[Reader-list] Voices of FM Radio

[IRFAN]

Meri awaaz hee parda hai mere chehre ka,
Main hoon khamosh jahan mujhko wahan se suniye!

(My voice is my mask, the real face upon my face
Listen to my silence from wherever you are!) 


<<FM Radio:Am I talking none sense!>>
<Irfan.New Delhi. January 2005
<I am a Delhi based media activist.Working freelance
in Television, Radio and print for several years. I
have briefly worked with Mahatma Gandhi International
Hindi University as a research associate on an Oral
History project. Under the banner of my own company
Radio Red I have produced a five part audio book Suno
MF Husain Kee Kahani.Apart from doing various
television projects I am lending my voice to
Programmes for National Geographic Channel, History
Channel and Discovery. I am working for FM Gold as a
Radio Presenter. As an Independent Fellow I am
studying  personal lives of Radio Professionals. It is
an effort to identify people who speak too much but in
their own world there are just a few who really
understand them.Here is a sketchy posting…

<For past ten years Delhi is experiencing a very new
kind of broadcasting that is FM. It began when nobody
was talking about radio and it was felt that radio
would exist only in people’s memories. Soon after FM
broadcasts started they became part of everyday life
in Delhi. The TV still was very much in, but a massive
mass got into this not-so-new yet new medium. In the
last 11 years or so, it has come to redefine
entertainment, information and communication, at least
in the major metropolitan cities. 

<A vast area of career and opportunity opened up and
listeners found in FM a close companion. They seemed
to open their heart out to Radio Jockeys. Legal
counselling, Career, Health, Relationships, Hobbies,
Business and Traffic Updates, City Hulchul,
Psychological counselling and other issues related to
metropolis life became part of these new broadcasts.
Love Guru and Dr. Love – both late night shows, talked
about sexuality, considered taboo so far, signaling a
paradigm shift of sorts. Listeners, Presenters and
Reporters they are all using all forms of new media –
mobile SMS' and emails to cast everyday polls on
latest controversies and civic issues. Websites are
used to propmote the programmes not to air programmes.

 
This research is primarily aimed to have a close look
into the inner world of people who are directly
responsible for this kind of radio broadcasts. I will
be conducting interviews with are producers, programme
executives, content controllers, announcers, voice
over artists and above all Fm presenters who love to
be called RJs ( Radio Jockies). I am   also intersted
in questions of relatinships between programme
creators and listeners, FM’s credibility with urban
masses, licencing policy and its impact, changing
patterns of entertainment and participation with radio
in urban people.

<This is an ongoing research which has a potential for
a very entertaining and revealing short video feature.
I am also looking for support to make this possible.
In the first fase of my study I have prepared a 
template of some 15 odd questions for an elementary
data collection. At this stage I found that some 251
RJs are now directly addressing listeners of Delhi and
adjoining areas round  the clock live on AIR Fm
Gold(106.4 M Hz), AIR Fm Rainbow (102.6 M Hz), Radio
City(91 MHz), Radio Mirchi(98.3MHz) and Red Fm(93.5
MHz) .There is one more Fm radio which can be tuned to
some select hours and select days that is Gyan
Vani(105.6Mhz) and it is primarily an educational
channel with a dedicated listenership.

<It is perhaps worth mentioning here that a large
number of these RJs are not intellectual types, very
few of them enjoy reading or discussiong things. Some
of them are worried about their image and job, so they
are not even interested in presenting themselves for
this study. Out of 151 Radio Presenters (identified
till now) only 32 are male. The age is ranging from 18
to 40 years in general. These RJs are coming from
various social-economic and cultural backgrounds.Only
few are trained from any institute or got a serious
inclination towards mass communications’ theory or
practice. To them rights and responsibilities as a
broadcaster are vague or not clear and they seemed
least bothered about it. Most of the time they are
satisfied and happy with themselves. 
><DEFANGED.0 
<Through this study I wish to get  a handle on this
emerging communication language and sensibility in
metro listeners and the changing idiom of radio
medium. I hope I may shoot all these fascinating-
musical -humorous and behind the scene life on a
professional video format. 

Suggestions and support are eagerly awaited.

With regards
S.M.Irfan
Ph. 9818096090


		
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