Game Shows in Radio!!

Continuing the discussion on the previous post about FM Channels now we land up where we have got game shows on FM Radios. Though the amount may not be as large as it used to be in TV game shows like 'Kaun Banega Carodpathi?' or popularly called 'KBC' of Star Plus or 'Jeetho Chappad Phad Ke' of Sony but surely they are here to stay.

In Bangalore, Radio Big 92.7 has started 'Lucky Lakshmi' few day back hosted by veteran RJ Kiran Shridhar making a come back in FM Radio after a long gap, Radio One 94.3 offers its listeners to become 'Lakhpathis' daily by answering their 3 questions, Radio City 91 FM went one step more with it offering a flat in National Capital New Delhi for the contest winners. So its raining prize galore this season in Bangalore by the radio bigwigs.

As my friend Nidhi pointed out in a post in his blog about the SMSes playing a lead role in earning revenue both for sponsors and the event organisers in almost every game show nowadays it continue to do so here also.

Talking more of FM Radios, November 1 marks the entry of one more famous media person into FM Radio Space with Ravi Belagere beginning to host a new programme at 8 am in FM Rainbow 101.3 called 'Ravi Belagere at 8 am'. And the punch line of the programme goes in typical Belagere style 'Karnatakada gentlemengala madhye obba gantle-man'. Among the loud voices of all private FM channels in Bangalore now FM Rainbow's voice is hardly heard. Will this move change its fortunes? Lets wait and watch.

On the other front, BMTC in Bangalore has introduced new buses exclusive for BMTC pass holders called the 'Pass Bus' thus justifying the need for single door buses in Bangalore. BMTC has taken several good initiatives this year with it starting the much awaited Volvo Service, and then came Special Mall Bus(to visit all the malls in Bangalore), Hospital Special Bus, Women's Special Bus. Kudos to BMTC. Keep up the good work.

Watch this space in the coming days for new posts.

Regards
Raveesh

Radio Revolution in Bangalore

Latest addition to the growing number FM channels in Bangalore is Radio Big 92.7 FM. Launched on Friday, 06th October 2006, it has already arrived big with Kannada superstar Upendra being its brand ambassador. That takes the count of most listened FM channels in Bangalore to 7. Here is the brief overview of these channels.

Radio City 91 FM : This was the first private FM channel, started in 2001 in Bangalore. For the first 5 years it was the undisputed leader in FM space with large number of radio audience so much so that FM radio in Bangalore meant Radio City 91 FM. Programmes here are mostly in English with predominently Hindi and occasionally Kannada songs being played.

Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM : First FM channel to enter Bangalore after central govt's phase II expansion of FM channels. Started this year with Kanglish tag line 'sakkath hot maga' with similar tag lines in other cities as well such as Chennai and Hyderabad. Programmes are in Kannada rather Kanglish with mix of Hindi and Kannada songs being played. Channel is promoted by the well known media giant Times Group.

Radio One 94.3 FM : A Mid-Day group channel started this year with the tag line 'hit mele hit mele hit'. Programmes in Kanglish with a good mix of Hindi and Kannada songs being played.

Radio Indigo 91.9 FM : Launched about a month ago here in Bangalore, a Jupiter Capital venture, this is the channel dedicated to English songs rather international music with programmes RJ'ed in English.

Radio Big 92.7 FM : Started few days ago, already made its presence felt. It is a channel from the Adlabs group, which has already announced that it is going to launch in 45 Indian cities in the coming days. In Karnataka, Mangalore and Mysore are on its next venture. Programmes mostly in Kannada less in Kanglish with predominently Kannada songs and Hindi songs being played. Occasionally it airs Telugu and Tamil songs too.

AIR FM Rainbow 101.3 FM : Govt owned FM channel under the umbrella of All India Radio(AIR). Programmes in Kannada with mostly Kannada and Hindi songs being played. One thing that has not changed in the case of Govt FM channels compared to the AM version is the news updates. Frankly speaking no other private radio station provides you with news updates except occasional updates on cricket scores.

AIR Vividh Bharati 102.9 FM : One more AIR channel with programmes in Kannada as well as in Hindi and a mix of Kannada and Hindi songs being played. Similar on the lines of FM Rainbow it also airs regular news updates.

Apart from the FM channels listed above there are some more govt owned FM channels probably you have not heard of. They are on frequencies 100.1 FM and 107.6 FM. 101.1 FM is a AIR classical music channel known as 'Amrutha Varshini' and you have 'Gyan Vani' on 107.6 FM. Gyan Vani as the name suggests airs lectures, interviews dealing with education, health, science etc.

This is not the end of radio boom in Bangalore. There is still more with another 4 FM channels on their way to the silicon valley of India. Thanks to the phase II expansion of private FM channels by the central government, tier II cities too witnessing a radio boom. In Karnataka, Mangalore is going to get 4 private FM channels in the near future. These four channels are Kal Radio of Sun Group, Adlabs, ENIL of the Radio Mirchi group and Century Radio. Similarly you will have FM radio stations being set up in Mysore, Hubli, Gulbarga, Belgaum.

With these developments the listener now has a lot of radio stations to choose from. Can we call it a radio revolution in Bangalore? Sure.

Put on your thoughts on this topic by sending your comments.

Raveesh

Blogging - New Age Journalism

Though started in 1994, blogs became popular in the new millenium .i.e in the 2000s atleast in India. Now bloggers are enjoying the status being the new age journalists. According to blogherald.com, there were 70 million blogs in July 2006 with Indian blogs being approximately 100,000. And this number continues to grow.

From being personal diaries to professional write-ups, blogs have come a long way. Google has seperate search page dedicated for blog search http://blogsearch.google.com/. You have blogs of almost every type - diaries, professional articles, sports, technical articles and reviews, film reviews, product reviews.

Unlike traditional journalism, here you have no restrictions in publishing your views (unless you are posting on some news paper's or news channel's site) giving you more liberty and power. But as they say, with great power comes great responsibilities. So you are your own judge when publishing your posts on the net.

Fed up with the reading of film reviews with all their jargon by critics in news papers every weekend then you have now one new avenue to ponder upon. Film reviews in blogs. One of my friends Sandeep has a blog mostly dedicated to film reviews. I did write a film review on Lage Raho Munna Bhai few weeks back. And there are bloggers whose blogs are dedicated only to film reviews. Cricket is one obsession with us Indians. So there are blogs dedicated only to cricket articles. Some of my earlier articles on cricket include Historic Win of India in West Indies, Cricket in the time of Football, Talking Cricket. Not only text, but also you will find pictures and videos embedded in the blog. Some of the blogs are dedicated only to picture/photos or videos.

Technical reviews are a biggest plus came out of blogging. Amit Agarwal's blog is sure a techie's delight as he carries you through the exciting world of Technology with his tips and reviews on latest technology and products.

Compared to traditional journalism I think, here you will find less dedicated readers. And you have to retain your regular readers and if you are a blogger and not updating the blog regularly then you are likely to lose your dedicated readers.

Big names in the media like NDTV, CNN-IBN are providing the netizens with the chance of posting their write-ups on their websites by providing the blog service, shows the importance of blogs in this era. Recently CNN-IBN's Citizen Journalist initiative was well appreciated and it made the channel/ibnlive.com site popular among net users.

Though live news (as in news paper, news channel web sites) is still not in the domain of the bloggers it is catching up slowly. And that by itself does not constitute journalism. Other areas like public opinion, reviews, articles, debates(as it happens through the exchange of comments between the author and readers of the blog) have been strong hold of the bloggers. Blogging community continues to grow and it will shape the things in the future is no understatement.

Comments are welcome

Raveesh

Post to read: Came across a post in Saurabh Saksena's blog titled 'In search of Indianness abroad'. Worth reading.