This is now our third recent topic about the radio scene in the city of Madras-Chennai and on this occasion we go back to the very early years, getting close to a century ago. We acknowledge with appreciation information provided by Jose Jacob VU2JOS at the National Institute of Amateur Radio in Hyderabad India.
It was back on May 16, 1924 that Mr.
C. V. Krishnaswamy Chetty formed the Madras
Presidency Radio Club, with Viscount George Goschen, the Governor of the Madras
Presidency, as the club patron. Mr.
Chetty had just returned from England where he had studied electrical
engineering and he brought back sufficient components with which to build a 40
watt radio transmitter.
The new transmitter was installed in
the Ripon Building, the official government building on Sydenham Road Madras,
where occasional test transmissions and demonstrations were made. Ripon Building had been constructed a decade
earlier and it was named in honor of a former Viceroy of India under the
British Raj, George Robinson, Lord Ripon.
a couple of months later, the
transmitter was re-installed in a small bungalow in Holloways Garden at 13 Casa
Major Road in Egmore, suburban Madras, where a regular broadcast service was
inaugurated on July 31 (1924). Shortly
afterwards, the original low power transmitter was replaced by an imported 200
watt Marconi unit from England.
After nearly three years of
broadcast service, this radio broadcasting station was closed (1927) due to
lack of funding and the transmitter was donated to the Madras Corporation, the
governing state entity. The original
Holloways Garden location is now the sports ground for the Don Bosco School in
Egmore.
On April 1, 1930, the Madras
Corporation re-activated this same 200 watt transmitter on 750 kHz with
broadcast programming under the licensed callsign 2GR. Radio receivers for public benefit were
installed in a nearby park, at the beach, and in 14 government schools.
Three years later in 1933. a new
callsign was allocated to the Madras station and it was then identified as the
very familiar VUM. However, give five
more years and the Madras Presidency station was closed on June 16, 1938 in
favor of a new station installed by All India Radio at four different locations
in the Madras area.
In Summary: Four new facilities of
pre-war AIR All India Radio in suburban Madras
Studios at The Nook
Mediumwave transmitter
at Guindy
Shortwave transmitter at
Avadi
Receiver station at
Egmore.
The original studios for the new AIR
VUM were installed in an already available edifice in the upscale area known as The Nook some ten miles
south of downtown Madras. This studio
location was in constant usage until a special AIR building was constructed in
1953 overlooking the sea at suburban Mylapore just three miles south from
downtown Madras. The original studio
location at The Nook now has a large commercial cement building on the
site.
The mediumwave transmitter site was
located at suburban Guindy eight miles southwest from Madras, and a new 250
watt transmitter was inaugurated on 1420 kHz as VUM by the state governor, His
Excellency Lord John Erskine, on June 15, 1938.
Eleven years later on January 4, 1959, a 1 kW mediumwave transmitter was
inaugurated at the Guindy location on the same channel 1420 kHz. A 20 kW unit was also inaugurated at this
site on 940 kHz on January 11, 1956.
In the early 1990s when Jose Jacob
made a visit to the Guindy transmitter station, he noted that there were three
mediumwave transmitters in use:-
AWA Australia BTH2 2½ kW 783 kHz VB
program
BEL India HMB103 1 1395 B Channel
Collins USA 20T 1 MW Standby
The AIR mediumwave site at Guindy
was decommissioned in the mid 1990s after a new mediumwave site was taken into
operation adjacent to the first shortwave station at Avadi. A major FM facility for All India Radio
Chennai is co-sited with the main TV station at Chepauk on the southern edge of
the downtown city area.
Before we leave the topic of early
radio broadcasting in Madras-Chennai, we should mention that the Crompton Electric Company of Madras
gave serious consideration in 1926 to establishing a mediumwave station with
120 watts on 1365 kHz. However, the best
available evidence would suggest that this projected radio broadcasting station
never became a reality.
(AWRE-Wavescan)