Today, one of the private sector’s radio stations will shut its doors on its Goa chapter. The reasons are varied, but it does pose many questions as to how the industry functions as a whole. However, more importantly, one undeniable fact is that as a medium, radio has endured the test of time. In the 1970s, The Buggles came out with a song, titled, ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’. One can only wonder whether this was a prophecy of sorts, and imagine how before the advent of television (or at least the TV being easily available), how popular it must have been.
“There used to be a point in time when Radio Ceylon was something that people used to be tuned in to. As technology ‘advanced’, those who had tape decks, used to record what was airing on to audio cassettes. It had a certain charm to it that was inexplicable, and made up a large part of many people’s days,” opines Fatima Pinto, from Margao, who reflects upon her youth and the music she would listen to at the time.
Silroy Fernandes is a veteran in the radio sphere. He’s moved from the public sector to the private one in this area and is now a mainstay with All India Radio (AIR). He believes that radio remains immortal simply because of the level of engagement that it can drive with one’s audience. Speaking from experience, he shares, “I think that the main component that keeps radio going is the fact that it is driven through engagement and interaction. That is, ultimately, the bottom line. In the age of technology, where everything is available on one’s devices, radio still wins on this front. You could listen to your favourite song on a loop on an app, or maybe even write in to people you follow on the internet, but when’s the last time you can say you called them up and had a conversation with them?”
Silroy goes on to point out key moments when this interaction was crowd driven more than by the radio jockeys themselves, adding, “At a given juncture, drowning was a major ‘phenomenon’ in Goa. We decided to talk about it, on air, and address the issue at large. Before we could even attempt reaching out to people, we got a call in from a listener, whose brother had passed away in a drowning incident. In similar vein, on the anniversary of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, we had a caller who had been trapped at a train station that was under siege during the attacks, who described the kind of trauma that the survivors went through, in their quest to live. This kind of exchange and discourse really can’t be found in other mediums.”
Video has seemingly not killed the radio star, and one can hope, that for the sake of conversation, good music, and posterity above all else, that it continues to endure.
