

Gender Equality in Sports Broadcasting

Sports coverage is hugely powerful in shaping norms and stereotypes about gender. Radio has the ability to challenge these norms, promoting a balanced coverage of men's and women's sports and a fair portrayal of sportspeople irrespective of gender.

Coverage of Traditional Sports

Through the coverage of traditional and grassroots games, radio can reconnect people with their cultural heritage, promoting freedom of expression and diversity through cultural expression.

What is Radio, Why is Radio.

Passive and Active Listening

Listeners of each type of radio broadcasting either listen actively or passively. Music formats are best for passive listening, often to help pass the time while working, driving or engaged in other activities. Talk radio and educational programs require the attention of the listener and that he stays intellectually engaged. Both listening styles can be considered important to the listener, and may be used at different times.

Over the course of just a few years, our region experienced an unprecedented series of disasters.

While an earthquake resulted in many injuries and serious damage, it caused fatalities and crores of rupees in destruction. Yet events like these disrupt communication lines for millions in our area. Furthermore, both underscored the fact that in public emergencies, radio is still the most reliable way for people to access important information.

The humble origins of radio broadcast in India

Madras city, a decade short of a century ago, made broadcasting history in South Asia.

On May 16, 1924, the Madras Presidency Radio Club (MPRC) transmitted the country’s first radio broadcasting programme from Ripon Buildings. The objective of the club, led by C.V. Krishnaswami Chetti, a Manchester-trained electrical engineer of the Madras Corporation, was to stimulate interest and foster the study of radio communications in the Presidency.

For Chetti, the radio held the keys to propelling the country out of the ‘pocket of darkness’ it was then wedged in. The club wasted no time in laying the groundwork to establish the broadcasting service. The first batch of wireless sets was procured from the British Marconi Telegraph Wireless Company.

Their agents conducted sessions, demonstrating how to use the sets, for members of the club. On 1st Line Beach, a series of receiving sets were displayed for sale to encourage curiosity in the new medium. The club’s station began regular broadcasts by July, from Halloways Garden in Egmore.

The club offered its members practical training on manipulating the apparatus, opportunities to attend lectures by experts like W.H. Calway, as well as exclusive access to important radio journals.

In an effort to increase membership, the management initiated drives specifically to appropriate students and ladies. Even a bar was opened on its premises to appeal to a wider demographic.

It was, however, only with the relaying of recorded concerts from the newly-built ‘draped studios’ the radio club hit the jackpot.

The recorded concerts of instrumental pieces, vocal compositions and monologues by humorists proved to be hugely popular. Within the first year, the club aired around 40 English and 52 Indian concerts that captivated the nascent listening public in the city.

By 1927, the club, which primarily relied on amateur local talent, began attracting professional artistes. So much so that radio listeners’ clubs began to crop up. One reader from Madras, for instance, in a letter to the editor in The Hindu talks of the need to start a listeners’ club.

The club, however, was forced to shut shop having run into financial trouble. The service was continued by the Corporation which ran it as a municipal service from 1929.

There were ambitious plans of expanding the broadcasting service through the Presidency, including in other areas. Loudspeakers were to be strategically placed in important parts of city.

Twice every week, after 5.30 p.m., the beaches of Marina, Santhome and the High Court would resound with the reverb of amplified radio broadcasts of music, and 10-minute lectures. Radio was to be used as an integral element in classroom teaching as well, with indoor radio receivers being fixed in Corporation schools.

Nine years later, in June, All India Radio established its station in Madras, taking over the service. The radio wave, as it were, had already made a sweep in the Presidency.

Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM launched in Jammu on 10th of October alongwith its two bombastic RJs Mirchi Shwetima and Mirchi Nishant Vikram. Mirchi Shwetima pumps in energy to the city every morning starting 7 am and within a few months, has changed the city so much so that her name is synonymous with khushi throughout the city now. School and college going students say that she just understands them and their weird minds so much that they can’t believe it.

Mirchi Shwetima, originally hails from Udhampur, but left a very high-paying job in an MNC in Delhi to follow her passion on radio in Jammu. She joined Mirchi and gave her days and nights to her training to know how to enrich the city with her voice every morning, no matter what.

Shwetima says, “Radio is no doubt a passive medium, but it provides primary relief to everyone who is its friend. Just look at Caravan radios that are doing rounds now all over again. It’s because people like one-on-one connect that radio offers. It is also a medium that everyone can afford, has always been, to listen to soothing music when you are low and upbeat music when you are just so high on energy. Also, radio gives me the opportunity to connect with people who feel different about situations but cannot speak about those things on face; it provides the beauty of anonymity to the caller and the listener. I want the people of Jammu to be proud of their rich and varied heritage. I want kids to come back, create more jobs, and make our state proud. It always makes me emotional when the people who are from Jammu say that – kuch nahi hai Jammu main. Jab hum hi kuch nahi karenge, toh kuch kaise badlega”

The hawa is tense, but the thoughts and ideas are not. Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM plans to bring more and more joy to this city that has been through too many testing times. Radio Loves Jammu and Jammu loves Radio.

Because Mirchi sunney wale always khush!



By Khushboo Matoo, Programming Head at Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM, Jammu