Radio Gaga

Since January, I have been working as a ‘casual announcer’ for the rather quaint All India Radio, FM Rainbow, Goa.
They had advertised for RJs on their channel and I happened to hear one such announcement by chance and I applied. After auditions, written tests and the payment of a training fee I became what I had always longed to be- a government employee!

AIR, Goa is a charming old fashioned place, as laid back as the place it is in and caught in a time warp from the late 70s. Its RJs still play most of their material from LPs, the advertisements come in long twisted tapes and the top 10 artists played through the week –every week-would include such Billboard Superstars as Engelbert, Cliff Richard, Lobo, MLTR…

Program nomenclature is quite unique too-Siesta Time (I have Rjed this one!), Jazz hour, Retro Choice, A Hard Day’s Night, Mid-day Magic (and this one!)…you get the gist!

Like everything else in Goa, AIR Panaji, has precious little that is in common with the rest of the country… with the exception of an umbilical air wave connect to AIR, Delhi which they link to during cricket matches and siesta/sleep hours. They are absolutely non commercial when it comes to programming and the RJ is given complete creative freedom to play his/her material. (The reason why I get away with playing more Bowie than Blunt for the past one month)
At the same time they are stuffed with request programs and diligently hunt out every song that is requested for and play it. However Goa being Goa, the requested songs fall 99.9% of the time within a collection of around 25 albums that are kept ready in the duty room (refer to Lobo, MLTR, Engelbert …)

In this idyllic environment, some ‘demon-heads’ are slowly peeping in. There’s Ad Labs and Radio Mirchi setting up world class studios (they have more CDs than LPs!) and there are rumors of at least one more Big player coming in very soon.
These stations will be unabashedly commercial as they have always been and will in addition be ruthless, greedy and well,professional.
They have already poached on AIR’s announcers luring them in with packages these people had never dreamed of. Needless to say, some of the announcers fled straight back to AIR after a bitter experience with the new payola led economy these players were ushering into Goa. One announcer told me he found the new players ‘unethical’.
What is most ‘objectionable’ about these players is that they want full-time employees’ not casual announcers (boo!)

What does interest me though is that with so many new players what would become of the Goa radio scene. There are few locals who drive around listening to the radio and the tourists are stuck to taxis and the two-wheeled ‘pilots’ as far as travel goes and would, if in their right minds, rather party at a beach than listen to radio commercials. Maybe, a company like Adlabs would fit every taxi with a radio and tune them onto Adlabs 24*7…

The reason for the advent of these players lies in the history of FM station licensing to private players. The license obliges them to open FM stations in every A, B, C,D city in sequence. (A class includes the metros etc, while Goa is a D class city, with population less than 2 million). Now that these channels operate in all the A to C cities they Have to start off in Goa and it's euqivalents. 

Maybe, the much maligned 2011 plan for Goa,is what the likes of Adlabs are betting on- the real estate boom to get them the right consumers from nearby Mumbais, Punes and Bangalores. Everyone's yet to find out…

As far as ad revenues on radio go, FM Rainbow, Goa, struggles to make more than 20 lacs a year while even a nearby Kolhapur makes close to a crore.

Whatever their plan is AIR, Panaji is not too bothered yet. They still have the old LIC ad to play followed by the new Twist tonic water ad.

Coming up next is Cliff Richard with “Summer Holiday” requested by Maria, John and their friends and you are listening to the FM Rainbow Service of All India Radio Panaji…Stay tuned!!!