I was an
avid reader of Phantom Comics in my childhood and there is an old man who tells
tales of all the Phantoms of bye gone eras.
I was fascinated by that character who appeared occasionally and would
be telling tales to the Phantoms to be.
He was also the repository of all knowledge. Little did I realise that I would be one; not
so soon. May be when I was a wizened up
old man in my seventies.
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| Cover Page of the Radio License |
I was a
teller of such tales recently. When I
must have been about six years old my father bought a radio – which must have
been pretty expensive in those days. A Telerad- Caprice. Almost like buying a fancy TV these
days. I still remember coming back from
school (my eldest brother had brought me home that day riding doubles on his
cycle that day and he would not let me in to the secret till we reached home)
and sitting next to the radio and staring with fascination at the green eyes of
the radio closing and receding as the volume kept going up and down. My dad had that radio till almost 2000. Something bought in 1966 lasted for about
43-44 years. It had, towards the end,
lost its magic eye but was still working.
Then the main valves gave up and there was no way he could get a
replacement for it. So with a lot of
reluctance it went out. This radio was part of our life throughout. It played songs, gave us the news and still
played the morning songs for my dad even though in later years the noisier TV
had upstaged it somewhat.
But my young
friends, did you know that you needed a license to own a radio in those days?
All this
memory came back to me when the good old licence of this radio came out of a
box I had kept it in. I had kept it
probably clinging on to it because of the fact that it contained some memories
of my childhood. It contained all the
addresses where I lived in Kochi during my childhood and youth etc. I again chanced upon it recently while
emptying out some boxes. All this
memories came flooding back.
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| Inside page where renewal is paid as stamps stuck and cancelled with a seal every year |
I just thought I should share my find with my friends on Facebook. My students and young friends did not know
what it was – but naturally. The licence
fee itself was stopped in 1985. Most of
them were not even born then. My
contemporaries recognised it for what it was and started going down their own
memory lanes. Some of my young friends
were going “Wow”. “Never knew
that”. “Can’t imagine you needed a
license to own a radio”. That is when I
felt I have become like the teller in the Phantom comics.
Yes. We did have a license fee to be paid for any radio. To use the correct term, it used to be called
Broadcast Receiver License. Collected
under the Indian Telegraph Act 1885! The Post Office even had a special stamp
called BRF Fee worth Rs 15 and Rs 7.50.
The second radio one owned attracted only half the fee. This fee probably was to cover
partly the expenses to run the All India Radio (there were no private stations
then!). The fee in those days (1966) was
Rupees 15 per annum and it was quite a stiff amount considering that the rupee
had a great purchase value. I do
remember going with my dad those years and buying bagsful of vegetables for
Onam celebrations and paying less than ten rupees and so. Possibly the fee was kept high as radios were
considered a luxury item which only the upper middle class and above owned.
Others listened to the broadcast of the radios in the municipal parks over the
public address system.
More than
the revenue stream, the Government probably also needed to know where the radio
sets were. Probably as a security measure.
In times when there were no dedicated wavelengths for the military and
police, it would have been possible to eavesdrop with a radio. I still remember, sometime we would get some
random transmissions, I am not sure how, possibly police or ATC to pilot
transmissions. I was too young to really
understand these. These would not last long and typically when you drag the
needle to the very end beyond the stations marked on the dial. But I suppose it must be possible for a
regular radio to be bought and twiddled to listen to those transmissions. So a
fee and making it illegal to own a radio without asking the government first
was essential.
But then
cheap radios (especially what we used to call pocket radios) started coming
along in mid 70s. These cost, may be, a
hundred rupees at the most; often much less if it had only the medium wave.
Most people were reluctant to pay a fee of 15 rupees on a radio which cost
about 50 rupees or thereabouts to buy.
By then, the security of the military needs were more assured by the improved
technology. Government still collected
the money from rule abiding citizens, like my father, till possibly the
collection cost became more that the revenue.
It stopped in 1985; a full hundred years after the Telegraph Act was passed!. And, that my
dear friends, is the story of BRL fee in this country.
Bala@Panaji
