Tunes for the Troops – A Listener’s Journey through a Radio Programme is an account of the history and memories of a popular radio programme meant for the entertainment of the military and paramilitary forces, known as Sainik Bhaiyon Ka Karyakram or the Troops Programme, broadcast from the Hindi Section of Akashvani Guwahati, which has been running for more than sixty-one years in a row.
There has been a great number of books published on radio broadcasting in India. P. C. Chatterji’s Broadcasting in India, U. L. Barua’s This is All India Radio, Mehra Masani’s Broadcasting and the People, H. R. Luthra’s Indian Broadcasting, Jasdev Singh’s On the Wings of Radio Waves – A Broadcaster’s Journey, Kaushalya Rathnam’s Everything in Radio for the Masses, Manohar Mahajan’s Yaaden Radio Ceylon Ki are few top names in the list which give a deep insight into the history of radio broadcasting and listening in the country. The authors of these books were eminent broadcasters themselves. Although radio is a simplex (one-way) mode of communication, nevertheless, it has two sides – the broadcaster and the listener. Unless the opinion of the listener is taken, it would reduce to a one-sided affair. Unfortunately, when it comes to books penned by listeners, there hasn’t been any significant attempt made in the country. In the present digital era, although there have been many articles written on radio stations and their programmes by the listeners on social media, there is not a single book written by any listener. This book is a sincere and exhaustive attempt to venture into this area of radio literature.

One might raise his eyebrows towards the qualification of the said radio programme towards a full-length book. There are several reasons that may be cited to answer this speculation. The origin and the rationale behind the start of this programme has a great historical importance. The manner in which the Jawans associated themselves with this programme and made personal relations was phenomenal. The variety of entertainment segments that were part of this programme was unique and much ahead of all other programmes of similar kind from other radio stations. Countless trivia and interesting memories related to the presentation of announcers and participation of listeners demand sharing with passionate lovers and listeners of traditional radio globally. Last but not the least, the interesting evolution and journey of the programme from 1962 to 2023 gives a serious insight to how broadcasting and listening has changed with time and how such special-audience programmes have to evolve in future to maintain their relevance in the present competitive scenario of easily available sources of digital entertainment.
While developing the book, I realised that it needed to be segregated into three parts. The first part comprises of the period from the start of the programme until the time when I started listening to it. This is essentially the period from 1962 to the end of the 1970s. This is that part of the history of the programme for which I had to depend on published information in reliable sources and on genuine people who were either part of this programme or were listeners during that period. Fortunately, I could gather a lot of information from the weekly and bi-monthly Akashvani journals published by the Publications Division, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B), Government of India. Interactions with retired announcers of that period gave immense insight of developments that took place in that early phase of the programme.
The second part of the book is the period during which I was a regular listener of the programme. This period was from the early 1980s, when I was grown up enough to understand the content, until 2013, when the era of regular announcers at the Hindi Section of Akashvani Guwahati ended forever. Each segment of the programme has been thoroughly discussed in this part with interesting observations and trivia.
In the 21st century, the scene of entertainment due to the digital and internet revolutions has been changing rapidly leading to an abrupt change in behaviour of listeners towards commercial radio. The impact of this change on the Troops Programme has been captured and analysed at length in the third part of this book. This part also deep dives into possibilities of improving the programme in the present challenging scenario of traditional radio broadcasting to maintain its relevance for future.
In a nutshell, Tunes for the Troops – A Listener’s Journey through a Radio Programme is indeed a complete journey full of memories and information about a radio programme that has been written in such a manner that the reader gets a passive listening experience of the programme and enough food for thought towards the future of broadcasting of radio programmes for troops in the country.