Saturday, September 23, 2006

Over the air

Well, as far as I know, there are 6 radio stations in Bangalore. And for the moment, it looks good. But can a broadcasting business pay off ?

I liked all the siz radio stations and it makes driving , a pleasure (abt 70% of the time).

Here are the radio stations :-

102.9 - Vividh Bharathi/ Aakashwaani or whatever
The old legacy style programming and presentation continues and sometimes it is good. But I seriously doubt, who will listen to Raitharige Salahe kind of programs in the city

101.3 - FM Rainbow
Predominantly Kannada and Hindi songs.It is miles better than 102.9. The signal strength is weak and the Radio Jockey programming is very mediocre. But I guess , it caters to the older folk. I am not saying that I am very young. hehehe.

98.3 - Radio Mirchi
The RJ's try to speak some form of Yuppie Kannada and I hate that...I can imitate some of them...Although a lot of money has been invested in this channel it is going down because of the RJs. They are not that good.

94.3 - Radio One
I like this channel because of a right amount of Kannada and Hindi songs.Kannada is definitely given a good coverage here (in the programming and the RJing) and I feel the RJs are good (but not as good as Radio City),

91.0 - Radio City
They have the best RJs no doubt abt that. Bangalore's oldest Privately owned Radio station.But the ads are very frequent.THey play Hindi , Kannada and English songs.English songs in the night.The interviews are all very well planned.

91.9 - Radio Indigo, MY FAVORITE!
Only English! The whole channel is only english
They dont use words like "sakkath" or "soni kudi" or "praaji" or whatever! The RJs are pretty experienced.

But I am not sure whether this radio station will survive....Nobody will feel like advertising abt "Kaveri Silks Emporium" in a channel where the latest Mark Knopfler single is being released. By the way , they also have a good website. Check it out here.

6 comments:

direkishore said...

great post! Now, I know what to tune into the next time I am thr :)
knopfler and kaveri silks emporium, hehe, good one :))

Akshai said...

91.9 - Radio Indigo...Yup, this is the best channel around in terms of content. Incidentally later in the night they just play Spanish and turkish songs.
Dont think this channel will last for too much time, dont think it has a mass base. The current battle in the company shuttle is between 94.3,91 and 98.3 and I am sure if I request for 91.9 the fans of the other 3 channels would unite to ensure that 91.9 is definitely not played...:-(

sudeep said...

direkishore :
Yes dude ! you'll surely know... :-)))


akshai :

guess what ?

I heard some French and African songs...

Boy! talk abt being international...

But I am sure the consumer base is very low...

The consumer base (afaik) is like, The Engineering and the Undergrad students in Bangalore + a few of the software junta....So no hope for Indigo !

clangorous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
clangorous said...

Hmm. Listen to 91.9 now, they are playing only english and some devotional stuff early in the morning.

Finally a sensible station which plays english 24/7 and now the saviour to escape all the Jalak Dikalaja..'s , Himesh Reshmya's and the crappy repetetive lyrics/music.

Frankly my favourite stations are :

91.9 , 94.3 (for the kannada they play), 101.3 ( for the kannada and English ) and 102.9 ( for the Kannada ).

@ Sudeep : Signal srengths are the best for Goverment stations which use a better transmitter (6kw). Range of these stations are wider than the privately owned stations. There are frequent technical sags/power cuts on these Govt stations which is because of the old equipments they might be using.

I guess you missed out other stations like :

100.10 : Purely Indian classical and instrumental. This station operates usually in the evening

107.6 : IGNOU and Educational station. Even this operates usually in the evening.

On an ending note. I would prefer a station with no RJs and no commercials. I get irritated by the non stop commercials on Radio City and Radio Mirchi, What to do ?,cant help but listen to them in the cab because of the so called cosmo crowd and immigrants from other states. There would be a minimum of 10-15 mins of commercials between 2 songs.

sudeep said...

So there are some other stations also !!!!

I am soooo surprised man!!