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In Nepal, the
first Radio station Radio Nepal was
established in 1950. However, it can be
estimated that even before 1950, the people
had been possibly experiencing the taste of
listening to the radio from the stations of
neighboring countries. It is hard to say
when the people first started listening to
the radio. But it can guessed that they have
been listening to the radio for more than 75
years. India had already started
broadcasting by 1923, and hence it is
assumed that Nepalese working there
certainly
listened to Indian radio broadcasts.
According to
Madan Mani Dixit, one of the listeners
contributing to the study this article is
drawn from, his youngest uncle Dev Mani
Dixit had imported a radio from England in
1929 and he attended the gathering when the
radio was turned on for the first time. He
further guesses that it might have been the
seventh radio in Kathmandu, the capital city
of Nepal, at that time. So we can give an
educated guess that the radio had already
been introduced into the Rana's palaces and
perhaps a few villages on the border with
India
After the
establishment of radio stations in India,
the radio became popular in elite circles in
Nepal too. However, without the ruler’s
assent, nobody was allowed to have a radio
set. We cannot guess the number of radio
sets at any particular time during the
initial days of radio listening. When the
British forces were doing badly against the
Japanese during the Second World War, the
rulers in Nepal seized the radio sets from
the people. Rana rulers had been supporting
the British and providing soldiers to fight
for them, so they did not want the people to
listen to news of battles being lost. The
seized radio sets were stored in Singha Durbar,
and it is said that they numbered about 400
and were returned to their owners later.
In July 1946,
the then Prime Minister Padma Shamser Rana
declared that people could have personal
radios. He also arranged to broadcast native
radio, Nepal Broadcasting from Bijuli Adda
in January 1948. But this could not last
long. Padma Shamser Rana resigned from the
post of the prime minister and a few months
later, this transmission was also halted.
This was not to last for long and in August
1948 it was revived again. Mohan Shamser,
then Prime Minister, made arrangements to
bring two transmitters in order to improve
transmission.
Prajatantra Nepal Radio
In 1950, the
Nepali Congress Party was fighting against
the Rana autocracy and freedom fighters had
also begun to run radio transmissions called
Prajatantra Nepal Radio from
Biratnagar, an eastern city in Nepal. This
program was used to broadcast their
activities as well as other information
which encouraged the general people to
support their movement against the Rana
rulers. When Nepali Congress' campaign
succeeded, the new government shifted the
radio program to Kathmandu (Koirala 2005).
Later on it was renamed Nepal Radio and it
ultimately became Radio Nepal.
From that time
radio broadcasting caught on in a big way.
Until 1995 Radio Nepal was the only radio
station to broadcast in Nepal. Then
frequency modulation (FM) radio technology
entered Nepal. In recent years, the private
sector has become actively involved in FM
broadcasting. There are now a total of 56
licensed FM stations, with more than 45
actually in operation. Because of the
variety and growth of broadcasting stations
in recent years, the number of sets in Nepal
has increased. This followed the growth of
listeners as well. The radio has now become
an intimate friend of many Nepalese people.
From
"Seven Decades of Radio Listening in Nepal"
by Shekhar Prajulee |
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