I still remember when I came to dubai now almost 8 years back in 2001, that time FM culture was not there in India. Although listening to radio was not a new concept for me. If I walk down the memory lane then I still remember the big radio which my grandmother had, I never listened to it because since I was born it was never in a working condition.
When I was born TV was not there at all. The only live source of entertainment was radio. We had a small transistor and we used to manually tune into the AM channels and listen to old Hindi songs. The signature tune of Vividh bharati which they used to play in the morning was like a morning prayer for every house in India. That tune was so much associated with day to day life of an ordinary Indian that this tune was also used in many Hindi films to show the typical morning routine of an ordinary Indian family.
Then came the radio celone which instantly became a very popular channel because it played Hindi movie songs, at that time All India Radio was not playing Hindi movie songs. There are so many eminent personalities who started their career from radio celone. Amin Sayani, Sunil Dutt are among one of them.
Many singers, music composers have also started their career with radio. Then came an era when TV completely took over radio. People started watching TV, listening to radio became old fashioned. But again with revival of FM channels the trend of listening to radio started.
With the grueling traffic situation in Dubai and Sharjah getting worse and worse day by day, I feel most of the people who are working spent most of their life on the road, blessed are only few people who stay near their office or the house wives who are not on road. For all those who spent so much of time in the traffic and even those who are happily staying back at home, FM is bliss.
I feel now a days people are spending more time listening to RJ’s than with their spouses or children because they are spending so much time on the road. RJs have become part of our family.
I liked the RJs of Dubai FM channels. I only listen to Hindi FM channels that play bollywood/Hindi music, and therefore I will write only about those RJ’s. The RJ’s whom I really like listening to are ‘Kritika’, ‘Gaurav’, ‘Charu’ and ‘Farrukh Viqar’.
The basic quality a RJ should have is a good voice to which you want to listen but besides having a good voice the other quality which a radio Jockeys should have is that he/she needs to be a good presenter, a person who has got skill to connect to the audience, a person to whom you want to listen to, who can bring smile on your face and a person who can make your day.
Every day while going to office I used to listen to Kritika’s show from City 101.6. I started liking her and then almost became addicted listening to her show. ‘Kritika’ has a very different style of presenting her show. She is so full of energy, her laughter, her birthday pappu’s, I like all of it. I used to like the show of Kritika and Gaurav which they used to present together on Thursday evenings. Their chemistry was amazing, both of them have a very good sense of humor and both of them are witty, smart and quick in reactions. They used to gel together so well,
I really miss that show. ‘Kritika’ and ‘Gaurav’ if you are reading this article please think about starting the same show once again.
Kritika, her laughter, her conversations , her topic for discussions everything turns into so much of fun, she really brings smile and laughter in your life and definitely makes the cruel traffic situation also look like a fun game. She is immensely talented, full of life person who pumps in so much of enerygy into every listener of her show. She trasmmits her energy to everybody listening to her. Even chickee Chandoo is good, his chemistry with kritika is again great.
Charu from radio4 is also having a sweet voice, her command over the language is very good. The Sid-Charu show which they used to present together in the morning slot was cool, and again Sid was a good RJ.
In the morning to begin your day with a smile, you need to listen to radio DJ, the same way while returning back home when you are completely drained down, exausted & again stuck in the traffic you need to listen to a RJ who pumps in some energy, takes out your tiredness and brings smile on your face …. ‘Gaurav’ does that job very well. He is a good presenter, witty and smart. His AJ the RJ is unique and very original, very funny and he never loses the tempo, he keeps the bearing of the character and never goes out of that character for a momemt also.
Being an ardent fan of old Hindi songs, which have really played a major role in my youth, let it by my first love, first heart break it was always some old Hindi song which had consoled me and these songs were my true friends. Hats of to those lyricist , those singers and those music composers. Those songs are ever green, everlasting and they will be no matter which century is going on. I mean it.
When I came to Dubai with my husband after marriage I brought all the cassettes and CDs which I had of old Hindi songs, for me it was my treasure. Those were the days when I used make list of all the old Hindi songs and then get it recorded on my cassette.
We also had those records of old Hindi songs since my parents were also fan of that music. I got introduced to those beautiful songs of 50’s and 60’s due to my parents. They had a huge collection of those records (LPs). I have a very sweet memories of those days. Every song is associated with some unique memory, some beautiful days. That is why Vividh Bharati has played a major role in my life, let it be my engineering submissions or studying late in the night for the exams, vividh bharati and it’s programs on old Hindi songs were my companions those days. I still remember many of those vividh bharati programs like ‘bela ke phool’, áapki farmaaish’, ‘fauji bhaiyonkeliye’ etc etc . It really became my habit to listen to the old Hindi songs while going to sleep, they were like lullabies for me.
So when I came here to Dubai I thought I am going to miss my Vividh Bharati programs but to my surprise Dubai had couple of Hindi music FM channels and they all play old golden Hindi movie songs in the night slot.
To some people you connect instantly, and if he is an artist you get some kind of divine happiness from this connectivity. The same thing happened with Farrukh Viqar the radio presenter of Radio4 Fm.
When I listened to his show for the first time I almost instantly fell in love with his style of presenting the show. The first factor for liking his show was but obvious that it was based on retro songs, but it was not the sole factor because similar shows were also running on other FM channels and they were not so successful, what really made his show more popular was his unique style of presenting the show. He has got very sweet voice which definitely makes a good impact on audience’s mind.
His show is very informative, he gives lot of information about the song, about the lyricist, about the music composer, singer about the movie and also about the actors. He really teaches the audience how to take pleasure of any song, what’s the speciality, peculiarity of the song, the intricacies and then we really start enjoying the song more after his description and narration. His show is completely dedicated to the retro songs, he does not talk about anything else other that the music and film, still his show is so much enjoyable and it never gets boring.
I call his show as ‘Sangeet Mehfil’. It gives the same or I would say much more enjoyment than any Sangeet Mehfil.
Dubai like any other international metro city has got so many lonely souls, so many people who are living away from the family and those who are retro music fans definitely find solace from his show.
When I go to India during vacation I don’t like listenning to Fms over there, they are way behind Dubai FM channels. Yes Dubai’s RJs are really talented and now have become integral part of people’s lives in UAE.
Yes Dubai RJs Rock. Aapaki Jai Ho.
