‘Mann Ka Radio’

Guest Writer - inext

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The story of FM radio is one of re-birth. Not once but umpteen times. In the US, radio neariy died when TV came into existence in the 1950s. In India, we started from a near-dead situation also in early 2000 and we (the private FM broadcasters) have revived this glorious medium to become the one that best reflects the aspiration of the people in general and the youth in particular. We are strengthening the democracy of India. We are giving people a voice!

I have quite a few memorable moments! One is about the first mela (activation event) we did in Indore when more than a lakh people came and we had a stampede! Similarly in Chennai, in an activation event, we had more than 1 lakh people who came and there were nearly 3000 cars in a jam outside the Chennai Convention Center! Or when Aishwarya Rai inaugurated the Mumbai station and when we put up the launched our first contest in Mumbai(Kismat Khol De) and the tele-phones line crashed in Mahim where the call-center was located (In fact, Hinduja Hospital had trouble and they had called us to do some-thing)!

Today, with more than 85 towns having more than 250 private radio stations, the medium has come alive. Weekly listenership of private radio is estimated to be more than 150 million people. There are more than 5000 people directly working in the radio industry. What a comeback it’s been! Radio has tapped into the latent needs of young Indian to express them; to be heard. Like rock music did in the US in the 1970s, radio in India played the role of helping people express their angst against the traditionalism that prevailed in India.

The youth had a lot of angst. But they also had a lot of hope. They also had a lots of ideas. It was in this cauldron that private FM took its birth. The other dominant forces in the lives of the young- music, films, education set the tone for radio content. Suddenly, the youth had a voice. Radio is unashamedly the young’s medium! Even today, the key driver of radio is the youth. Radio is the youth’s private medium. Unlike TV which is a shared space with family members, radio is a private zone. With nearly 70% of all the 400 million mobile phones equipped with FM tuners, the youth has unhindered access to radio.

The phone is also the medium by which the youth communicates with the radio jockeys (RJs). In most stations, the RJs are themselves part of the youth brigade. Their irreverence for traditions, their impatience with the pace of change, their disdain for the political class, their confidence in overcoming centuries of deprivation and their desire to take India to the top of the pecking order on the world is what private radio is all about.

Today, after 8 years of existence, radio is still at best an adolescent. It is poised to grow to a size 3-4 times bigger than what it is presently. With more than 1000 new radio stations likely to come up in the next year or so, real democracy will spread even deeper in the country. Radio is the future of India.

Published in INEXT, Dec 2009 – Foundation Week.