[cr-india] Query from an Indian Satellite Radio Programming Professional

[sajan venniyoor]

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On Fri, 07 May 2004 George Lessard wrote :
> From: Isteyaq Ahmed <media_isteyaq at yahoo.com>

>because of certain regulatory norms, imposed by the government we >have been denied the permission to play a Hindi Music format station. >This had taken us aback and now we have been asked to for a playout >of Instrumental music with other RJ links which are script based. On >a public transport will it be possible to connect to the audience >through such a format?

There is no ban on playing any kind of format, Hindi Music or otherwise, on Satellite Radio since satellite radio is pretty much unregulated. The ban is on playing vocal music on Indian trains, the genesis of which can be seen from the excerpt given below.

Frankly, I don't see how you can connect to an Indian urban audience - especially one which uses public transport - with instrumental music. (That sounds terribly snobbish, doesn't it?) For one, there isn't a particularly popular tradition of instrumental music in India. If you go in for classical or folk music, your listenership is less than 5%, and that 5% doesn't usually take public transport at peak hours. 

All right, you have a captive audience, but don't push it.

Try to persuade the Railway Board to reverse their order. The Board order came about under particular circumstances, and you could swear under oath that you'll never play any religious music on your channel. (Bang goes your Indian classical music, Vickram: that's almost entirely religious).

Sajan.

Discordant Note By Rly Board Derails AIR Plan
>-----------------------------------------------
>Nivedita Mookerji & Jyoti Mukul
>
>New Delhi:  More than a year after the Railways and public service broadcaster >Prasar Bharati got talking about a unique news and entertainment platform, an old >directive is playing spoilsport. >Apparently, the board had issued a directive a few years ago that only >instrumental>music could be played on trains. This directive, sources said, was triggered by>protests from MPs (members of Parliament) of a certain community when>devotional songs were played on a train.