Ameen’s tryst with radio began when he was seven years old. It was his elder brother and guru, Hamid Sayani (eminent broadcaster in English) who initiated him into the medium through the Bombay radio station of All-India Radio as a casual artiste in its English section. In 1949, Hamid also introduced Ameen to commercial broadcasting (for Radio Ceylon), giving him odd jobs and minor voicing assignments in English.

And then came Ameen’s momentous “break”. Through another producer, Ameen was auditioned for a Hindi commercial announcement for a weekly radio show sponsored by the makers of Ovaltine.

Since it was a “health drink”, and Ameen an energetic youth of newly independent India, he read out the commercial with such gusto that the producer had to hold his ears and command Ameen to lower his volume, for God's sake, and control his enthusiasm. Chastened, Ameen read it out again, managed to pass the audition and got his first Hindi assignment. On condition, of course, that he wouldn’t be paid – he’d just get a small tin of Ovaltine a week ! (Ameen says : “That was the basis of my good health in my long innings with commercial radio. And this isn’t a commercial, please.”)