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RADIO FOREVERIncorporating spiritual aspirations at the workplace

Forget all those celebrity management and lifestyle gurus. WorldSpace satellite radio is tapping into some really ancient wisdom on their wellness channel Radio Moksha.

‘Ask Chanakya’, one of two new shows on the channel aimed at the young urban professional, turns to Kautilya’s Arthashastra for wisdom on handling workplace issues.

“This is the oldest management text in the world, believed to have been written by Chanakya right here in India,” says Harish Puppala, assistant programme director at Moksha. “We wanted to harness that.”

Every week, Arthashastra expert Radhakrishnan Pillai will choose a topic and discuss what the 5000 verses of the ancient text have to say about it, before opening the show to questions from listeners.

If that isn’t New Age enough for you, there’s ‘Boardroom Yogis’, in which IIM professor Nandini Vaidyanathan talks to high achievers from corporates about what they need to do to lead a fulfilling life.

“It’s about looking beyond obvious success and incorporating spiritual aspirations into the workplace,” comments Harish.

Radio Moksha began back in 2005 in an attempt by WorldSpace to fill the gaps in Indian offerings on radio. “Talk radio was a largely unexplored radio format—most channels played only music,” says Seetal Iyer, group programme director at WorldSpace. “The movement towards health and living well, stress management and gurus was huge, and we felt it leant itself really well to the talk radio format.”

Over the last few years, the channel has morphed into a complete wellness station. From soothing, spiritual instrumental music and talks by gurus such as Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to Niti Desai on nutrition in the urban environment and Sri M (Sri Mumtaz Ali) reinterpreting the scriptures in a contemporary context (‘Moksha Rewind’, another new show) the channel offers something for everybody in their target demographic.

With more new shows on the pipeline—the channel will be rolling out one on life-skills and relationships, on people who’ve dared to go off the beaten track, and a book club discussing various self-help books in a month’s time —Radio Moksha’s uniquely placed to cater to the interest in spirituality and holistic well-being amongst the educated, urban professional.

Says Seetal: “There’s a lot of room for debate and discussion, and you can really get into the debt of issues in radio—the listening habit is typically above an hour. After self-help books, there’s nothing better!”

DIVYA KUMAR

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