Let me discuss FM radio stations in Kolkata a bit, since they have become an inseparable part of my life. I love to switch on the radio in the morning when I am excercising and of course while driving to work. Elsewhere, in restaurants, in shopping centres and even walking down the road, I am forced to listen to radio that seem to be omnipresent, the radio waves emanating from hidden speakers, mobile phones and what not. It is great, since I had never expected radio to be this popular a few years back. Though, there are perhaps close to a dozen stations now, the following four are unequivocally most loved:
91.9 Friends - Of late, the content has improved to a large extent, with songs from the golden era predominating that takes one on nostalgic trips. A great station for the thirty five pluses, only Raja and Shekhar, the over friendly RJs need to cut down playing agony aunts, err..agonly uncles all the time.
92.7 Big FM - This station comes to life after nine p.m, when they keep playing the evergreens of Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. On certain days, they take listeners to the Disco days and that’s great listening indeed. Throughout the day, they are not bad either, and RJ Kaushik is good with his witty conversation with the callers.
93.5 Red FM - This station plays the latest Hindi songs all the time, and if you are not a teen or sub teenager, you are unlikely to tune into this station, but for the younger generation this station is as iconic as Beatles to their Dads. This station is immensely popular with the drivers as well, and perhaps that’s because they hardly play any Bengali songs, and yes Bengali songs not always for light listening.
98.3 Radio Mirchi - An initial favourite that has perhaps slipped from its numero uno position. The jokes are a real pain and what Sud says is incomprehensible. But no one can match RJ Mir’s wit and diction, who is undoubtedly the best in Kolkata. Radio Mirchi doesn’t address to any particular section of the audience, and so perhaps there are not many loyal Radio Mirchi listeners, However, for an unknown reason, I have found that that all the buses in Kolkata tune in to Radio Mirchi only.
Listen to the radio....once again, after all we need to celebrate the greatest comeback of the century.
S.R.Saha