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vAnoliyum thirai isaiyum

Topic started by sriram (@ 24.206.72.218) on Sun Sep 21 23:31:37 EDT 2003.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

About a year ago, I read in the Hindu that AIR is planning to auction some of its exclusive music recordings & collections. I had wanted to start this thread then, but I forgot about it. After reading recent mentions of Ilangai vAnoli & AIR in SOTD & other threads, I thought that this topic needs some attention. The influence of radio stations on individual preferences & the "unsung" promotion that these radio channels gave to tamil film music & culture has hardly been chronicled in these pages, other than sporadically strewn pieces of information on various threads.

What have been your experiences listening to tfm on the radio? What were your favourite programmes & what were their specialities (for eg, favourite anchors, programmes with new songs etc..)? any nostalgic memories, stories, a few words on what radio meant/means to you...

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Responses:

• From: sriram (@ 24.206.72.218) on: Sun Sep 21 23:32:17 EDT 2003
  
  Let me start this thread...
  
  I have hardly listened to TFM on radio.
  
  My pAtti was an avid carnatic music radio listener. when I was in high school, radio in our house was her monopoly. my umpteen cousins would get her radio after radio from America, Singapore, Malaysia (sounds like Gopal palpodi, doesn't it? how about an ad like "radio endrAle ninaivukku varuvadhu.. Gopal Palpodi!!"). she would manage to ruin all of them by forgetting to switch them off, dropping them a couple of times.. :-) I still remember the errands that I had to make to get her the 4 batteries she needed to run this thing at full blast. at most times, it was just loud static, much to our annoyance. AIR Madras A & B stations had almost 4-5 kutcheries everyday starting at about 5:30 in the morning (midnight, if you ask me). I would be trying to get some sleep in a futile effort against this loud, screechy contraption. not nice memories there :)
  
  anyway, it was great on AIR's part to patronise classical music when market forces demanded that they run "lalaakku dol dappi ma" or worse, "churake dil mera" all day. Here is a link from the Hindu archives showing a piece that they had written in 1953.
  http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2003/07/19/stories/2003071900250900.htm
  
  then during college, there was this city-wide craze for Madras FM's Listener's choice. I got introduced to it because my friend auditioned to become a DJ. It had a couple of good DJs and they played a variety of popular songs by the Eagles, Queen, Def Leppard etc.. After being introduced to film music, ARR, IR, MSV (pretty much in that order) late in my life, I tried prying away the radio from my pAtti and listened to some TFM whenever I got the chance.
  
  Other than that, all I have is wishes and longings.. of the things that I've missed, the things I'm missing.. listening to a PBS-PS duet after the host has given her customary introduction in chaste tamil, during a full-moon night in motta maadi during mArgazhi when there is a power cut and just the sound of a cooling breeze wafting through the coconut trees.. I can only heave a heavy sigh.
  
  
  
• From: Raj (@ 206.97.63.112) on: Mon Sep 22 00:43:48 EDT 2003
  
  Sriram: There was not much of TFM in AIR in the 40s and 50s. About 30 minutes a week, if I remember correctly. All old songs -MKT, T.R.Mahalingam, Chinnappa et al. I used to listen around 7:30 PM. In those days radio was a luxury. You needed a license. It was vacuum tube radio costing about Rs 400, a huge sum for that time. We had one, Murphy or Phillips, the size of a 19 inch TV. It was there for news and classical music. If you wanted TFM you tuned to Radio Ceylon- 41 meters or 60 meters. I remember Mayilvahanan in Radio Ceylon. News in AIR was interesting for their English. I listened dutifully to Roshni Menon (I think). Only after visiting England and living in US I found out that it was neither British English or American English. I am not sure whether they still talk that way! If you wanted a 'Transistor'(transistorized radio), it had to be smuggled from Singapore or Ceylon. A popular hobby among engineering students was to build a vaccum tube radio from a kit at a small fraction of the cost of a radio sold in stores. It was fun and you could have more bands at your disposal. Those were the days! There were only three AIR stations in Tamilnadu -Madras A, Madras B and Trichy (one of the first in India or the first in south?). To avoid license fees we built crystal radios. It worked if you lived close to the radio station. I remember building one in Trichy with friends and taking turns to listen. That was fun! Now, with all that Walkman and other portables you miss a lot of that. Life is much easier these days!
  
  
• From: Raj (@ 206.97.63.112) on: Mon Sep 22 01:02:30 EDT 2003
  
  Sriram: It should have read '...neither British English nor American English...'
  
  
• From: Cinema Virumbi (@ 203.197.220.195) on: Mon Sep 22 03:26:07 EDT 2003
  
  
  Sriram/Raj,
  
  I have fond memories of my school days where my faithful companion was a Philips transistor, which I used to reluctantly switch off only during study holidays! Sujatha has mentioned in some story that it is 'Vividha 'sadha' bharati' (the ever blasting 'Vividh bharati!').
  
  AIR(and subsequently DD) has contributed by coining some new words such as 'olichchiththiram' for Sound track, 'oliyum oLiyum' for the Tamil equivalent of 'Chitrahaar' etc., For jingles, they coined a word called ' salangaik kadhir' which somehow didn't appeal to the listeners!
  
  I will write some more at leisure!
  
  
• From: sriram (@ 163.181.251.9) on: Mon Sep 22 10:10:14 EDT 2003
  
  thanks Raj & CV. looking forward to hearing more from you & others.
  
  
• From: S Ramaswamy (@ 203.94.225.191) on: Mon Sep 22 12:00:28 EDT 2003
  
  Hi all,
  
  I am born and brought up in 'Amchi Mumbai' but still was initiated into listening to Tamil film songs by my sister, as well as Hindi film songs, on Radio Ceylon. My fav songs of both these languate films still are the 50s and 60s ones. I don't listen to the later songs barring some set to tunes by IR and have a good cassette collection of mostly 50s and 60s TFM.
  
  
• From: Selvan (@ 4.17.250.5) on: Mon Sep 22 14:25:00 EDT 2003
  
  Vanakkam,
  
  I was born in Ceylon. I moved to Canada when I was 16. The Ceylon radio played the amazing songs of TFM all year along. Most of the Eelam Tamils got their TFM music via the radio - ungal viruppam, oru thirai padal, pongum poom punal, vidumurai viruppam, paatukku paattu, are some of the programs that promoted TFM. The movies were promoted via the songs that got played on the radio. Ceylon had the first Tamil FM broadcast I believe sometime in 1986/87?
  
  The Eelam Tamil community all over the world have radio programs, a lot of them are 24 hours such as CTBC, Geethavani and CTR from Toronto; TRT from France, Another from London - a lot of these radios broadcast a lot of TFM all around the clock (as well as TV stations such as TVi-Toronto, Theepam-London, TRT-France - but this is another thread). Today there is Shakthi FM which is accessible via the internet broadasted on the FM dial from Sri Lanka. I have a lot of TFM music from all ages in CDs, I do listen to these when I am driving in the car and at home - but the most fun is when I am listening to the radio either in Toronto via one of these radios or via the internet - ShakthiFM. The fun is when listening to a good number when you don't expect it - the fun is also enjoying what others enjoy when the request the songs
  
  Eelam Tamils have always been radio fans and contunue to produce best of the radios - music, programs, hosts and DJs (KS Raja, BH.Abdul Hameed, and now Illayabarathy, Kalaichelvan, etc). There is something different when listening to TFM via the radio - I think it is more enjoyable
  
  
• From: sriram (@ 163.181.251.9) on: Mon Sep 22 19:06:54 EDT 2003
  
  S Ramaswamy & Selvan - thanks for sharing your thoughts. Radio Ceylon seems to be mentioned the most often in these threads. From what I gather, as long as the song is good, ceylon radio seems to have played the songs whether the film was released or not.
  
  
• From: sriram (@ 163.181.251.10) on: Wed Sep 24 17:13:28 EDT 2003
  
  hey people,
  no more responses? CV, innum konjam yezhudhunga!
  
  
• From: Selvan (@ 4.17.250.5) on: Wed Sep 24 18:24:47 EDT 2003
  
  So how many of you listen to Tamil Radio over the net? Radio like:
  
  - ShakthiFM (Ceylon)
  - Thendral (US)
  - Thamil Oli (Singapore)
  - Thamil Osai (BBC London)
  - ABC (France)
  - Australia Tamil Radio
  - CTBC (Toronto, Canada)
  - CTR (Tornto, Canada)
  
  And which one is your favourite? and Why?
  
  
• From: isai_nanban (@ 68.77.8.29) on: Wed Sep 24 18:53:41 EDT 2003
  
  radio srilanka and all the madras a, b, vividhbharathi, ungalviruppams all topped everything in the 80s. i enjoyed the malayalam 4 to 5p.m. slot also excellent. The "Maarivillu" on Mondays had a fantastic signature theme music apparently from an Hindi film I believe. Does anyone know the theme from which movie it was. It was a complete brass like IR (but orchestration was a bit different) and percussion suite kinda nearly 5 minutes... never heard anything like that anywhere for a film score!!!! pls help
  
  
• From: Prabhu (@ 156.153.255.134) on: Wed Sep 24 19:50:08 EDT 2003
  
  What are the frequencies currently playing 60s-90s songs? (Both Indian as well as SLBC)...
  
  
• From: geeth (@ 62.215.3.46) on: Thu Sep 25 03:46:40 EDT 2003
  
  Ilangai Vaanoli thamizh chEvai 2 - brings back nostalgic memories. a pioneer in popularising tfm.
  
  in 70s and 80s for people in the southern districts of tamilnadu, this radio station was like a timekeeper. you can tell the time by hearing the program and the almost every hotel, tea shop, barber shop, households playing this station.
  
  the day normally starts at 6 am with 3 devotional songs (one ea of Hindu/X'ian/Islamic) and mostly followed by 'kaatrinile varum geetham' by MS.
  
  some other programs that come to mind are the 7.20am - pongum poongunal (time for bath and pack bags for school, koshti gaanam, oru pada paattu, olichithram, thirai virunthu (the unforgettable presentation of KS Raja), poovum pottum mangaiyar manjari (the opening nadhaswaram like music still haunts), the countdown program (cant remember the name) which comes at 1.30 pm every sunday and the other viLambarathaarar nikaLchigaL...
  
  the way KS Raja gave continuous programs during the colombo ethnic riots (maybe he got locked up inside the radio station) but continued with programs was sheer grit and love for the radio station and tfm.
  
  i havn't come across any other station which catered to all different sections of society and keeping alive the spirits of tfm.
  
  
• From: Raj (@ 206.97.63.112) on: Sun Sep 28 22:55:54 EDT 2003
  
  Prabhu: Did you try live365.com which has a few stations broadcasting Tamil songs? I am not sure whether Radio Ceylon still uses shortwave. If they do try 41,49 and 60 meters in the evening.
  You should be able to receive it in Bangalore with a powerful receiver. They might have moved to FM.
  
  
• From: Zafar Khan (@ ) on: Sat Jan 24 08:54:57 EST 2004
  
  Could any one please tell me if Hindi program of SLBC can be monitored on internet? Please e-mail me at Zafar_7860@hotmail.com. Some times, I do get on shortwave radio at 11905 KHZ but signal is weak. I need help. However, if some one wants to tune to AIR/Vividhbharti, may tune at 10330, 11585 and 11620 KHZ on shortwave radio. Siganl at
  10330 at 7:00-9:00PM and 7:30-9:00AM central US time is excellent or at S-9. Thanks
  
  
• From: Zafar Khan (@ ) on: Sat Jan 24 08:55:12 EST 2004
  
  Could any one please tell me if Hindi program of SLBC can be monitored on internet? Please e-mail me at Zafar_7860@hotmail.com. Some times, I do get on shortwave radio at 11905 KHZ but signal is weak. I need help. However, if some one wants to tune to AIR/Vividhbharti, may tune at 10330, 11585 and 11620 KHZ on shortwave radio. Siganl at
  10330 at 7:00-9:00PM and 7:30-9:00AM central US time is excellent or at S-9. Thanks
  
  
• From: Zafar Khan (@ ) on: Sat Jan 24 08:55:24 EST 2004
  
  Could any one please tell me if Hindi program of SLBC can be monitored on internet? Please e-mail me at Zafar_7860@hotmail.com. Some times, I do get on shortwave radio at 11905 KHZ but signal is weak. I need help. However, if some one wants to tune to AIR/Vividhbharti, may tune at 10330, 11585 and 11620 KHZ on shortwave radio. Siganl at
  10330 at 7:00-9:00PM and 7:30-9:00AM central US time is excellent or at S-9. Thanks
  
  
• From: Rajesh (@ ) on: Fri Mar 26 08:57:24 EST 2004
  
  Merina web radio is almost like the AIR, playing amazing songs of TFM all day long. Bringing back my golden memories.
  
  
• From: <.<<-< (@ ) on: Mon Apr 5 07:06:06 EDT 2004
  
  Is it possible to hear B:H: Abdul Hameed and Abdul Jabbar's radio through the web?? Can anyone help me plz..
  
  
• From: PA (@ ) on: Mon Sep 6 08:11:45 EDT 2004
  
  Hi all Radio lovers,
  
  Unforgettable are those times when we used to wait for Thurdays and Saturdays to listen to the only source of Western Music - Lister's Choice. That's where we got exposed to our good old Wham!, MJ, Sting, Madonna and many more childhood favorites. Wow! Such great, singable numbers. Yes, the songs were mostly repetetive - Baltimore - Jungle Life was a permanent fixture but still we would enjoy it everytime. I even remember requesting for some songs on the show and we were so thrilled when our names were called out and choice played! Now, we have music of our choice everywhere. But I still miss Listener's choice a lot. I don't even know if its still aired on "Madras - B"
  
  
• From: PA (@ 61.247.247.41) on: Mon Sep 6 08:15:35 EDT 2004
  
  Geeth,
  
  I've heard Live 365 Tamil Stations. But the collection isn't that great. Its just about average. Worst thing is that you don't have the option of skipping the songs you don't like. Suryan FM is also included - but disappointing. They play the same songs all the time.
  
  

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