Tuning Into History: The Evolution of Radio from International to National Waves

Few inventions have shaped human communication as profoundly as radio. From a scientific curiosity in a laboratory to the soundtrack of world wars, and from colonial-era broadcasting clubs to a national institution reaching nearly every corner of India – the story of radio is one of technology, politics, and the enduring human need to connect. Understanding where radio came from is key to understanding what it became, and why it still matters.

The science that started it all
From wireless telegraphy to mass medium
The BBC model: A different path
Radio at war: A weapon of mass persuasion
Radio in Nazi Germany
Radio and the Allied war effort
Radio comes to India: The amateur beginnings
The Indian Broadcasting Company: Radio’s first formal chapter
The birth of All India Radio
Radio during India’s independence struggle
AIR after independence: Building a national network
From Hertz to digital: Radio’s continuing evolution

The science that started it all

Radio’s origins lie in 19th-century science. In 1864, James Clerk Maxwell proposed that light, radio waves, and X-rays were all forms of electromagnetic radiation. Between 1886 and 1888, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz confirmed this experimentally by transmitting electromagnetic waves through open space. These findings laid the theoretical foundation for everything that followed.

The practical leap came with Guglielmo Marconi. In 1895, Marconi sent a wireless Morse Code message to a receiver more than a kilometer away, and the following year he secured a patent in England for the first “wireless telegraphy” system. Though several inventors across Russia and the United States were working on similar devices simultaneously, Marconi’s combination of the right political connections and business acumen gave him global recognition. Other key contributors – including Reginald Fessenden and Lee De Forest – worked to build transmitters capable of carrying not just dots and dashes, but actual voice and music over long distances.

From wireless telegraphy to mass medium

The first recognized radio broadcast occurred in 1906, when audio transmission became possible for the first time. But it was the 1920s that transformed radio from an experimental novelty into a genuine mass medium. From about 1920 to 1945, radio developed into the first electronic mass medium, reaching into millions of homes with news and entertainment at a speed that no prior technology had managed.

In the United States, broadcasting got an enormous boost when around 30 radio stations launched in different cities between 1920 and 1921. By 1926, RCA and AT&T had merged their radio networks into the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), giving rise to nationwide programming. This commercial model, built on advertising revenue, soon defined the “Golden Age of Radio” – an era of variety shows, soap operas, news programs, and dramas that made radio the centerpiece of daily life.

The BBC model: A different path

Not every country followed America’s commercial route. Britain took a starkly different approach. In 1926, a British Parliamentary committee recommended replacing the existing private broadcaster with a public-service institution, leading to the formation of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1927. Under its founding Director General John Reith, the BBC was programmed with the purpose of improving society rather than chasing ratings. This paternalistic philosophy – broadcasting what audiences “needed” rather than what they might want – strongly shaped radio across Europe and, later, in many of its colonies.

The BBC World Service began shortwave broadcasts in 1932, transmitting news and cultural programs to audiences in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Shortwave technology, which allowed signals to bounce off the ionosphere and travel thousands of miles, made international radio broadcasting truly global.

Radio at war: A weapon of mass persuasion

If the 1920s were radio’s golden commercial era, the 1930s and 1940s turned it into something far more consequential – a tool of war. As the world moved toward conflict in the 1930s, radio broadcasting became an instrument of national war efforts, used both for domestic morale-building and for international propaganda, with the Axis powers adopting it first and applying it most aggressively.

Radio in Nazi Germany

The Nazi regime used radio to spread propaganda and manufacture a sense of shared national identity. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, understood that radio had the power to reach millions simultaneously and encouraged the production of cheap receivers called Volksempfänger – “People’s Receivers” – to ensure every German household could hear Hitler’s voice. Just months into World War II, German state radio was transmitting close to 11 hours of programming daily, much of it in English and aimed at Allied populations.

Radio and the Allied war effort

The Allied powers responded in kind. In the United States, around 90% of American families owned a radio during World War II, making it the most accessible medium for both information and propaganda. President Roosevelt’s famous “fireside chats” reached tens of millions of listeners, building civilian support for the war effort. Network radio news truly came of age during World War II, with journalists like Edward R. Murrow of CBS broadcasting live from London during the Blitz, bringing the reality of war into American living rooms. The Armed Forces Radio Service also broadcast entertainment programs to troops stationed around the world via shortwave.

The Voice of America launched in 1942 specifically to counter Nazi propaganda, while Radio Free Europe broadcast to audiences behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. These examples cemented radio’s status not just as entertainment, but as a strategic geopolitical instrument.

Radio comes to India: The amateur beginnings

India’s radio story began modestly, as it did everywhere else – with enthusiasts rather than institutions. In June 1923, the Radio Club of Bombay made the first-ever broadcast in the country, followed five months later by the setting up of the Calcutta Radio Club. Similar clubs emerged in Madras. These were small, privately run operations, but they demonstrated that radio had arrived on Indian shores and that there was an audience eager to receive it.

The Indian Broadcasting Company: Radio’s first formal chapter

Recognizing the medium’s commercial and public potential, the colonial government moved to formalize broadcasting. The Indian Broadcasting Company (IBC) was established on July 23, 1927, marking the birth of organized radio broadcasting in the country – a date now celebrated as National Broadcasting Day in India. The IBC was authorized to operate two stations: the Bombay station, which launched on July 23, 1927, and the Calcutta station, which followed on August 26, 1927. The Bombay station was inaugurated by Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India, a ceremony that underscored how seriously the colonial establishment viewed the new medium.

However, the IBC proved financially unviable. The IBC struggled to remain financially stable, and when it collapsed in 1930, British authorities established the Indian State Broadcasting Service (ISBS), bringing radio broadcasting under centralized government control. The government took over the Bombay and Calcutta stations under the Department of Industries and Labour and ran the ISBS on an experimental basis from April 1930, before making it permanent in May 1932.

The birth of All India Radio

The transition from the ISBS to a full national broadcaster came with the appointment of a key figure. In 1935, Lionel Fielden, a senior producer at the BBC, was appointed Controller of Broadcasting at the ISBS – and a year later, the ISBS was renamed All India Radio, airing its first broadcast on January 19, 1936. The renaming was not merely cosmetic. It signaled ambition – a radio network for all of India, not just two colonial cities.

Also in 1936, a private radio station called Akashvani was set up in Mysore by M.V. Gopalaswami, a professor of psychology, at his own home – a station that would later lend its name to AIR itself when “Akashvani” was officially adopted as the national broadcaster’s on-air identity in 1956, meaning “voice from the sky” in Sanskrit. The Central News Organisation (CNO) came into existence in August 1937, giving AIR its formal news-gathering infrastructure.

Radio during India’s independence struggle

Under British rule, AIR operated under strict editorial controls, with news filtered through official colonial sources. But radio also became a tool of resistance. Nationalist groups aligned with the Indian Independence Movement launched underground stations, including Congress Radio in 1942, which broadcast uncensored news and messages during the Quit India Movement.

When independence finally came in 1947, AIR became a central voice of the new nation. It was the medium through which Jawaharlal Nehru’s historic “Tryst with Destiny” speech was broadcast to the country. At the time of independence, there were just six radio stations in India – at Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Tiruchirapalli, and Lucknow – covering only 2.5% of the country’s geographic area and reaching about 11% of the population.

AIR after independence: Building a national network

Post-independence, the expansion of AIR became a nation-building project. In 1957, the Vividh Bharati service was launched – a popular entertainment channel featuring film music, drama, and comedy – partly to compete with the widely listened-to Radio Ceylon. FM broadcasting began on July 23, 1977, in Chennai, and gradually expanded. In 1976, Doordarshan was separated from AIR as a distinct television broadcaster.

Today, AIR operates 482 broadcast stations and 652 transmitters, broadcasting in 23 languages and 146 dialects. Its External Services Division reaches over 100 countries, and its domestic network covers approximately 92% of India’s geographic area – a remarkable transformation from six stations serving a fraction of the population at independence. The organization is now one arm of Prasar Bharati, India’s autonomous public service broadcasting corporation, established by an Act of Parliament in 1997.

From Hertz to digital: Radio’s continuing evolution

Radio has never stood still. The 1957 introduction of the Sony TR-63, the first mass-produced transistor radio, brought the medium into pockets and made it truly portable for the first time. FM technology improved sound quality dramatically. Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), the technology now being adopted by AIR in its shift from analog to digital transmission, represents the latest chapter. Meanwhile, community radio – with 481 community radio stations in India as of 2023 – has taken the medium back to its grassroots, giving voice to farmers, tribal communities, and local populations across the country.

The trajectory from Hertz’s electromagnetic wave experiments to a smartphone app streaming AIR broadcasts is not simply a story of technological progress. It is a story of how a medium adapts – to war, to politics, to independence, to the digital age – while retaining its core power: the ability to reach people where they are, in their own language, on their own terms.

What do you think? Given that radio survived the rise of television and now competes with podcasts and streaming platforms, what unique role do you believe radio – particularly public radio like AIR – still plays in a country as linguistically and geographically diverse as India? And should the colonial-era model of state control over radio broadcasting be seen as a burden or a foundation for AIR’s present reach?

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Table of Contents

The science that started it all 🔗

From wireless telegraphy to mass medium 🔗

The BBC model: A different path 🔗

Radio at war: A weapon of mass persuasion 🔗

Radio in Nazi Germany 🔗

Radio and the Allied war effort 🔗

Radio comes to India: The amateur beginnings 🔗

The Indian Broadcasting Company: Radio’s first formal chapter 🔗

The birth of All India Radio 🔗

Radio during India’s independence struggle 🔗

AIR after independence: Building a national network 🔗

From Hertz to digital: Radio’s continuing evolution 🔗