Radio ga ga

Radio is dead Long live the radio With streaming YouTube and instant access to anything it would not be totally unfair to assume that radio has gone the way of the dinosaur But while traditional listenership may be falling radio has found a new avatar and audiencemdashonlineOne of the reasons Mumbaibased musician Samuel Berlie started listening to online radio was that on car journeys outside city limits the FM stations grew weak and failed to pick up signal whereas the online radio stations he listened to on his phone worked anywheremdashall they required was a data signalBerlie typically uses Radiogarden an app and website that allows you to tune into any station around the worldmdashall you need to do is drop a lsquopinrsquo on the apprsquos builtin map Berlie typically listens to Radio Gold for oldies as well as Curtin Radio a university radio station broadcasting out of Perth Australia ldquoYou invariably learn about new artistes Indie English music usually doesnrsquot get played here on the radiordquo says the musicianOnline stations like radiogarden offer the warmth and personalised bond of radio with the convenience of instant access to any genre that streaming boasts ofRadiooooocom is another such website that allows users to not only choose the geographic location of their station but the musical decade they want to listen to ldquoEach week the stationrsquos team listens to over 1000 tracks that listeners send in and personally decides if they should be included in their collectionrdquo says Benjamin Moreau president of the Parisheadquartered station It has over 500000 subscribers with most listeners tuning in from the US Brazil Europe and Russia ldquoOur goal is to make people more open mindedrdquo says Moreau ldquoEvery country has great music the idea is to know how to find itrdquoIn India that need to create a platform for alternative music was plugged by Boxoutfm Conceptualised in 2017 as a platform to cater to independent musicians Boxoutfm played anything unless you violated its ldquono Bollywood no EDM rulerdquo As Rounak Maiti its creative director says ldquoAnything that isnrsquot Bollywood or EDM will always be nicherdquo and Boxoutfm is a ldquospace for any audio made by people who are independentrdquo It was inspired by international online radio stations such as NTS and Rinse FM and the platform regularly collaborates with other international alternative stations with Maiti emphasising that Boxoutrsquos ldquofocus is local thinking is globalrdquo In 2022 however the station ceased to broadcast live 247 The roundtheclock support a radio station needs coupled with the pandemic meant that the station now uploads new shows onto the website as they are created without the pressure to constantly be live They have now shifted their emphasis to the live event space ldquoto build a real life connection with the communityrdquoTraditionally English language radio in India has been synonymous with commercial pop sounds with a few exceptions Brian Tellis who hosts the show Tellis Like It Is on the cityrsquos only English language FM radio station and helms the podcast The Chinwag Collective is uniquely poised at this intersection of radio and Internet Tellis doesnrsquot think radio is going away anytime soonMusician Samuel Berlie started listening to online radio during car journeys outside the city when FM stations lost signal PicAtul KambleldquoOne of the key things about FM radio is that someone is putting together the playlistsrdquo he says ldquoit takes into account local sensibilitiesrdquo This personal touch is also one of the few things that radio has going in its favour compared to its streaming competitorsFor all their immediacy and depth of catalogue sometimes choice can be overwhelming and algorithmcreated playlists are impersonal Radio jockeys like Tellis donrsquot just play music they talk and discuss it and in the process create a personal relationship with their listeners that is hard to break ldquoRadio is appointment listeningrdquo says Tellis ldquowhereas online I could be tuning in from anywhererdquoTeam RadioooooInternationally streaming platforms still face a major challenge from traditional radio A 2020 report by Edison Research found that while streaming now accounts for 85 per cent of major label profits in the US radio still accounts for 18 per cent of all audio consumption compared to 18 per cent for streaming platformsRounak Maiti and Brian TellisMost listeners stumble upon online radio through the Internet mdash Shantanu Gursal a DJ and producer discovered online stations like Boxout through listening to Soundcloud where users can upload and listen to music for free For Gursal online radio ldquoopened up the spectrum for fresh music every dayrdquo Online radio is probably one of the few unqualified successes of the digital age It combines the ease of streaming with the warmth of radio and by virtue of not being tied down by broadcasting censors or advertisers is championed by the alternative indie underdog Therersquos something there for every kind of listenermdashand now itrsquos easier than ever to find it Like the great Elvis Costello once said ldquobetter do as you are told you better listen to the radiordquo It may yet have its finest hour