The perishing relevance of Radio

Vanshika Kothari

Relevance of Radio

“Who even listens to the radio anymore?”
“I only listen to the FM channels for the songs.”
These are common statements among the present generation when a conversation about the radio is brought up. And maybe a part of this can be attributed to newer, more attractive mediums of gaining knowledge or entertainment replacing the radio, like a new shiny toy replacing the old one for a child.
But the relevance of radio, specially in India, has been immense.

Radio truly embodied the term “mass communication “ for the first time and allowed aural transfer of information in the 20th century. And while most say Marconi was its inventor, being from Kolkata, I was always told Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose was the pioneer of radio technology long before him. And while this still remains a controversy, something so revolutionary coming from a caged India in the 1920s in itself is truly a remarkable achievement.

And so while discussing the relevance of radio, I believe it is of utmost importance to credit its role in the Indian freedom struggle. The radio played a crucial role in spreading Gandhi’s message and the principles of the Quit India Movement across different parts of the country, especially at a time when most national leaders were arrested, and the press was censored. Young and Independent India also used radio to educate its population about health, hygiene and family planning.

But with changing times and the advent of television, radio has certainly lost its appeal. It did reinvent itself with FM channels mostly heard in car radios, and so for some of us, the radio is still a part of our daily routine. With expansion of technology, radio on the mobile phone is also gaining traction and so with its reinvention I believe, its relevance will also have to be reassessed. To rural areas, the radio is a still an important source of information as well as entertainment. The real strength of radio is in its personal nature. I believe that the power of radio is not that it speaks to millions , rather , that it provides a sense of intimacy and privacy in those conversations.