Should You Tune Into The “Upgraded” 94.3 Radio One?
Ryan Seacrest.
Ever since a friend in the music industry told us at the Nokia Music Connects conference back in November that FM channel 94.3 Radio One was going to become “international” again, we were excited at the prospect of dusting off that old two-in-one and portable radio player. If terms like two-in-one seem kind of retro, it was somewhat fitting that when the day finally arrived, on Sunday, January 29, the first couple of tracks we heard were by artists we haven’t heard—and heard from—in a while: Belinda Carlisle and Savage Garden. But any new (or rebooted) enterprise needs time to settle down, so we’ve been tuning in to decide whether our initial excitement was justified. Had we forgotten just how unimaginative radio programmers in the city are, or had we been given a brand new channel with truly fresh sounds? Here’s our review of a sampling of the main shows currently on air on Radio One:
Good Morning Mumbai
Monday to Friday, 7am to noon
Weekend Brunch
Saturday and Sunday, 8am to noon
We’re not aware of the content of the surveys Radio One’s programmers conducted before their re-launch, but from the sound of things, the same people who listened to their channel back in the mid-noughties are the same people who are regulars at The Ghetto/Toto’s/Hawaiian Shack/insert name of any city retro pub. Why else would they think that the best music for their audience to wake up to, get ready to, or travel into work with is a mix of forgotten pop hits from the 1980s and 1990s coupled with a few classics from those decades and the 1960s and 1970s? Do you still long for the days of Johnny Hates Jazz or Wilson Phillips? Tom Cochrane or Spice Girls? You now know the frequency, Kenneth. And while those artists may stick out in a playlist that includes the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen, we got the sneaky feeling that the folks at Radio One didn’t bother getting any CDs for their new shows and simply opened up the vault that closed in 2006 when they, then known as Go 92.5FM, turned into a full Hindi music channel.
Artist you’re most likely to hear: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Mumbai On Demand
Monday to Friday, noon to 5pm
Mumbai On Demand, as its name suggests, is a requests show, and going by the songs played on it, the people who can listen to the radio in the middle of the afternoon during working days want the radio equivalent of Vh1′s Love Is and Classics. However, this is a requests show, not a request and dedication one so it’s somewhat bewildering that the college kids and housewives of our city would like to soundtrack their afternoons with the music of Bryan Adams and Bon Jovi with a Bruno Mars or Jay Sean occasionally thrown in for currency. Wouldn’t it be easier to just load up the iPod with a bunch of those love-song compilations that record companies peddle every January and February in the run up to Valentines’s Day?
Artist you’re most likely to hear: Sting.
Drive Mumbai
Monday to Friday, 5pm to 10pm
The Radio One programmers have presumably figured out that people want to listen to different kinds of music when they travel into work and when they commute back home. Based on what we heard during the morning and evening shows, it would seem that listeners’ tastes change not by genre, but by a couple of decades. Drive Mumbai is your first opportunity to hear current chart hits on Radio One; it’s where the playlist is dominated by Akon, Enrique and Adele.
Artist you’re most likely to hear: Rihanna.
Music Express
Monday to Friday, 10pm to 1am
We’ve only been able to catch a couple of hears of this show, which changes genres on a daily basis: pop on Monday, “love” (if that’s a genre) on Tuesday, rock on Wednesday, indie on Thursday, and hip hop on Friday. Going by the hip hop we heard this past Friday, these descriptors are loose at best. The meaning of hip hop we gathered is any pop song that features a guest rap or singular hip hop sounding verse. So along with “Love The Way You Lie” by Eminem featuring Rihanna, and “No Diggity” by Blackstreet, they also played “Irreplaceable” by Beyonce (surely that’s R&B) and Madonna’s new single “Gimme All Your Lovin’” featuring MIA and Nicki Minaj. However, we strongly recommend tuning in on Thursdays when the indie in question is not “international” but the Indian variety. It’s probably the first opportunity that Indian indie fans have to listen to three hours of largely uninterrupted tracks by the likes of Indian Ocean, Shaa’ir + Func, Raghu Dixit Project, Soulmate and Swarathma. They put the spotlight on a particular act every week, and while we were quite amused by their choice of Gary Lawyer a couple of weeks ago, they redeemed themselves by featuring Bangalore-based band Thermal and a Quarter the following week.
Artist you’re most likely to hear: Usher (hip hop), Advaita (indie).
That 70s Countdown with Casey Kasem
Saturday, 2pm to 6pm and Sunday, 6pm to 10pm
American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest
Saturday, 6pm to 10pm and Sunday, 2pm to 6pm
The only two syndicated shows, both imported from the US, are Top 40 countdowns. The first is a digitally remastered re-run of the first avatar of American Top 40, with former host Casey Kasem. As someone who grew up listening to this show while growing up (in Dubai, in the 1980s) we have to cop to the weight of nostalgia that draws us to this program but it’s worth checking out if only to hark back to a time when music fans weren’t quite so segmented into genres and it was perfectly acceptable to own Led Zeppelin and Elton John records at the same time. It was also a time when the charts were a lot more interesting, and weren’t dominated by a clique of similar sounding dance pop divas. That 70s Countdown is a random selection of an old American Top 40 show from any year in the 1970s but corresponding to the current weekend. For instance, this week, the show ran through the Top 40 for the week ending February 17, 1973. Which brings us to the second syndicated show, American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest, which is in fact, the second avatar of a second avatar. The new American Top 40 comes in two formats, one which uses the pop chart, and another, that uses the Hot AC or Adult Contemporary chart. It’s the latter that Radio One airs. Now, the thing with the Hot AC chart is that it’s a very slow moving chart, one where songs tends to stick around for months and months. It is also a chart more dominated by those afore-menitoned sound-alike dance pop divas than the regular pop chart, namely Katy Perry, P!nk, Kelly Clarkson and their cohorts.
Artist you’re most likely to hear: Elton John (That 70s Countdown), Katy Perry (American Top 40).
The RJs
Apart from the fact that they are a perfectly pleasant bunch, the best thing we have to say about the current crop of RJs on Radio One is that they keep the chatter to a minimum. The channel usually plays three tracks in a row, with the RJ intercepting only to introduce the first one, call out a request, update listeners with the cricket score, announce a contest or interview a celebrity. The problem, if you can call it one, is that they all seem to be plagued by the same gung-ho persona that afflicts radio jockeys across languages in India. In essence, there’s too much enthusiasm, not enough personality. Bring back Jaggu and Tarana, we say.
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Very accurate. At first, I thought Radio One will finally relieve me of using my ipod every morning. However, after two days of listening to it (and patiently), I think I am done with it. International music is not about cacophonic Top 100 list from all times. I wish they make their selection more eclectic before it reverts into a hindi channel. Maybe look to Pitchfork for inspiration for they are never wrong.
“look to pitchfork for inspiration” while programming for duffer ad sales guys who think bryan adams is cutting edge; i just died in your arms tonight – must have been something you said
I’m actually a fan of Radio One considering they have a slightly different playlist as compared to 107.1 (the only other channel that has international music in the morning). I normally listen to the radio between 8 AM and 11.00 AM and quite like Good Morning Mumbai with Manasi Scott. Her guests are interesting and the playlist is quite good.
Agree with most said here about Radio One.
The couple of things that I’d love to see more of: A singer-songwriter genre (i.e. one that Adele was born out of) getting more indie-fied (i.e. independent, not desi-fied!), and some more “international” _content_. For example, I had particularly liked the LA-based film critic who “previewed” each of the Oscar nominees in the main categories & drew some parallels with the Bollywood movies of the recent past.
I love the review. Though, I think thrashing it just the same will discredit the fact that it is THE only channel we listeners have, for international music.
I know, it’s a partly- be happy we with what you get attitude, but I think it’s a step forward- to realize the need for a international channel.
well, its a start. English radio programming after a long time in the city… and don’t forget these songs are thoroughly researched and played on air. its not the whim of some RJ as you may think
..so even if you don’t like the song mix, you’re probably not far from someone who does.
when you take a census of english music in the city, retro/pop/rock formats always poke out. you will rarely find Dubstep or Grindcore popular among people.
if you didn’t know that, then, i don’t think you’re really qualified to write this article.
get jaggu and tarana back. plz plz. plz.
Give the guys a chance to do better in days to come, we should thank them for playing English numbers through out the day, there is scope for improvement if we show them our support.
Our family listens to 94.3 through out the day and hope they grow from strength to strength, we need you Radio One, do not change to Bollywood music, the rest of the channels are doing that.
love the recent upgrade of radio one to international music…… becoming thr only radio station of Mumbai to play english songs all day long.
Hope it stays like this forever.
Cheers to brains this idea n ofcourse RADIO ONE !!!
i love listening to radio one . i wanted someone to start something like this in mumbai.
I usually get to listen to Manasi Scott during morning commute and Drive Mumbai during evening. At first I loved that I could listen to International music in the AM and PM, but soon realized the AM is rather boring with only retro. Whatever happened to playing alternative rock, indie music and latest chart busters during AM when I guess there may be max listeners. I agree that we do like retro, but come on, at least there can be a mix bag, rather than same old stuff. I just hope they change the format soon.
ABSOLUTE CONGRATS. WE HAD BEEN EXPECTING THIS FRM THE DAY ONE WHEN YOU WERE “GO” . JAGGU AND TARANA WERE THE BEST AND ‘MALINI” Aka AK 47 .PLS KEEP THIS UP AND DONT CHANGE EVER .THE SUBJECTS N TOPICS R INTERNATIONAL. I HAVE CREATED AD FOR YOU.
1 COUNTRY 1 PEOPLE 1 LANGUAGE 1 BEAT N 1 FM —THAT IS “RADIO ONE”.
“” CHANGE THE WORLD”"
Was an ardent listner and fan of the earlierst “Radio Mid-Day”…then “Go 92.5″ and Radio One till the day it closed its doors to listeners to turn to Bollywood music suddenly overnight. Resurfacing with International music on the Station is so much.. ofcourse …like a dream come true and totallly English music is a treat to our Mumbai listners. Thanks and we certainly cant afford to point fingers at this stage becaue I am sure its going to innovate in its style of broadcasting every step of the way and be better by the day. Music is music . The RJs are very professional and especially Manasi wlecomes the day slickly and takes the show forward with her voice so rich and mellow without wasting time on too much nattering. Always on the fast track and really delightful to hear!. Saturdays and sundays with Kasem and Seacrest ….is something am sure everyone really enjoys. Thanks Radio One for being back ……and stay with us !
i have been listening to Radio one right from its erstwhile avtars, for the last 10 years, with RJs Cyrus , Jaggu & Taranna and lately, Prachi, Jiya, Shruti & others. The transition to International Radio is most welcome, and I wish Radio One continues its onward march in this arena. RJ Manasi Scott whom I listen to during the morning hours, while driving to office and the impeccable Erica, are my hot favourites, with their intelligent chats and their selection of songs. Congratulations & kudos to you, Radio One, upon your successful completion of One Month of upgrade! Pls count on fans and listeners like us; u have our wholehearted support!
the spunk is missing… the one which jaggu and tarana could add……. if you could get both of them together.. nothing like it…. I am out of mumbai, i listen to the shows through internet…the first thing i checked was if they are back…
Disappointed to see they weren’t….
You are right.. bring them back.. its been years i have listened to them.. but the way they used to make my day still stays with me….
Loved Listening the new 94.3 , city badly needed an english channel ..keep it up and hope it stays on air for ever
i loved to lisiten radio one in new avtar . please bring back jaggu & Tarana And Malini also .
Feel normal again in Mumbai after a long gap. Thanks for coming by and please stay! Aah and I’d chuck the word “international music” – as though Mumbaikars are new to this type of music. Feels like some new age commodity meant for aspirational consumption. Bollywood owes us an apology for dominating the hell out of Indian radio, in the 21st century.
I love listening to the music collection on 94.3 radio one. I have become a frequent listener of this radio station since it plays all the latest english songs all day long.
Hope it stays like this forever.