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Photo: M. Moorthy

Peppy yak Attempting to keep listeners hooked on

Tiruchi actually woke up to the private FM channel syndrome much later. Other cities including Coimbatore, Madurai, Tirunelveli and Tuticorin had already explored the airwaves in all possible ways when the FM stations were set up here.

“We really can’t blame the people for this long wait,” declared the two new private FM players who set their foot in the city this week.

FM markets are polarised in many cities and the players predict the same in here. The competitions to capture the pulse of the city have already begun as everybody appears to be under the grip of creative and tuneful waves.

Suriyan FM, with five full-time jocks and 11 part-timers, aims at capturing the radio market with fresh voices. After completing a rigorous 20-day training at Madurai, the RJs are all set to lift the spirits of people. With the backing of latest technology, Suriyan FM goes live completely all day long from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.

“Few channels have a time lag of three to four seconds during caller interaction programme as a buffer to sudden technical snags. But we are making it all live except for a programme that’s been aired simultaneously across centres,” says Sridhar, Head, Business Development.

Hello FM, too, leaps into the Tier II market with its logo ‘local is hip and Tamil is in.’ Penetration of FM is quite high in the City, which promises a huge market for private FMs, hopes the Chief Operating Officer of Hello FM Rajeev Nambiar.

“We focus at qualitative interaction. Radio as a medium is carving a niche for itself. Local retailers look upon this as an advertising platform for their products.” Advertisers are in for many service packages. Suriyan FM, for instance, does jingles for advertisers who want to customise their promos.

Hi-tech software and transmission systems promise originality while airing the songs. The songs have been catalogued to suit the taste of the listeners. The private FMs have worked out a mood-mapping strategy based on location-specific surveys. Both the FMs air classics during the daybreak and fast numbers at nightfall.

“Our pre-launch survey flashed that unlike Chennai, Tiruchi doesn’t have set mood-scape. People don’t mind listening to any music at any time, which was not a case in many other cities. But yet we make conscious effort to categorise it. For instance, we play a lot of melody in afternoon. Little dose of high-energy music is also in at around the same time,” Mr. Nambiar explains.

Suriyan FM, too, took heed to listeners’ opinions. “A common complaint is that FMs cut the songs short to plug in more conversation. We make sure none of the songs are faded out even for a second. Listeners get to hear full songs and RJs bung in only when the song is fully over,” says Suresh Kumar, the producer of the Tiruchi-based programmes in Suriyan FM.

The fresh voices you get to hear every day are sourced locally. RJs are taught not to emulate their metropolitan counterparts but to be themselves. The channels pull away the fear-factor in the RJs by taking them to other station launches. RJs, too, seem to grasp in the confidence-building exercise with ease.

“This has been our dream job. We have planned to continue full time after our grad,” says Janani, a jock at Suriyan FM. Juggling jockeying and academics is no difficult for her and her classmates of Visual Communication at Holy Cross College.

Wacky names are in-thing in the FM channels. Names like ‘Rockfort Roy’ and ‘Sema Saranya’ are doing the rounds.

Since the entertainment FMs aren’t allowed to air news bulletins, they stuff in tales and trivia to interest the listeners. “Subtle indulgence in current affairs is fine. We don’t create news but discuss issues in lighter vein,” Mr. Nambiar says.

Geeks too are reaching out to people through their voices. Ishwarya, popularly known as ‘Ishu’ for the Hello FM listeners, feels the job has groomed her public relations skill. “It’s a super-cool part-time work. For one whole hour, I’m allowed to do what I love to,” says this engineering student of Anna University, Tiruchi.

Wit and spontaneity are seen as key traits of RJs. Their success depends on the number of smiles that breaks on listeners.

“It’s no difficult. Haven’t we cracked jokes with friends? We try our best to keep the listeners in cheery spirits,” says Indra Sagar, who has quit his managerial job in a private firm to anchor shows at Suriyan FM.

But all these are to be done in a time frame of 45 seconds to one minute. Jocks have been armed with training to manage it too. Says Shanmuganathan: “We are trained to be brief while conversing with the callers but not snappy.”

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