All it takes is a disclaimer..

Before I get into the main story... a bit of background about how I landed up there. It started with the release of New Moon (the Twilight saga) and me listening to the OST of the movie and me again falling in love with the track “I belong to you…”by Muse.( Awesome song, listen it here: http://www.youtube.com/watchv=LMQuOkQyezU&feature=related) Like all other things I was impatient to share this song with my friends. So a week back, when I met them and we had hit the highway, it seemed like the perfect setting to unleash the greatness of the song to them, unfortunately I had already killed the battery of my motou9 (its not good on battery backup) by overenthusiastically listening to that Muse song about twenty times from the morning (and I am not exaggerating!)


So the next thing I did was remove the memory card of my cell and try to place it into my friend’s cell, one thing led to another and to cut a long story short, my memory card was stuck in her Nokia cell and for the week that followed and still is following I was left with my Motou9 minus the amazing songs and a FM radio..

Woof... that’s the background about how I landed up listening to FM in the first place!

So now, the three choices of FM I tuned into:

1. The all ad channel
2. The we are different channel
3. The promote us and get insulted channel.

And the reasons I was put off by each one of them

1. lots of ads with repetitive songs
2. Lots of ad about the fact that they don’t really repeat any song
3. Lousy, down-market language.

So now the sequence in which I got put off,

1. The promote us and get insulted channel: While it started with a disclaimer that they don’t intend to insult/hurt/ offend the sentiments of the said celebrities, whose voices they use to apparently promote their channel. I heard two such voices, but in spite of the disclaimer I was offended by the way the promo was aired. I mean it has some stupid loser going on and on about the acting talent of the said celebrity and the personal relationship etc etc. Point is, call me a bit held up but there’s a thin line between fun and vulgarity and from my perspective the said channel crossed it. Enough for me to move on…

2. The all ad channel: Now this is pure nostalgia, Eight years back when I had come to Pune, this channel was new. I remember that back then, radio culture was dead and this channel kinda revived it. I also remember that back in my PG accommodation, it was on all the time. It played some brilliant tracks and was a perfect mix of all the old bollywood melodies which I had forgotten so I got to listen to” Aisa na mujhe tum dekho..” and “Mujhe Pyaar tumse nahi hai nahi hai..” after many years on this channel alongwith the typical BoyZone, Backstreet Boys tracks and the Dil Se, Deewana tracks which were huge then. Now as I went back to it, it was just too much of ads and a long wait to listen to a song... maybe my timing was wrong.

3. The we are different channel: The longest I Was tuned in to is this. But the next time they say that they don’t repeat any song unlike other radio stations I am going to smash my FM... Seriously, Point taken, can we move on?

So that’s my experience on the radio scene these days, I am not a regular listener and still am waiting eagerly to get my memory card back so that I can go back to the repetitive songs of my play list. But the whole experience made me think about the competition in today’s world and the heights to which the media goes to claim the top slot. Also, what happened to the good old humor where the fun was not on somebody else’s expense but was subtle which left a smile on the face without having to insult someone? I may enjoy the Bakra on MTV but given a choice will watch “chupke chupke” happily for the 100th time.

Call me old fashioned, but I seriously will thank a said celebrity if he/she promotes my work rather than pass comments on their work, is it even humor? Apparently, all it takes is a disclaimer before we start assaulting someone in today’s world.