Mumbai (and possibly most other Indian cities’) airwaves are a cacophony of sounds as private FM radio takes off.
But the tyranny of “that’s what the market wants” ends up making almost all the stations sound the same. Young jocks trying hard to sound upbeat, playing the same kind of music, similar interstitials, gags and branded properties. I counted the song from the movie Metro play thrice (on two different stations) in a span of 40 minutes today morning.
Here is a guideline I used, during the time I spent working with a radio station – to make content more relevant. I liked to call the LIL rule:
Live – As much of content was as live as possible. That’s what differentiates the medium from most others. That means the only chat / talk you have on the station should be relevant then and there. It’s surprising how many shows on radio aren’t. The more packaged stuff you have, the more I will want to listen to songs on my CD or iPod. The Live bit is one thing that makes a radio station relevant.
Interactive – The oldest electronic media is also the most interactive. Unfortunately, exploiting the participative nature of the media calls for special skill development – how to engage with listeners (most of whom are pretty inarticulate), when to interact, how not to make the engagement boring to other listeners etc.
Local – How local can we get; in language, content and other packaging. I’ve noticed this is more easily done in Mumbai, but during my visits to other cities I have heard most jocks trying to sound (in accent and content) more Mumbai than the city they were in.
The attempt was always to ensure the station delivered on at least two of these three attributes.
But the tyranny of “that’s what the market wants” ends up making almost all the stations sound the same. Young jocks trying hard to sound upbeat, playing the same kind of music, similar interstitials, gags and branded properties. I counted the song from the movie Metro play thrice (on two different stations) in a span of 40 minutes today morning.
Here is a guideline I used, during the time I spent working with a radio station – to make content more relevant. I liked to call the LIL rule:
Live – As much of content was as live as possible. That’s what differentiates the medium from most others. That means the only chat / talk you have on the station should be relevant then and there. It’s surprising how many shows on radio aren’t. The more packaged stuff you have, the more I will want to listen to songs on my CD or iPod. The Live bit is one thing that makes a radio station relevant.
Interactive – The oldest electronic media is also the most interactive. Unfortunately, exploiting the participative nature of the media calls for special skill development – how to engage with listeners (most of whom are pretty inarticulate), when to interact, how not to make the engagement boring to other listeners etc.
Local – How local can we get; in language, content and other packaging. I’ve noticed this is more easily done in Mumbai, but during my visits to other cities I have heard most jocks trying to sound (in accent and content) more Mumbai than the city they were in.
The attempt was always to ensure the station delivered on at least two of these three attributes.
No comments:
Post a Comment