Long before these on-demand, blink-and-you-miss audio-visual snippets of music/politics/pop culture were in vogue, there were limited avenues for young musicians and bands to take their music to the masses. Public media where one could hear the best of the then-contemporary Western and Indian music was even more scarce. Most private radio channels that flourished in the 2000s in India catered to mainstream/commercial Bollywood music.

Largely (and thankfully) impervious to the similar sounding frequencies around it, All India Radio (AIR) continued to serve idiosyncratic musical treats during this time. Post the 15 seconds of a very recognisable AIR jingle, the 102.6 FM frequency would break into its signature 10 pm musical extravaganzas. You had the “livewire” at 10 pm on Sunday evenings (and similar shows every day) by RJ Sujay John/Sushant Malhotra (alias RJ Satan). “You asked for it (YAFI)” in the afternoons at 2 pm, hosted by RJ Vandana Vadehra/RJ Monalisa Dutta. The “wicked hour” at 1 am. As teenagers, some of us would rush back home from school to catch the 2 pm show on a rainy afternoon, waiting for our fan letters to be read on air, and for our requested songs to be played. On-demand audio and video was just making inroads in India around that time, but could never match the joy of the song you requested being played on air.

These shows were not a mere conglomeration of songs and commercials lined up for 60 minutes, like the radio we know today. The songs were almost always preceded and followed by intriguing trivia about the band or the song.

AIR introduced a generation of listeners to bands and artists like Aerosmith, The Doors, Pearl Jam, Santana, Deep Purple, Queen, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Michael Jackson, John Denver and many more. Amongst the Indian bands, one would often hear a Parikrama, Indian Ocean, Avial, Junkyard Groove, Euphoria, Agnee, and Indus Creed blasting through the AIR frequencies. More recently, RJ Sarthak from 95 FM reinvented these shows with his own branding and presentation while keeping the conversation and quality/choice of songs distinct from the commercial Bollywood/mainstream music.

However, with the advent of on-demand video and radio, the death of radio (of all forms and hues) was inevitable. It was only a few days back that popular radio station Fever FM announced the closure of its operations. Its CEO painstakingly described the closure saying that “the end of radio is closer than you expect”. It is rather sad and ironic that this announcement would come just a fortnight before when we celebrate World Radio Day on February 13.

The memory may fade, but it may not be today.

“Let’s hope you never leave, old friend/Like all good things, on you we depend/So stick around, ‘cause we might miss you/When we grow tired of all this visual/You had your time, you had the power/You’ve yet to have your finest hour/Radio (radio)” — Radio Ga Ga, Queen

The writer is an Advocate on Record (AOR) at the Supreme Court of India and visiting faculty at NLU Delhi and NUJS Kolkata