Whoever you are and whatever you are doing, you can’t dodge the FM Radio. While at work or on the road, via cell phones, car sets or the internet, the chatter of radio jockeys is your constant companion, drawing your attention to traffic updates, new and views, cooking tips, music and so much more. Whether you’re wondering what route to take to avoid traffic, or wishing for news updates or agonizing over what to cook or simply in the mood for some music and entertainment, there’s always a radio station you can tune in to which will satisfy you.
With the advent of the television, radio was on its way to becoming an endangered specie, however, the turn of the millennium saw a revival of radio culture leading to a marked increase in the popularity of FM radio.
FM 99 presenter Diya Rahman told Pakistan Today that the present radio industry has revived its erstwhile glory, which had been lost due to the invasion of satellite channels and portable music devices that had won over people’s hearts. “The FM radio renaissance has gripped not only Pakistan but the entire region of South Asia with a number of radio channels flourishing in recent years,” said Diya. “Musical programmes run all day long and all kinds of songs are played, ranging from Pakistani songs from the yesteryears to the latest hip hop numbers, on request via phone calls or SMS’s from thousands of listeners,” she explained, adding that in her experience FM listeners belong to no specific age bracket and are anywhere between 10 and 90 years old.
She further added that recently the FM channels had started covering social issues and held news and current affairs programmes as well, and that these drew in a large number of listeners. Coverage, she claimed, is also an important factor, “due to wide coverage throughout the country and motorways now FM channels are played on every vehicle running on the roads”.
Sophiya Anjum, an RJ at Radio 1 FM 91 shared her views, “With the advent of the FM stations, the radio industry is on a roll. To be honest, with all the load shedding which started some time back, I’m sure people had no choice but to listen to the radio. But generally whoever commutes to work daily stays tuned to a radio channel”. 0n the factors leading to the growth of the industry she opined, “The growth in radio was fuelled by the advertising market, as radio ads are cheaper than those on other media.”
Industry insiders revealed that another source of income for radio stations is the revenue generated from SMS’s; stations usually receive around 10 thousand SMS per day, but the figure may reach 100,000 on special occasions. Radio stations keep 60 percent of the revenue of each SMS while the remaining goes to the telecom companies, an RJ told this scribe, adding that such development also lead to an increase in the sales of radio sets and mobile handsets with radio options.
A majority of the youth are also currently of the opinion that the boost in the popularity of the FM radio is largely due to the availability of radios on cell phones, which makes access to radio merely a matter of pressing a few keys. Internet is another means by which radio is popularly accessed today.
The listeners nowadays mostly comprise the youth and many complain that radio today has failed to cater to its former listeners. Sumaira Kanwal, a computer science teacher in a local college remarked, “It’s too commercial. In our days, radio used to inculcate a civic sense but now I guess it is all about music.” Another schoolteacher, reminiscing about the exceptional dramas and ghazals aired in the good old times, pointed out that “even the music was good then”. Hadia Aftab, who has been listening to the FM radio for over a decade now bemoaned the excess of advertisements; “everything is good and entertaining except advertisements. A 30-minute programme on radio has about 20 minutes of advertisements”. She responded to the accusations that radio programmes today lack substance by claiming that this is a ‘slight exaggeration’.
Leena Shah, an RJ at FM Mustt-103 is, however, more optimistic and excited about what radio means to the society; “Radio today is about performing arts, poetry, politics, worldwide music, urban noise, lively RJs, vernacular speech, fractured language, all modes of talk and an array of cultural voices. It is not only pure entertainment but there are programmes where guests belonging to various professional fields are invited too. You can enjoy radio programmes while you drive, cook, read or even write something, making it more accessible and ‘work-friendly’ than other media.”
Although the ways in which radio is accessed today have changed, as has the audience, but radio itself has survived the test of time and technology, and adapted itself to modern listeners, so we can safely say that radio is here to stay. Happy listening!
