The first broadcast was made by the Times of India from its Mumbai office in collaboration with P&T department to be received by the Governor Sir George Lloyd in Pune. It was in 1921. A full-fledged radio programme was broadcast by Radio Club, Mumbai in 1923. Indian Broadcasting Corporation was set up in 1927. IBC is the forerunner of present day All India Radio (AIR). IBC was taken over by the Government and renamed Indian State Broadcasting Company. It was again renamed  All India Radio in 1936. All India Radio was officially renamed as Akashvani in 1957. AIR was prevented from broadcasting film music. It switched over to highly Sanskritised Hindi. It lost mass appeal. Radio Ceylone grabbed the opportunity and became popular in 1950s. AIR mended its ways and Vividh Bharati service was set up in 1957. The commercial service of Vividh Bharati started in 1967. It was called Akashvani Ka Panchrangi Programme. AIR later adopted the concept of sponsored programmes. Slowly, AIR overshadowed Radio Ceylone. The boom lasted till 1981 when DD began to displace radio. FM broadcast has been started by AIR since 1980s in the metros. FM later spread to many more cities. FM radio broadcasting has been thrown open to private broadcasters who use their own tansmitters.

Radio is now extensively spread. It is no longer a frequency medium. It airs ad spots. It is involved in content integration, RJ mentions, promotional contests and viewer polls. Radio is the new newspaper. An average listener spends more time on radio than in reading a newspaper in a day. As more listenership data will be available, more money will be channelised to radio.

We do have now Internet radio, satellite radio and community radio.