Radio killed radio in India, says Ameen Sayani

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">BANGALORE: It wasn''t television that killed radio in India. It was radio itself, said the golden voice that had the country in raptures and ears glued to the radio every evening a few decades ago -- Ameen Sayani.<br /><br />The man synonymous with the <span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Binaca Geet Mala</span> and other film music shows that people hungered for on All India Radio (AIR) was in Bangalore on Wednesday to talk to students of the Convergence Institute of Media Management and Information Technology Studies (COMMITS), at a seminar ''Radio: The Magic of the Medium''.<br /><br />Apart from giving an insiders view of the functioning of AIR, Sayani also crticised the AIR for a lack of professionalism that led to a decline in its listenership.AIR did not allow its programmes to become too popular, almost took them off air as soon as they did, banned film music, and decided to grade all classical musicians, he claimed -- measures that ultimately led to their own decline.<br /><br />Remininscing his AIR days, Sayani also simultaneously traced the evolution and the popularity of the medium before Independence till around 1951.<br /><br />What Sayani stressed on and all other speakers also agreed on was: "Communication has to have a social purpose." He advised the radio fraternity to come together as a family, complementing each other and working together for a social purpose.<br /><br />"Radio should serve the purpose of clarification, of helping the society to grow politically, socially and economically, and bridge divides in the national interest of the country," he said.<br /><br />Director of Voices (Bangalore) Ashish Sen emphasised how community radio could go a long way in bridging the information divide by empowering communities. He gave the example of community-radio empowered Budhikote, a village in rural Karnataka, where people have been making programmes that interest their own community. Unfortunately, the lack of an approved licensing procedure has kept the magic of community radio inaccessible.</div> </div>