It was the first time in the history of broadcasting in India, ever since the first newsbulletin was broadcast in English by the private Indian Broadcasting Company from Bombay on July 23, 1927, that news transmission was disrupted in this manner. Later in the day greenhorns who had never faced an audition test were employed to read unedited, raw news supplied by news agencies even as overseas listeners were denied their daily quota of news and views. Again, it was the first time unedited news items were broadcast since All India Radio (AIR) came into being on May 8, 1932.

It was the unflinching faith of the quintessential broadcaster that, come rain or shine, war or famine, AIR's news bulletins would be on the air and on time, that suffered a jolt that day. A glorious tradition was broken when a majority of editors, news-readers and announcers went on a day's token strike. Of course, in the past there were occasions when radio artistes had threatened to go on strike but they had always refrained from doing so. Invariably, both the government and the employees found some way to avoid such aconfrontation and maintain AIR's no-strike tradition.

The employees had, over the decades, built a psychological barrier against disrupting transmission and it is this barrier that was breached on Tuesday with such disastrous effect. Veteran broadcasters recall umpteen instances when newsreaders and announcers kept AIR's flag fluttering even when they were under severe personal strain. But such stories of valour pale into insignificance before the model set by the late Shankara Narayanan.

A legendary newsreader, whose voice was familiar to every Malayali listener since Malayalam news was broadcast from Delhi in January 1949, Narayanan was on his way to office one wintry morning when a speeding truck dashed against his car. The impact of the collision led to one of the rear doors of the vehicle getting flung open. Narayanan was violently ejected. Grievously wounded, and almost in a trance, he clutched at his bag and started walking towards Akashvani Bhavan. The sun had not yet risen when the bleedingnewsreader reached the Malayalam unit. But before he could open the door, he collapsed on the floor.

It was only then that the AIR employees learnt about the accident. It was while taking him to the hospital that they became aware that one of their colleagues in the Kannada unit who was also in the car had lost his life. Narayanan, who had three of his ribs broken, had to remain in plaster for quite a few weeks before he could recover fully and start reading news bulletins once again. Until his death after his retirement, he had no clue as to how he walked that distance of almost half a kilometre from Krishi Bhavan to Akashvani Bhavan on that fateful morning.

It was his sense of duty and the belief that news broadcasts should always go on, no matter what, that prompted him to get to the studio in his almost unconscious state. Shankara Narayanan would have turned in his grave when news bulletins were disrupted on Tuesday. For Akashvani, it was a history of sorts.