At The Edge

Came across it in a film magazine from 1970s. -0-

Sometime back got an email from someone with Devi Pictures  (do check out the site and look for something called 'Sandra from Bandra') researching for a documentary film on intellectual property rights. They were looking for print advertisements for old gramophones/radio/VCR /cassette players/spool players. And thanks to Memsaab , who generously shared her collection of vintage FilmIndia magazines with me, I have just the stuff. I would have posted it all earlier, but I thought no one would be interested. Paillard. Tomatic Record Changer. Operated 110 or 280 Volts AC, 40-60 cycles or Universal.  Plays 10 records automatically. "Swiss Made" Thougout. 1939. Paillard. Swiss Made. It stands at the top of all. Available for AC, AC/DC and for AC/Battery (6 volt car battery) with Magic eye and entracingly beautiful wooden cabinet. 1939 RAP 1939 ModelsEstablish New Records in Performance.RAP. Care-Free British Radio Hear the Latest "Younf ...

video link Fever 104 ad for Vodafone. Relieving.

video link Sound: Something like Hawa Mahal Tune Theme: Something like India of 80s

Calcutta's Women Have Something That other Women Don't Charm, Yes. The Zest for Life, Yes. And HMV-FM to keep her company on weekday afternoons. Capture the women power of 4.22 Lakh Household.* Read Them Through Woman's Hour RPG Enterprise HMV FM Calcutta Monday to Friday 2 PM To 3 PM on Radio 107 MHz * Source: Marg Survey October 1996 Found it in A&M, Advertising and Marketing Magazine, 16-31 May 1997. This is from a time when Kolkata was still Calcutta (changed in 2000 but in effect since 2001) and Indian was experimenting with FM. According to the book, The Radio Jockey Hand Book : The first private FM station was launched in Chennai in 1977. FM operators were allowed to take up time slots. Prasar Bharati stopped private players from airing in 1998 and Times FM and Radio Mid-Day had to shut shop. On the 6th of July 1999, the Union Government announced that it would allow private players to operate FM radio stations across the country. This gave private F...

Three jingles found in a scene from Merchant Ivory's year 1970 film Bombay Talkie (1970) Ads are for Tata Jai saundarya sabun (beauty soap), RR banyan aur undershirt and Strepsils video link Related post: two jingles from a 1978 film

Listen in on two radio jingles found in the film "Pati Patni Aur Woh"(1978). First one, in English, is for Bombay Dyeing: Youuuu the beautiful woman in your husband's life You You You the beautiful woman in your husband's life Show your husband all the woman you are in 100% polyester and polyester georgette Sarees by Bombay Dyeing ting-tong and the second one (in Hindi and in the voice of Ameen Sayani) is for Halls Vapour Action: Galay may ho kharaash ya ho bandh naak Halls Vapour Action Arram dilaye phoran Galay ki kharaash mitaye Band naak phoran khul jaye Halls Mentho-Lyptus Vapor action video link Notice the keyhole effect in the video. I guess they wanted the audience to realize that the sound is coming from the Radio and that it's not the sound of ads jingles played in the middle of the film by the theater owner. -0- Related post: three jingles from a 1970 film -0- You may also like to check out the opening sequence of  the film ...

Ameen Sayani , in his typical " Bhaiyo aur Behno " style introduces the song " O Mere Pyar Aaja " by Lata Mangeshkar from and in the film Bhoot Bungla (1965). video link Probably the first onscreen invocation of the still popular line " Hindi may bol !". We hear it all the time when someone wants you to speak in plain hindi. In this clip we also get to see a thing called Applause Meter. Apparently these " taali meters" were quite popular in those days. This one was by Avery. I think it was made by these folks . -0- previous related post: Ramu Maali of Bhoot Bungla

Vividh Bharati, the Commercial Broadcasting Service (CBS) of All India Radio , was started in 1957 to compete with already famous Radio Ceylon that used to broadcast popular Hindi film music and had interesting broadcasters - it had Binaca Geet Mala and Ameen Sayani. So Vividh Bharati came up with a bunch of some great programs like Inse Miliye , Chhaya Geet , Bhule Bisre Geet , Jaimala , Aap Ki Farmaish and Hawa Mahal. Among these I certainly remember Hawa Mahal. Radio remained quite popular till late 80s and then declined in 90s - Television and Cable proved too powerful a foe. But if you grew up in a power cut prone area, even in late 1990s, often some cold winter night, dinner time, religiously around 8:30PM, was animated by the familiar sounds - the throaty laughs, dry sobs, contemplative Hmmm s, irritated Ohho s and intelligent Aha s - coming from a play of Hawa Mahal. Same voices, different plays and a tune that seemed to sing, 'Attention Listeners! I have something imp...

The signature tune for AIR (All India Radio) was composed and set to music by Thakur Balwant Singh in 1936. Still according to some others, in the year 1936, the signature tune was composed by Walter Kaufman, the director of western music programs in Bombay.That the antiquity of this tune is 1936, is certain. Every morning since then, this otherworldly tune has been played at the beginning of the morning telecast of AIR, and with time has etched itself into the memories of everyone who listened to radio in India. Some brooding morning sounding: melancholic, and on some bright mornings sounding: still more melancholic. -0- Download the AIR signature tune here (361kb, .mp3) Found it thanks to this wonderful site: Interval Signals The site has an almost comprehensive collection of audio clips of foreign radio stations from all around the globe. It is a must for all those with an ear for the radio signals. -0- Read more about the Sound of AIR at Deccan Herald: The birth of India...

1972 Ad of REMCO Radio & Electricals Manufacturing CO.LTD. from The Reader’s Digest A slice of ( radio and other) history from this Ad: November 1949: Remco started commercial production of India’s first multi-band radios. In the same year they were the first to manufacture domestic, control, screened and co-axial cables made of PVC. First Indian company to actively enter into collaboration with a Japanese Firm – Toshiba – to make India’s first electrical watt-hour meters in 1952. First to produce water meters of Swiss design in India in 1956. First to make electronic bandswitches for the Communication Industry in 1958. In the same year, they started production of India’s first electrolytic capacitors In 1967, first to build Indian designed lighting arresters, with nonlinear elements made from basic raw material. In year 1972(the year of this Advertisement), they manufactured the first high-fidelity “Cross-Over Sound” radios in India. -0- Two things from th...