These days Bhopal seems to be under the grip of FM radio franchisee Radio Mirchi. It’s the first private radio network in India and though its been around for a while, only recently have they made inroads into the Bhopal market. The change in Bhopal’s listening habits is drastic. Suddenly, small FM receivers are the in-thing here and you can’t help but hear their unmistakable programming where ever you go.
Previously most of the shop owners, especially barber shops and service stations, used to have a TV running in their premises with the channel tuned to popular Hindi movie songs. That is no more. Radio Mirchi is everywhere. Even though we’ve had FM in Bhopal for quite a while now, no one ever bothered to tune it. Most people didn’t even have a FM tuner. Traditionally, India has been the land of MW (AM to yanks) and short-wave. For decades short-wave radio has ruled the Indian air space for both information and entertainment.
With cable TV this monopoly did break up at least in the bigger cities but it still dominated the rural areas simply because of the range a short wave transmitter can have. The quality of government-controlled broadcast as well as the programming left a lot to be desired but it was better than nothing and besides, there was no choice. Now private players have moved in and have breathed a much needed life into a almost dead medium.
Many of the rural areas now directly tune in to digital broadcasts from satellite for both radio and TV. My own village in upper UP area is flooded with small dishes and satellite receivers. This is as direct an example of “India Shining” as any. People who could not afford a short-wave radio a decade back now have color-TV and a satellite tuner. Anyway you look at it, our economy is blooming. The other aspects of a life-style have not changed much but I think that has more to do with education than spending power.
So many car owners have upgraded their car cassette decks with FM tuners. If you are driving on Bhopal roads these days, you can hear uninterrupted broadcast of Radio Mirchi since almost all the cars have their tuners tuned to the same station. Mirchi’s programming is sleek and the music they play is usually fast beat current movie hits. And of course, the quality of the broadcast is excellent. It is primarily aimed at the youth and the college crowd but even middle agers like me find the whole thing uplifting and invigorating. Even on the press floor there’s a less-than-a-hundred-Rupees FM tuner attached to our monster amp and speakers.
A source of entertainment is necessary for those long hours the staff endures on the press floor. We had tried TV for a while but then people were more interested in TV and less on the work going on. This caused a lot of screw-ups so we had tried audio CDs but ended up frying the player twice from continuous use. The paper dust also tended to block the lens of the player and the idea was dropped after a month of unsuccessful research. Now it is perfect. There are no moving parts, it doesn’t use much power and there’s nothing to break in it. We have good music, at least from the operators’ point of view (and they are all pretty young), and the useless banter of the DJs is just enough to entertain but not enough to distract.
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