Passion for Transmission

From Deccan Herald ...............

M V Gopalaswamy set up India's first private radio station
in Mysore, Mala Kumar reports.
The first Radio Sangeet Sammelan on All India Radio was
held in 1957. Over 20 years before that a professor of
psychology was trying to get his then nine-year-old son
to sing something into the microphone to inaugurate the
professor's private radio station in Mysore.
The boy forgot his lines and started crying. That
particular sammelan may not have taken off but Professor
M V Gopalaswamy nurtured his passion for radio
transmission and achieved something immortal - he set up
India's first private radio station, in Mysore.
He is recognised as the first person to have used the work
'Akashvani' for a radio transmission. Akashvani was adopted
as the official name of All India Radio in 1957, exactly 50
years ago.
The professor was caught by the romance of airwaves when he
came across an unused 50 watt transmitter.
Prof Gopalaswamy set to work on it and in September 1935,
his room in 'Vithala Vihar' in Mysore's Vontikoppal area
became a radio station. He called the station 'Akashvani'.
He invited singers to come to his house and in return for
music rendered the artistes were sent off with tambula and
respect.
Gopalaswamy, then serving under the Maharaja of Mysore,
also invited his brother-in-law to give a talk on radio.
The young man used this opportunity to vent his discontent
against the Maharaja. So levid was the professor that he
threw the relative out of the house! And it took six-months
of conciliatary efforts on the part of the family to get
the speaker back into the house.
Gopalaswamy soon imported a 250-watt transmitter.The
station continued with support from the public and the
Mysore Municipality till it was taken over by the Mysore
State in 1941.
The enterprising Dr Gopalaswamy had also established the
department of Psychology at the University of Mysore in
1924 after obtaining his Ph D in London under psychologist
Dr Charles Spearman. The department is recognised as
being the second oldest department of psychology in the
country.
"During the early years of radio transmission in Mysore
the station had fixed loudspeakers outside the building.
People sitting in the park nearby would run across to
the station and request that a particular music be
played.
The very next minute, the air would be filled with the
requested piece of music," recounts retired AIR Station
Director Dr Jyotsna Kamat.
"According to family lore, my uncle used to sit across
the station and listen to the music being played. His
favourite song was the Tamil hit 'Meen Pudippoma'.
He used to keep requesting the station to play this
song!" says media person Bharathi Ghanshyam, grand
daughter of Gopalaswamy.
It is debatable whether this is what Mahatma Gandhi
meant when he called All India Radio 'A medium of
unparalleled immediacy, intimacy and power'! Known
for its emphasis on reliability, credibility and
clear aim to educate and entertain, AIR remained
a popular mass medium until television wooed away
its audience. But with the advent of FM channels,
radio has regained its popularity.
Says radio jockey-cum-model Pavithra Ghanshyam,
"the corridors of Akashvani in Mysore intimidated
and awed me. Radio is a fantastic medium.
On my shows I get calls from city slickers as well
as from people calling themselves Balehannu
Puttuswamy! Somewhere in my mind, the fact that my
great grandfather Gopalaswamy was a pioneer in the
field of radio has always drawn me to the media.
Radio is not what it was in his time, as there is
a constant need to reinvent," says the young RJ.
AIR has grown. Today it has a network of 223
broadcasting centres with 143 medium frequency
(MW), 54 high frequency (SW) and 161 FM transmitters.
Even as the reach, range and style of mass media
changes every day, channels and one word continues
to instill a sense of continuity and patriotism -
'Ye hai Akashvani...' The beauty is that the word
for 'voice from the air' is the same in almost
all Indian languages.

http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jul82007/finearts2007070711530.asp