Recession being a good reason enough for the company I work to cancel all the office busses, I am now using the public transport to commute to office every day. In a way, it turned out good for me because I travel by Volvo and it is quite comfortable, dust free and aesthetically appealing as well. More than anything, I use my travel time to read books. So I dedicate 4 hours a day on my reading and travelling. At times, when I am not in a good mood to read book or too many calls to attend while I am in the bus, I give my ears to listen to the music on FM. Almost all the Volvo buses are equipped with music players with FM embedded. So I listen to the FM and the PJs being cracked by all the RJs quite often. Sometimes they make me laugh, sometimes they irritate me and sometimes they make no sense to me. But they entertain me for sure. Some of the drivers tend to listen to some old Kannada music always. So as soon as I see the driver, I will know how my journey for the next 2 hours will be. Anyway, I am fine with any RJ and any music to listen as long as I am being entertained.
I believe FM stations are the strong media for mass communication. So, whatever RJs utter and however they behave while running the show will have certain impact on the public who listen to them. At any point of time, they should not forget that they are being heard by the mass, even if they are not seen. Almost all the RJs will be in the edge of their tongue to attract people to turn onto their station. This makes them come up with some innovative stuff. Be it a quiz program or a reality show on FM, all they want to do is to try something new every day. Also, that is how they are supposed to work to counter the competition. But in the recent past, what I observed is that they are trying too much and ending up with some junk stuff which can create havoc in the public. I noticed two such programs during this week that made a negative impact on me. I do not know how others would’ve taken it, but, I certainly did not appreciate them. I actually got shocked and could not believe what I experienced. They just over do things at times.
The first case was when I heard this new program initiated by Radio City 91.1 with the Sandalwood hero Upendra joining the RJ Pra-Dee-Pa on air every morning. He is named as RJ Upendra and they are doing the show called Public-City every morning with him. In this show, they interact with public on variety of topics choosing one topic every day. One such topic for discussion in the public-city couple of days back was ‘Love’. Now, Upendra, being known for his own crazy definitions of love which was showcased in his initial couple of movies directed by him, loved to discuss about this topic without any problem. People started asking questions and sharing their love matters on Air. Out of nowhere, one person called and he said his girl friend denied marrying him because her father did not agree for their marriage. And she is forcefully made to accept some other proposal. The guy kept saying that the girl still loves him but scared to confront her parents. And he asked these two RJs to help him out. Now, I understand they discuss public matters on Air. But, they need to have real guts to discuss private matters publicly. All they could’ve done is to hear the guy completely and tell him some nice words to pick him up from where he is. No! They did not do that. They displayed heroic characters on air. They said they will call the girl and try convincing her and took her number from the guy. The guy was happy and disconnected the call.
Both RJ Upendra and the RJ Pra-Dee-Pa displaying their bravery, called the girl. Initially she refused to admit the fact that she loves the boy. But eventually she confronted that she loves the guy but her dad did not accept the proposal and she was forced to accept some other proposal. She actually refused to talk about the whole issue and asked these two RJs to forget the matter. She also told that she has updated the boy giving enough reasons for not accepting to marry him. But these two RJs did not keep quiet. They forcefully took her dad’s mobile number telling her that they will convince her dad. They called her dad. As soon as he got to know that these guys have called him to talk about his daughter’s love matter, he refused to talk about it. He said he did not like the fact the personal matters are being discussed on Radio and disconnected the call. These guys did not leave him at peace; they called him again and questioned him about the boy. The girl’s dad, out of irritation and anger, agreed to talk about it. He made an interesting point that made these two RJs to shut their silly heroic displays. He said “the boy is uneducated and jobless, how do you expect him to take care of my daughter?”
Consuming all his anger, these two RJs had to end the call without having any lucky break for the lovers. I understand all about love, lovers and weddings. There will be infinite number of problems associated with every story that will have no easy solutions. But, my question is why are they even doing such things publicly? What was the need for them to display heroism? Just because Upendra is a celebrity and people will listen to him if he talks to them? I thought what they did was utterly pathetic and absolutely wrong. It would’ve created more problems to the girl and the boy both. Why do they need to get into the personal matters publicly?
The second case was when I heard the Fever 104 FM today at 7.30 Am. This was the show aired by a lady RJ called Shradha. After a couple of PJs and some good songs, she asked public to call her if they have any problems in life. She offered to make them speak to the Guruji on their problems. I got excited and was curious to know who this Guruji is and what is he going to talk. There was a call immediately from a girl. Her problem was that she was doing nothing in life. When questioned by Guruji to her, she confronted that she could not get through her II PUC exams and she has a back log of 2 science subjects. So it was a real treat for Guruji to speak his words. He asked her a few questions and then I think he immediately looked at her horoscope and told her that she cannot complete any course if she chooses Science subjects. He said she can get through only in Diploma in her life. For that the girl was happy and got excited. He then said that the girl needs to visit one temple (I forgot the name) in Chennai and the other Saraswathi temple near Kumbakonam or some place in Tamil Nadu. If she does that and keep doing regular Pooja to a ‘Saraswathi Yantra’, she will have no problems in her education. The girl was feeling ecstatic after listening to Guruji and she said she will follow all his suggestions.
Well, it was a kind of adrenaline pull for me to believe people still believe in such things. If she has not passed in her exams, it is just that she is not working hard. Also, she seemed not all that excited and interested about her science subjects. So why cannot she do what she likes? What was the need to check her horoscope for things that she cannot do? I do not think she will even pass the diploma if she believes in such crap. All we need to do is to get serious in life and work hard to clear the subjects. And I was very disappointed that the FM station even promotes such things on Air for the public. One end I hear that people are coming out of their blind belief to watch the solar eclipse and the other end I see people believing in horoscope, Guruji and Yantra to clear their academic exams.
It sounds just pathetic!
So, this is the status of our radio stations these days. When all of us are working towards the betterment of the society and nation, these silly things that create more impact on public negatively will never tend to stop. I do not know what others will make out of the above two cases. But I certainly did not like them, do not believe in them and it was outrageous to hear them on air.
Srik
