I clearly remember July 31, 2001, the day when I switched on the radio for the first time that I could ever remember. A new hot FM station had hit town. It was a venture started by the Star Group and so, it has to be big, they told us. It was called Radio City and was the first FM station that I had ever tuned into. It played an assortment of Hindi and English music throughout the day, had some innovatively named shows, great RJs and greater music.
The English music I had heard was very limited till then. Only through the shows on Radio city did I hear a lot of English hits and since they mingled with Indian music, the tracks were rarely repeated during the day. The glory of those early Radio City days have been well documented and described by many many netizens and bloggers, who like me were captivated by the very freshness of Radio City.
After its well-deserved success in Bangalore (not Bengaluru, mind you), Radio City moved on to Mumbai and other cities. With that began the decline of this famed radio station. Star decided to have a country-wide policy for all its radio stations according to which, they would play English Music only after 10 PM every night, but not during any other time of the day. Consequently, one had to put up with the “latest” (stupid) Bollywood numbers being played at least 5 times a day every day. With that, the radio in my house was switched off.
Now, the only time I hear FM radio in Bangalore is when I travel in buses or in restaurants or when my neighbour chooses to blare his favourite tracks. To start with, there are close to 7 channels now. So, radio has got to be better, right?
WRONG. Totally, completely, indescribably wrong! Now, there is greater focus on playing Kannada tracks and maybe, a bit of Hindi music on most of those channels. And of course, due to the competition, every channel is bothered about how much moolah they rake in. The advertisements that air on radio are so frequent and irritating that they practically test a listener’s patience. However, compared to the inanities of the RJs, the ads themselves seem acceptable.
One of the RJs on Radio City, named Darius Sonawallah recently became Programme Director of a station named Fever, probably the only sensible station right now. There might be a reason that made him leave Radio City. Maybe, he didn’t have the same amount of liberty that he previously had in choosing what tracks would be played. As for Indigo, they seem to play the most nonsensical music ever created in the Western world!
A small justification. I do not mean to say here that Kannada and Hindi tracks are bad. The odd singles here and there are quite good. But, strip the songs off their lyrics, and you would perhaps instantly observe that the music in all these songs is almost the same. Seven FM stations do not rule the airwaves in Bangalore. Monotony does!
It is funny how the so-called Kannada activists are now doing the same mistaked that were once done in a neighbouring state named “Tamil Nadu”. Language seems to have taken a sudden priority over so many other important issues. The ravages of this bigotic jingoism are already very visible. And I, for one, sincerely hope that the state does not head down the same dark road!
For now though, “Radio Ga-Ga Radio Gu-Gu” has become “Radio Blah-Blah Radio Thu-Thu”