Before Podcasts, Remembering How Radios Shaped Our Mornings Two Decades Ago

“You are listening to 91.9 FM…”
(buzz… crackle…)
“…today’s headlines…”
(another buzz, and suddenly, a song from a 90s film begins to play).

Advertisment

Add The Better India As A Trusted Source

And there she stops tuning. Slowly, her attention shifts to the vegetables sizzling on the stove, the radio playing softly beside her in the kitchen. She tosses the vegetables in the wok as she hums the song playing in the background. 

This was a familiar morning in 66-year-old Bhavani Krishnamurthy’s kitchen around a decade ago. Her day simply wouldn’t begin without switching on the radio.

“The first thing I do after getting up every morning is head to the kitchen to make a hot cup of filter coffee, and even before I begin to boil the milk, I would first switch on my radio and listen to devotional songs as I make the coffee,” recalls Chennai-based Bhavani.

The radio was a stressbuster for Bhavani. “The songs, the live news updates, astrological predictions, and sometimes the spontaneous jokes made by the RJ would bring a smile to my face as I cooked meals in my kitchen,” she shares.

For the last six years, Bhavani has been looking for the radio she used 10 years ago. But she hasn’t been able to find it. Today, her kitchen is quiet. She steps in, makes her meal and coffee, and steps out immediately. The void hasn’t been filled yet.

When the radio kept time and told stories

For 45-year-old Ramya Senthil Kumar, one thing she misses the most about having a radio at home is the storytelling episode on the Vividh Bharati channel.

“That was my favourite. Around 7:40 every morning, the RJ used to narrate a story with a moral and end it with a joke along the same lines. It was just a five-minute episode, but I would listen to it and then rush to school,” she smiles.

Beyond entertainment, radio was also how Ramya kept track of time.

“We did not have mobile phones or watches in those days. I would instead keep track of time based on the shows aired on the radio. If the storytelling show was over, I knew I was late for school,” she shares.

On the other side of the country, in Ayodhya, 31-year-old Unnati Pandey also says she grew up listening to Vividh Bharati.

“This channel was a regional one. They covered content across topics — culture, sports, general news — and I remember how well they related to the common man,” she says.

Unnati feels radio shows aired today are “superficial”.

“I somehow feel the real-life sense is missing today. The channels only talk about what’s popular on social media,” she opines.

Tuning knobs, cricket scores, and cassette tapes

Brothers Venkatesh K T and Krishnamurthy K T recall listening to live cricket scores and their favourite Hindi songs on Radio Ceylon.

“Fidgeting with the knobs in those days and successfully cracking some station to hear my favourite song was my way of passing time. Cricket commentary, too, was one of the best things to listen to,” shares Venkatesh.

Today, we live in an era where AI helps us record every meeting or call. We have countless apps to listen to our favourite songs, and platforms like YouTube that allow us to revisit shows years later.

But did you know that in the 80s and 90s, there was already a way to record your favourite song or show aired on the radio?

Forty-five-year-old Srivatsav Murthy recalls this golden memory.

“I knew when my favourite show was aired on the radio channel, and I would keep an empty cassette ready in the player. As soon as my show or song began, I would press the record button, and the cassette would record it,” he shares.

With so many memories attached to radio across generations, which one do you relate to the most?

AI, technology, and apps may take over. They are signs of progress, undoubtedly. But revisiting these radio memories reminds us of a time when listening was slower, shared, and deeply personal — when a crackling voice from a small box could fill an entire home with warmth.

And perhaps that is why, even today, radio continues to echo in our hearts long after the dial has gone mute.