Radio is now banned

A friend pointed out over a beer last night the rather baffling news that FM radio has “been banned in some areas of India”.

It turns out that it’s car radios that are being banned, after two students were killed because the new radio station in the area was apparently so damn interesting.

“The first student to perish died because the driver of a tractor was not concentrating on the road whilst listening to the radio, and knocked him off his bike.”

The story also says that “schools in the town of Asansol are also checking children’s bags for portable radio sets to stop them listening in class.”

I posted a while ago after an Indian radio conference, saying that I was very pleasantly surprised by the huge excitement surrounding radio in the country. This story shows that it’s not just industry types who are getting excited about what radio has to offer; and even if the story is so apparently tragic as this (if the reasons are to be believed), radio has a pretty good future.

Hat tip: Matthew Honey