History of radio broadcasting in Nepal

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.