ADVERTISEMENT

AIRing earthy flavours

May 02, 2019 04:23 pm | Updated December 03, 2021 10:17 am IST

All India Radio, Tiruchi, completes 80 years. Staff, past and current share memories

All India Radio station, Tiruchi

Information is a click away and there is no dearth of entertainment channels. Amidst all this onslaught, All India Radio is holding its own, staying vibrant and relevant. The two-part article that appeared in this supplement on November 9 and 16, 2018, was about the exploits of Chennai AIR, which had completed 80 years. Now it is time to look at the Tiruchi Station, which will be touching the same milestone on May 16.

In 1941, A.S. Bokhari, first director general of AIR, made this observation about listeners in Madras and Tiruchi, “I cannot think of any other place that has such knowledgeable classical music rasikas.”

Music was a major component in Tiruchi AIR’s broadcasts. Broadcasts of Tiruvaiyaru Aradhana began in 1944 and continue to this day. Senior announcer

ADVERTISEMENT

Chitra Valentina gives the live commentary for the Aradhana. “Every year I choose a different theme to speak on — Pancharatna kritis, Bangalore Nagaratnamma’s role in the Aradhana, analysing various aspects of Tyagaraja’s kritis and so on,” says Chitra.

ADVERTISEMENT

 

Head of Programmes, K. Natarajan , explains the enormous work that broadcasting from Tiruvaiyaru entails. “We start preparations in October. We must have much more than a studio set up there. A dozen mikes are used, and two stages must be covered. Satellite uplink terminal must also be taken to Tiruvaiyaru.

All Southern states, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata get to hear the group rendering of Pancharatna kritis. All stations in Tamil Nadu broadcast the concerts. Two National programmes are broadcast from Tiruvaiyaru apart from two live concerts to all stations,” says Natarajan.

ADVERTISEMENT

Nellai Subramaniam , who joined AIR Tiruchi in 1949, studied music under Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer’s sishya Kothamangalam Ganapathy Subramania Iyer. Subramaniam came up with tunes for the farm broadcast section also. Thenkachi Swaminathan wrote lyrics about insects and pests and Subramaniam took care of the tunes. The latter roped in classical singers to sing songs on health and hygiene.

 

Subramaniam set to tune Tamil poetry, including Aimperumkappiyam and Kutrala Kuravanji . He did a musical on the life of Arunagirinathar. A listener wrote in: “The mental imagery evoked by this musical gave me the feeling that I was watching a film.” Another musical about people and customs of Kollimalai was titled ‘Kolliyampaavai.’ Subramaniam ran a programme, where he would explain a Tyagaraja kriti, and this would be followed by a singer rendering it. As many as 200 kritis were covered. He did a similar programme for the Saiva Thirumurai and Tiruppugazh. A day before his retirement, he produced a musical on the life of Muthu Thandavar, in which he used only two instruments — flute and veena. “Although I was in the rural section, A. Subramaniam trained me to sing, and in AIR dramas, I invariably had a ‘singing’ role,” says Vanmathy Kannan.

Talking of the music section, 99-year old P.V. Krishnamurthy, retired Director General of Doordarshan, (https://www.thehindu.com/society/meet-pvk-first-director...of.../article24994708 .ece) recalls T. Sankaran’s (Veena Dhanammal’s grandson) stint in AIR Tiruchi. On a day when K.B. Sundarambal was scheduled to sing, there was a bereavement in her family. Assuming she wouldn’t come for the concert, Sankaran made alternative arrangements. But she turned up, and said, “I cannot disappoint the listeners.” MKT Bhagavathar once pedalled his way to AIR on a borrowed cycle, because the railway gate was closed, and his car couldn’t get through.

Nonagenarian Kasturi says that a nagaswaram artiste cycled all the way from Chidambaram to Tiruchi, because there was a railway strike! “Currently, ‘Nada Pravaham’ is a popular programme, where a raga is explained with excerpts from kritis. The programme ends with a film song, to show how the raga has been used in film music,” say Dr. B. Shivakumar and B.V. Jayashri, of the music division.

G. Selvam, who retired as Station Director of Madras AIR, says that he enjoyed his years in Tiruchi, because there was a lot of outdoor broadcasting to do. On one such occasion in 1973, Selvam met dasavadani Ramaiah Pillai from Virudhunagar. Pillai was imprisoned because of his participation in the freedom movement. He was hit so hard on the head by a policeman, that he lost his sight. But when he came out of prison, his wife Sita read to him and his memory retained everything he heard. Selvam interviewed Ramaiah Pillai and broadcast it. When he moved to Doordarshan, Madras, Selvam invited Ramaiah Pillai to do a programme on TV, which was telecast as a Pongal special.

In the 1970s, when Madurai Tamil Sangam’s new building was inaugurated, there was a concert of Bharati songs by M.S. Subbulakshmi. MS spoke for 20 minutes before she sang. At the end of the concert, MS’s husband Sadasivam said, “I used to sing well. But after my wife became popular as a singer, I gave up singing.” The programme went on air with speeches of both husband and wife.

Kasturi remembers some lighter moments. In a programme in 1940, a mridangam maker was to be interviewed. He went through rehearsals, but when the live programme went on air, and he was asked how mridangams were made, he said, “Come to my workshop and have a look, instead of asking me such questions.”

Kasturi talks about a staffer, who made some money on the side. Artistes were paid by cheque, with AIR’s seal endorsing it. Imperial Bank (now State Bank) would pay cash upon presentation of the cheque. But there were artistes who wanted cash immediately. One enterprising employee of Tiruchi AIR would give the artistes cash and later encash the cheque. “Of course, he would deduct a commission of ten per cent, as ‘fee’ for his service, before handing over the cash!” chuckles Kasturi.

In 1987, Ilasai Sundaram came up with a feature called ‘Ivaigal Pesinaal,’ where the characters were animals discussing their problems. It won a prize from the Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union. Another programme that won the same award was produced in 1988, by A. Subramaniam, who headed the folk division. This feature showed how folk songs were a part of our lives from cradle to grave. “We recorded the bleating of goats, the sound of the Cauvery, the tweets of birds whose night roost was a tree in the AIR campus. For a thirty minute programme, we worked for 30 days. Nellai Subramaniam took care of the musical content. When singers sang folk songs, the sounds we had recorded gave the impression of the songs being sung in a village setting,” says Sudarsanam, who was assistant producer for this programme.

Tiruchi AIR, which has a separate folk section, discovered Kollangudi Karuppayi, who later sang in films. Tiruchi station is at present in the process of recording folk songs, as an archival activity. The Government of India has asked all stations to record, photograph and videograph folk songs in a natural setting.

Assistant director of programmes, S. Periasami, and his team have collected songs from Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Pudukkottai, Namakkal, Salem, Nagapattinam, Tiruchi, Karur, Perambalur (Kolakanatham temple and Mariamman temple).

 

In Kollimalai, while the women sang, an old man kept criticising them. It turned out that he had been a singer once. But because the women had deviated from the original folk tunes, he had stopped singing. Then the AIR team cajoled him and asked him to sing for them. He did so, keeping beat on a tin tray! “All the folk songs we collected have been notated, and the lyrics translated to Hindi and English. Dr. Sivakumar, Dr. Arivazhagan and Dr. Wilson — all students of folk scholar Dr. Aru Ramanathan — have helped in transcribing the songs. This exercise is given the title, ‘Sanskar Sangeeth’ by the Central Government. We call it ‘Mann Manakkum Madhura Geethangal,’” says Periasami.

Tiruchi AIR has an excellent archival section, and a well-stocked library. “We have 6,600 tapes containing music, talk shows and dramas produced in Tiruchi. Around 5,000 tapes have been digitised, which is roughly 2,235 hours of programmes,” say A. Rajaram and P. Kamala, who oversee the library and the archives.

 

FM Rainbow has an audience of about 20 lakhs, and covers Tiruchi, Perambalur, Thanjavur, Pudukottai and Ariyalur. ‘Angu Pangu,’ a comic take on life, is a popular programme on FM Rainbow, and has a mixed audience of students, housewives, and professionals. “A topic is announced as soon as the programme begins, and listeners call in with their opinion. Some callers get serious, and we have to get the programme back on track, so that the humorous tone is not lost,” say anchors Vasudevan and Gopalakrishnan.,

 

Natarajan is upbeat about the impact of radio on youngsters. Says the Programme Head: “When the Commissioner of Tiruchi Corporation spoke on FM Rainbow about composting, a school boy called the station. He said that he pulped kitchen waste in a food blender, made patties, dried them and supplied the dry cakes to those interested.”

This is a Premium article available exclusively to our subscribers. To read 250+ such premium articles every month
You have exhausted your free article limit.
Please support quality journalism.
You have exhausted your free article limit.
Please support quality journalism.
The Hindu operates by its editorial values to provide you quality journalism.
This is your last free article.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT