Obituary

When catastrophe strikes, it does not sound a warning bell in advance. And then it hits you so hard, you reel with the force of it. We mourn the death of the Radio.
There must be over 15 FM Radio channels in Bangalore now. The Radio revolution in Bangalore got a much-needed shot in the arm sometime around 2002, with the debut of Radio City 91.1 FM. The FM station started off with playing English songs, and then gradually introduced some Hindi ones as well. Like any smart enterprise, it was giving its target customers what they wanted: good music, that the target market enjoyed listening to. It wasn't long before fundamental elements attacked and ransacked the Radio City office, yelling that they play Kannada songs as well, coz Bangalore is in Karnataka, and Kannada is the official language. Struck with fear, the station started playing Kannada songs.
The story of the rest of the stations is pretty much the same, maybe without the ransacking part in some cases. (The yelling was always there, I tell you. Always.) Today, all the stations play 10 Kannada songs for every 1 non-Kannada song. Now, I have been in Bangalore all my life, and I can tell you with reasonable confidence that the ratio of the Kannada speaking to the non-Kannada speaking population is definitely not in the proportion mentioned above. Also, for any company, the best thing about competition is that it forces you to differentiate yourself, to offer the target customer a melange of music that is unique to the station. Sadly, this is also missing in the existing scenario. All of them play the same songs, the RJs speak in the same fake happy way and worst of all, there is more of talking than music.
For the Radio: May your soul rest in peace.