And your are listening to...

When we upgraded our "two-in-one" system (tape recorder with radio receiver) way back in 1997, the vendor asked us to go for one which has the capability to play FM signals. Neither did we understand the technology nor the utility of it. Nevertheless we did buy one with FM feature. Now, 9 years down the line we find having it really useful.

With new FM channels coming out every alternate month, the user has far too many choices now than he had a few months back. Bangalore currently features about 8 FM radio channels. When I was doing my industrial training in Bangalore in the year 2000, there were just two of them, Radio City (then on 91 MHz and now on 91.1 MHz) and AIR's Vividh Bharathi (102.9 MHz). Vividh Bharati being just a parallel transmission of the original medium wave. AIR then launched their exclusive FM channel, Rainbow on 101.3 MHz. Last one year saw the addition of 5 new channels, namely, Radio Mirchi (98.3 MHz), Radio One (94.3 MHz), Radio Indigo (91.9 MHz), Radio Big (92.7 MHz) and Radio Sun (93.5 MHz).

Radio Big and Sun are mostly dedicated to Kannada while Indigo is for lovers of international music (read as English). Radio One and Mirchi have their anchoring in Kannada while the songs are a mixture of Hindi and Kannada movie songs. Rainbow, as the name suggests, is a mix of English, Hindi and Kannada songs. Radio city mostly plays Hindi songs with jockeying in English. But tough competition due to the increase in the number of players and a penchant to increase the listenership have made them to broadcast some programs in the native language too.

Most of these channels however have a similar presentation style and program coverage like traffic update, time and weather update, listener's choice, love advice, etc. But one channel that has still maintained its old charm and continues to make people nostalgic is Vividh Bharathi. Hardly anything has changed over the decades. The program and the presentation style is still the same. One can still listen to programs like Jayamala, Chayageet, Fauji bhaiyon ke liye, Geetmala and Aap ki farmaish in addition to discussions on agriculture, medicine, health and hourly news. If at all there is anything missing, then it is the magnetic voice of Ameen Sayani of Binaca/Cibaca Geetmala fame.