The story of Jhumri Telaiya’s fondness for radio music is inextricably tied to the village’s economic history.

The especially affluent Bhadani family even got SURAIYA a famous Actress & Bollywood playback singer all the way from Bombay to perform at a concert in Jhumri Telaiya.

The Mica tycoon Barnwal started mailing postcards with farmaishein (song requests) to Radio Ceylon daily. The first broadcasting station of South Asia, Radio Ceylon’s popularity had soared after B.V. Kesakar, the then Information and Broadcasting Minister, banned film music on All India Radio (AIR) in 1952.

Radio Ceylon’s most popular programme for Hindi film songs was Ameen Sayani’s Binaca Geetmala. Thanks to his regular postcards, Barnwal’s name started appearing regularly in the requests announced in this show. Tingled by the thought of hearing their name on radio, two other residents of Jhumri Telaiya, Ganga Prasad Magadhiya and Nand Lal Sinha, decided to join Barnwal’s postcard-sending spree.

The trio’s growing fame spawned a cult in their home town. Every resident of Jhumri Telaiya wanted their name to be mentioned on the radio show too. As the song-request fad took over the town, radio aficionados in the little town formed listeners’ clubs and began competing among themselves to send out the most song requests in a day or month.

In 1957, when All India Radio re-started broadcasting old Hindi film songs on Vividh Bharti Service (VBS), the whole town began sending postcards by the dozen.

Jhumri Telaiya, the name of their village became famous among Vividh Bharti listeners across India. However, thanks to the town’s unusual name and the humongous number of song requests it sent, many listeners were sceptical about its existence.

Jhumri Telaiya’s song request fad continued till the ’80s when television began gaining popularity, and postal costs increased. With so many video options available, the residents (especially the young ones) no longer needed to tune in to radio to listen to their favourite songs.

Jharkhand, however, has still managed to retain its uniqueness. Jhumri Telaiya is now famous for a sweet preparation that it has improvised and made its own — the delectable 'kalakand'.