But the funny thing is that they all play the same thing. In that context, we are a really funny lot. I remember when AIR FM came around in 94-95...Times FM they called it and it played all the latest and not-so-latest western numbers. In time, the private entrepreneurs go sick of the government bureaucracy and moved out, leaving AIR to manage it on its own. In their quest to be "cool" AIR hired some atrocious RJ's with even more atrocious accents (they are around still) and made a mockery of the whole thing...license Raj thrived and no private player entered for good five years.
Then came Mirchi in Mumbai...again with the latest foot-tapping western numbers and cooler RJ's with not so thick but rather "with-it" accents. Alas, that was not to last, and as quickly as they rapped, they turned "vernacular"...welcome Daler Mehndi!
Since then, we have been faced with a vicious attack of the channels with a channel popping in every month or so nowadays...All playing the same thing, vying for the same ad-slots and poaching the same morning RJ's (Nitin from Mirchi to Red, Simran from Red to Big, Dev from...etc etc..).
Funny thing is, all the new channels come with the same promise..no ads, no jokes, no talk...just music...look at Hit 95 or Fever 104. And even more funnily, they start by playing non-stop western numbers....dwindle down slowly to add some ads and finally the westerns disappear altogether!! What does it mean? That their primary audience or Word-of-mouth spreaders are the western music lovers....and once they have done their job, they don't deserve to listen to their favorite music, and the station suddenly becomes "one-with-the-masses"!
Then there's another angle to the story - how long can they all keep playing the same thing? They crack the same jokes, interview the same celebs, preview the same releases, warn of the same traffic jam...and as mentioned earlier, with their RJ poaching habits, its difficult to sub-consciously realize which station is which! Who will survive..as I don't think any one of them can command loyalty today unless they move into specialization. Mirchi has to play one lousy number for me to switch to the next available station. Red has to play one ad to get swapped for someone who isn't playing an ad. This has led to rolling-ads amongst some stations...brilliant idea but pissing off nonetheless...you see, an ad begins on 91.1, you switch to preset 2 i.e. 92.7 (marketeers hope that most people would set stations sequentially) to find the same ad either starting or right at the spot you left it in the last station and so on....what a piss off!!!! OK, now that you are enlightened, just to this...preset in random order or switch stations randomly and you might just survive!
Radio stations have to realize that this cannot go on forever. There will be a time soon enough when listeners won't know the difference between stations and hence not bother with who's pitching what. At that stage, they will need to do the following:
- Play distinctive music (Oldies, Hip-Hop, Raagas etc)
- Cater to distinctive populace (city slickers, kids, teenagers, college students etc)
- Have a regional or language specialization like the present crop of cable TV channels
As for me, I wish the industry all the very best....the better it does, more new stations there will be. And that would at least mean that I will always have one station that will be playing non-stop music...including some good western stuff...
Amen to that!
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