FM - Free Music!!!

At least now I should write something about that topic that I claim to be I am most passionate about i.e., music. I am an ardent lover of music. People find my tastes in music quite confusing. I have been trained in Carnatic Music for about 10 years during my school days, under Perumbavoor G.Ravindranath. My guru is a well known musician and I consider it a big blessing that I at least got a chance to say this. Music is something I got from my father who himself used to play the mridangam and tabala and was part of the music troupe, that he and his friends organised in their college days.
Since I am trained in carnatic music, it doesn’t mean that I enjoy only that. I listen to all types of songs and albums in any language. But the problem when I listen to songs is that most of the time I just care for only the music and not the lyrics. And most of the time, the kind of music I listen to depends on my mood. To me, that gives amazing results and its the way I rejuvenate.
I listen to all A.R Rahman’s albums – be it English, Hindi, Tamil or even Malayalam (Yodha). Even if his critics write off one album as not reaching the usual standard, I will possess it. I think he is one person who is a phenomenon in himself.
We don’t have a dearth of singers in Kerala these days. Thanks to the ongoing reality shows. That reminds me of the news I saw in a national news channel about a 16 year old girl who is suffering from depression. She was one of the top 10 contestants in a leading channel’s dance reality show. This calls for a serious introspection as to whether these reality shows are just the glitz and glamour that we see. It seems that this girl is now out of the competition and she has stopped even having food from that day. Should we have something like an age limit to participate for such reality shows? That’s food for thought.
Kerala is listening to radio now. We have got so many FM stations that sprung out of no where in the recent past that most of us who have been allergic to radios have started listening to it. It’s nice in a way. I can talk about Trivandrum, my home town. It was a sudden transition. One day 3 FM stations started broadcasting. Till this date, we have Big FM, S FM, Radio mirchi, Club FM and our very own Ananthapuri. Trivandrumites are waiting for Best FM and Radio Mango. I was so proud when the channels started broadcasting here before Ernakulam. In my mind, there is always a conflict between Cochin and Trivandrum. Trivandrum is my home town (my parents are also from Trivandrum) but I owe a lot to Cochin for making the person I am now. So these 2 places are very close to me. I also find lots of people debating about which of the two places is better, but in vain.
So back to these FMs, I think it’s a superb idea to have something that offers music for 24 hours. I listened to the channels at Trivandrum and Cochin. Here I have to go with the ones at Trivandrum. I found that more than half of the broadcast time by the stations at Cochin is taken up by the commercial ads. Of course, Cochin is a bigger commercial place than Trivandrum, but when it comes to FMs I am happy that I hear it from Trivandrum.
FMs started dominating God’s own country only a few months now. I was really proud to say those times that Trivandrum had 5 FM stations while Cochin had just 1. I went to Chennai and my family friend turned on the FM station. She started changing the channels one by one. To my disbelief, I saw that even after she changed more than 5 channels it wasn’t repeating. And then she said that there were 11 stations there. All right, there went my FM war. It was even bigger when I went to Delhi. The sweeper at IIT-Bombay does his work listening to the FM in his walkman. Of course, FM has created a revolution especially in hotels, retail outlets etc.
But I don’t approve the standard of the programmes in these channels. Some are hilarious and entertaining, but all radio jockeys (RJs as they are fondly called) should be themselves rather than trying to imitate those in the other national channels. If one listens to the channels in Trivandrum one will find that a good number of programmes have the RJs doing a mockery of the Trivandrum slang. Yes, it is done in good humour and they do succeed in doing that to a limit. But when it crosses a limit everyone starts feeling a bit monotonous.
And the prizes, that is one thing that we shouldn’t forget. They are doing a good job roping in sponsors. But when we sent a single message worth Rs.3 they won’t even let out the probability that we can win. Another good thing about listening to it from Kerala is that we can hear Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam songs. I think that is our speciality. The youth here are familiar with all the latest films and music in these 3 languages, while a person who knows Hindi will just stick to Hindi or English.
But the big question is how long they will survive? With passing time, more channels will come in and tighter will be the competition. They have to keep on innovating and changing according to time avoiding plagiarism. As it is rightly said in “It happened in India” by Kishore Biyani, that the main way to survive in business is changing them according to the customer’s needs and keep on innovating. There should never be a shortage of ideas and also spontaneity among the RJs. The same applies for the advertisements being broadcasted. They should be catchy and convey the information to the customers they target. For this, they have to keep on changing their strategies and sales promotion tactics.
But good or bad, God’s own country now has a musical atmosphere. This is one media, like the newspaper, accessible to the rich and poor alike. We can listen to music 24*7. And we can listen to it when we are driving, working in kitchen etc. But the same doesn’t apply to television or any other media. My uncle was telling me that when he is caught in the infamous traffic jams in Cochin these days, he is unusually cool. Thanks to FM, its RJs and the wonderful songs they play to ease out our tension. Music does wonders! My mum listens to it for a totally different reason on her drive to her office. She listens to our very own Ananthapuri on her way to office in the morning. Her sole reason for this being, they are the only channel which gives the time at 9.15 a.m. So she will be able to know how late she can be. Nevertheless, the FM stations are doing a great job. The broadcasters are careful to please their audience in all generations. Personally, I feel it’s a very exciting industry and I definitely want to see how each channel will respond to their competitions in the long run. Of course FM can now be rightly expanded as Free Music.