Are you Listening to Radio Channels?
It’s been a long time since I listened to radio channels. So I thought why not try it now, especially as I have bought a cell phone with decent front speakers, recently.
Here are my observations just after one hour of listening to various Radio Channels in Chennai:
- Songs are played only for 50% of the time.
- Remaining 50% of the time is taken up by ads, RJ chatter, interviews, theme music of the radio channel, etc.
- Some channels are clearer than others: Not sure if this is location/device specific. But since they don’t consume my 3G bandwidth, so I am happy!
- Talking about 3G, if you live outside Chennai and want to listen to radio channels in Chennai, there are a few radio channels that stream via the Internet, it seems.
- In one channel, a movie was playing in audio format!
- Two interesting ads I noticed: One ad advertised an apartment saying it’s not as expensive as 3 crores, but costs just 1.3 crores!! My, I don’t think I can buy a house 😛 Another ad was an ad for a mega serial for TV. Talk about radio-TV collaboration!
- One channel played an interview with a movie star which was actually a plug for his latest movie. But another channel played an interview with four artists who came on a cultural exchange to paint the walls of Chennai.
- There were a couple of radio channels that played English songs. But not even one channel played Hindi songs!! Why??
- Good to listen to old/familiar/forgotten songs once again.
- One person who ‘called-in’ started singing in a pathetic voice. Too funny!! 🙂
- One channel (AIR?) was broadcasting news in short.
- Actually, I was flipping through the radio channels to discover at least one new/good song. I did find this song from Billa 2. It was good, not great. But I am inspired to listen more.
- Also, just one hour of listening resulted in so much adventures! 🙂
So have you been listening to radio channels in your place recently? What are your observations? If you’ve not been listening, you should try – at least occasionally 🙂
Destination Infinity
I am surprised how these radio channels still manage to survive amidst TV, You tube and the rest of the cyber magics. The easiest way to access radio these days is through mobile. But what limits me mostly is the requirement of a head set. During those few times when I’ve listened, it felt bugging to listen to the RJs go on and on about something hopeless. There might be some good discussions as well. But they are relatively lesser, I guess.
Appreciate your thought to have come up with a post on Radios.
Yes, mobiles are good to access radio. I attach the headset on the mobile to act as antenna, but I use the front speakers to listen to the radio. I find it annoying when headsets keep sticking to my ears! Let’s see how much more radio I listen to, in the coming days…
Destination Infinity
It is a good topic talking about Radio.
WE used to have a huge wooden radio in home and i felt nostalgic.
Hmm…may be i should write a post on nostalgic memories involving radio! 😛
Anyway, i would listen to radio during my commute to my college and i would always listen to one particular channel. You ask me why? well, loved the beautiful voice of the RJ! 😛
Here we are, thinking RJs voice is distracting and why they don’t play songs for more time, and you were listening to radio for the voice of RJ?? Now I understand whey they have RJs!!
Destination Infinity
Yup. I admire good voices and if a person has wit and sense of humour along with it, its such an advantage
😀
hmmm very true ..
But on the contrary if there were no ADS or stupid interviews I would enjoy the chatter and songs .. We have hearts fm here and i have started lisening to it for a few weeks now when going ot work early morning.. it keeps me AWAKE 🙂
I remember back home we have one of those OLD huge big brown radio’s
Many people seem to remember those big brown radios, but I have seen only tape recorders!
Destination Infinity
Thanks for the interesting post. I do not listen to radio.
Maybe you can try it sometime… 🙂
Destination Infinity
I mostly listen to radio/fm while travelling in the car… and my interest to listen radio began only after private channels set in. I usually like listening fm in morning and night, but i couldn’t catch up with them regularly while at home. I think Suriyan and Radio Mirchi are two channels that receive better even in weak signal.
I am now trying to listen in the nights. The experience is quite good.
Destination Infinity
You always deal with something new in your blog.Radios are long forgotten and you have kindled the desire to listen to it.Your observation that 50% of time is utilized in advertisements,RJ chatter and such like would mean corresponding waste of our time.
This is true for TV too and is surely frustrating and a disincentive for viewers/listeners.
But what to do, Radio Channels need to make money no? There was one excellent service called WorldSpace which curated some excellent songs and did not host any ads. But that channel was paid. They had an excellent receiver/speaker set too. Something like that might be attractive to me now or in the future!
Destination Infinity
Hi,
I listen to radio, though I do not understand Tamil 🙂 I simply listen as time-pass. But I find some tunes are familiar (Rehman’s Hindi tunes). I also find many good songs by Illaiyaraja, Yuvan, Harris. Yes, I agree, sometime playing Hindi songs for a change will be a nice idea.
I think there should be at least one Hindi radio channel in Chennai.
Destination Infinity
I used to listen to FM some years before. But these days I find them to be really annoying. More so due to never-ending annoying ads! There is no fine balance like what we see in television.
Nice post 🙂
I don’t see TV nowadays, hopefully it’s better there 🙂
Even with radio, some channels don’t relay much ads if you listen to them during off-peak hours.
Destination Infinity
I am an ardent fan of Vividh Bharati. We can hear Hindi as well as Tamil film songs, old and new. Long back (don’t know if it is there now!), we used to hear Tamil audio serials at night like S.V.Shekar’s Vannakkolangal. They were very famous. No ads in this channel! Some programmes like Sangeet sarita (Hindustani and Karnatic music discussion with raga based film songs), aapki farmaayish etc. are transmitted since before my birth, I think! No FM for me!
I remember watching Vannakkolangal as a TV serial, many years back. I am not sure if my mobile can pick up AM. If it can, I will try listening to that also.
Destination Infinity
I listen to FM when I go for my morning walks. But from the past few months I have been enjoying the early morning bird choirs, so FM is getting a back seat.
Oh, it’s good that you even get early morning bird choirs. Maybe I should try it in my area too!
Destination Infinity
Good analysis! Interesting topic.
We listen to radio channels regularly, mostly music but only while traveling by car. We take road trips a lot. We mostly listen to English music channels. If there is too much talking, we switch it off!
Now I am sorta getting used to the talking 🙂
Destination Infinity
I loved to listen radios from childhood. You can enjoy music and other programs even in working. Now mobile phones are equipped with FM radio are more useful while travelling. In Kerala, radio stations broadcasting songs from Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi with equal importance.
Thanks for sharing your observation.
Oh, how I wish I was in Kochi!! 🙂
Destination Infinity
I do tune in, mostly at night. In Bangalore, we have few channels which play Hindi songs, and one that plays Hindi only (Fever FM). Usually, the selection is pretty decent.
Even here, the selection of songs is good, but there are no channels that play Hindi songs at all!
Destination Infinity
“Remaining 50% of the time is taken up by ads, RJ chatter, interviews, theme music of the radio channel, etc.”
==> This is the reason for not listening to Indian music channels. There are few radio channels here run by Indians and they hardly play any songs.. I hate that RJ chatter. That’s why I only listen to American local radio channels. The RJs there hardly talk and they play more songs.
Sometimes the talking is informative or entertaining. But that’s not very frequent!
Destination Infinity
Good observations.
VividBharati is still No.1 and best.
Yes. Like the DD, Govt. radio channels also have their charm 🙂
Destination Infinity
Interesting observations. The only time that I listen to a Radio is while traveling in car. I hate the incessant chatter of the RJs and silly filler comedy shows and the ads irritate the hell out of me. So, I am forever changing channels and pausing only when there’s a song playing somewhere! 😀
I sometimes do that – changing channels incessantly – esp. during prime time, when the ads and RJ chatter is at its longest. But during the late night, everything else takes rest leaving out the music. That’s when I tune in, nowadays 🙂
Destination Infinity