One of my most prized gift was World Space Radio which my brother had gifted to me. It was the only radio that ran separate 24 hour channels exclusively for Hindustani Classical, Hindi Old Songs, Hindi New songs and Marathi songs [Raj and Uddhav are you listening?] with imaginative programs.

I would keep the channels on sometimes all night, enjoying the music. My receiver had a remore so I did not have to get up to switch it off.

All that is gone now. The World Space Radio has gone bankrupt and no service anymore!

More interesting is th eannouncement on their website that tells us that we may have a potential remedy in USA. The announcement is irritating to old loyalists like me but interesting from the point of view of where globalisation can take us….I am reproducing it below….

“On December 31, 2009, the WorldSpace satellite radio broadcast service will be terminated for all customers serviced from India. This action is an outgrowth of the financial difficulties facing WorldSpace India’s parent company, WorldSpace, Inc., which has been under bankruptcy protection since October 2008. The potential buyer of much of WorldSpace’s global assets has decided not to buy the WorldSpace assets relating to and supporting WorldSpace’s subscription business in India. As a consequence, WorldSpace, Inc. must discontinue its subscriber business in India. Your subscription contract is with WorldSpace, Inc., a US company that is in a bankruptcy proceeding in the United States. The company recognizes that you may have paid for services to be rendered beyond the termination date, but is not in a position to offer a refund for any unused portion of your subscription. You may have a potential remedy under the U.S. bankruptcy law. You may file a claim under the claims procedure that is intended to protect creditors of the bankrupt company. Sometime early next year, a claim servicing company will send notice to all creditors listed by the company. In order to ensure that you receive timely notice, we would request that you send the following information by mail or email to Rakesh Raghavan at WorldSpace, Inc. headquarters in the United States. 1. Name 2. Address 3. Email 4. Subscription Account Number 5. Date of Subscription 6. Length of Subscription 7. Amount paid for your current subscription Send this information to: By email — CustomerServiceUS@worldspace.com or by regular mail – Rakesh Raghavan, WorldSpace, Inc. 8515 Georgia AV, Silver Spring, MD 20910 USA. Our sincere apologies for this circumstance.”