Media Evolution
Transition from Analogue to Digital - from Radio to Audio
Listeners primarily came to radio for the latest music, cultural trends, social and entertainment news that was topical and relevant. Today, social media and the digital revolution have created a paradigm shift for a whole new generation of communicators – from show hosts, to content creators, influencers, subject matter experts (often self-proclaimed) and artists across categories. Here’s how it happened.
By Indrani Chakravarti
Private FM radio arrived in India in the early years of the 1990s. I was a student of mass communication, looking for a break in the exciting world of journalism or the more creative domain of advertising - radio didn’t really feature in my scheme of things. I chanced upon an opportunity to apply for a position at the newly launched FM radio station. I got my break as a production assistant and thus began my tryst with broadcasting and the magical world of audio entertainment that continues till date.
The impact of FM radio was not felt to that extent in the mid-1990s in India. Then came the turn of the millennium that brought about a complete radio revolution with privatisation of FM 24x7 broadcast. The next two decades consequently witnessed not just the impact of a rejuvenated radio as a medium of communication and entertainment, but also path-breaking changes in technology, social behaviour, information and content consumption, and content creation across all media.
Public broadcasting is mostly one-way communication, it is largely about dissemination of news and information. But private radio programming with its focus on infotainment is largely youth-centric. With emphasis on hyper-local content and 24x7 music playout (across metro & non-metro cities), it defined a new form of entertainment and engagement. In the 15 odd years from 2001 to 2016 radio grew exponentially in phases across the country and became a medium of significance for consumers, advertisers, and creative talents, aspiring to make a career in broadcasting.
What listeners want
Being a communicator in any medium is aspirational even today. Earlier it was largely institution-driven – broadcasters on any medium required training, mentoring and talents took time to hone their skills. Any recruit had to be given brand orientation, were critically appraised internally and evaluated on the basis of their popularity. FM brands invested time and training in nurturing the talents, who defined the USP of their channels. For FM radio, the RJs became the face of the brand. While they were allowed to showcase their creativity, their gift of the gab – it was still under the garb of what the brands wanted them to represent. FM radio thus created a new breed of dynamic radio professionals – who defined innovative ways of communication and entertainment.
Even today radio jockeys are often criticised by the purists and the broadcasters of yore, for their rampant use of conversational, colloquial language and also for being casual with information. After all, public broadcasters are still regarded as credible sources of information and appreciated for their formal and linguistic accuracy and refinement. But it is an undeniable fact that the radio jockeys with their youthful vigour, relatable content, warmth and humour connected instantly with their audiences. That gave the FM brands an edge over their competitors and played a key role in differentiating their content.
News and current affairs have always been outside the purview of private FM radio, hence listeners primarily came to radio for the latest music, cultural trends, social and entertainment news that was topical and relevant. Today, the ubiquitous social media and the digital revolution through user-friendly technology have created a paradigm shift for a whole new generation of communicators – from show hosts, to content creators, influencers, subject matter experts (often self-proclaimed) and artists across all categories.
This has led to a rapid democratisation of artistic expression and freedom of speech, including uncensored content and propaganda. Today’s audiences have instant and easy access to every possible kind of content under the sun. For a whole generation of consumers feeding on a regular diet of Youtube videos, Instagram reels and Facebook posts - the authenticity, spontaneity and the immediacy of the content and the modes of presentation are perhaps more riveting than the quality and accuracy of presentation and information respectively.
Thus we are seeing a diminishing importance of institutions and corporations in the business of communication. Gen Z prefers to get their information and entertainment from their peers (influencers and overnight sensations) – they launch their own channels and navigate through diverse platforms to make their point. The inhabitants of this virtual universe are looking for instant gratification and acknowledgement. The consumers are not particularly conscious of exploring different perspectives, of careful discernment and evaluation. Forming judgement is almost instantaneous. In our online universe, opinions are often superfluous, arbitrary, reactionary.
Navigating the change
The all-consuming absorption in a virtual world has also led to attention deficit among consumers. This is perhaps the biggest shift that the content creators and broadcasters have to navigate today.
My personal journey as a producer and programming director had many twists and turns. Like the rest of the radio programmers, I too was focusing on music and talk based content. In 2009, I was a part of the team that introduced dramatised storytelling to our Bengali speaking audiences. The show titled Sunday Suspense was aired on Sunday afternoons, it presented suspense stories penned by the masters of Bengali literature. Capitalising on the Bengali love for reading and literature, and love for their cultural icons like Satyajit Ray, Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay etc, the show went on to become an instant hit especially among the youth who were instantly hooked on to the ‘theatre of the mind’ experience that the programme presented.
Sunday Suspense in a way preempted the advent of Bengali podcasts in the digital world. It continues in its 15th year and has travelled across the trajectory of being a weekend radio special to being selectively available on CDs, finding a permanent archival platform on Youtube, and to being distributed across podcast streaming apps.
Audio podcasts require more engaged and attentive listening and it is therefore heartening to note that stories which are long-format content are finding takers in huge numbers especially in the 18-35 age group. The way OTT content flourished during the pandemic, the world of Bengali audio also saw a boom in the number of audio story channels, each trying to capture audience attention mostly through supernatural and ghost stories. Researchers note this as unique to Bengal – fiction podcasts, especially in the horror genre are ruling the roost, being shown the way by the success of Sunday Suspense, a pioneer in this field.
Immersed in the narrative
The community of Bengali audio storytellers and listeners today is a large one. They are not just passive listeners, but are engaged in conversations around authors, books and literary characters. Of course, these conversations mostly happen in their digital avatar of memes, posts and comments. Trolls and criticism also form a part of those conversations, but on the positive side, there seems to be a genuine love for literature, language, and of immersing oneself in interesting narratives.
Sunday Suspense and a couple of other radio podcasts like Ek Kahaani Aisi Bhi had their genesis in radio stations and are produced by trained and skilled audio professionals like myself. But what is interesting to note is that the hundreds of other Bengali audio storytellers who have followed the footsteps of a Sunday Suspense are all self-taught amateurs, who have picked up the skills of audio production entirely on their own, and some have even mastered it. Many of these channels boast of over a hundred thousand listeners, and storytelling for them has now become a source of livelihood and sustenance.
In a world where information, entertainment and education is dominated by visuals, where radio-listening has taken a backseat especially in the metropolitan cities, where attention is perennially flitting - the emergence of podcasts is a silver lining for those who want to create enduring, meaningful, in-depth content. The creators of such podcasts are creative, opinionated individuals who seem to have found their voice and their purpose.