FM radio is dying. So is the joy of accidentally hearing a song you once loved
On June 15, FM radio stations Radio One, Radio Nasha and Fever FM went off air. Few were surprised, even fewer are aware: between Netflix series and Spotify podcasts, who listens to the FM radio today? I can’t remember the last time I did, save for car rides with my family or in my Nani’s home, where Asha Bhosle’s distorted voice emerging from a bulky black device makes me feel like I’ve travelled back in time. But there was a time when the white Mitashi radio was a permanent fixture in our home: at 5am every morning, there was the sound of static followed by Akashvani’s unintelligible Hindi and a Kishore Kumar or Manna Dey song. If, for any reason, the radio was silent one morning, something felt missing from our day.
The radio was once India’s most beloved and accessible mass medium, truly democratic as it infiltrated even the tiniest villages in the country. Its hyperlocal nature was welcome: unlike today, when everyone around the world is consuming the same media, it seemed to directly address the people of a single town or city, catering to their grievances, lifestyles and personal tastes. At 5pm every evening, RJ Rishi Kapoor used to host his show ‘Mumbai Local’ on 93.5 RED FM. This was primetime: for exhausted Mumbaikars stuck in traffic on the way back from work, to turn on the car radio meant being transported to a more spirited, livelier version of Mumbai as Kapoor spotlighted local talents, anecdotes from the daily lives of city dwellers and real-life heroes beyond Bollywood.
