Indian Radio Coming of Age in Bay Area or Dying of Old Age ?

Since my last blog in Feb last year where I took the time to analyze the local radio station, plenty of you weighed in and most of you appreciated my thoroughness and objectivity. Since my last update, the radio scene in Bay Area has heated up and I cant believe that this day would come when there would be three radio stations competing for your ‘ear time’. This is great time for us consumers but I have to believe that this cant be good news for those running the channels and responsible for the bottom lines.

I am not sure if there are two or three Indian stations running in the Bay Area. I had heard some shows on an FM frequency but they seems to have gone away. The two prominent ones seem to be Desi 1170 which was the focus of my last blog and Radio Zindagi, the new AM station which has been operating for close to a year I think.

Since I am a casual listener I always get confused between which show is on which frequency and which RJ does which show. As I blog today, my apologies for jumbling these up into a single analysis.

My bottom line is that it is exciting to have two 24×7 radio stations focused on the Indian Subcontinent listeners, something unimaginable twenty or so years ago when I came here first. Having said this, I would also say that the overall quality still lacks significantly in terms of originality, presentation and engagement but it is not all doom and gloom as things are significantly better then ever before.

Here are some general comments on the programs I catch regularly. I listen to NPR for the most part but do flip to the two Indian stations. I enjoy the banter between Sid and Abhishek who are generally entertaining and fresh and keep things moving along at a nice pace. Their humor however leaves a lot to be desired as they are often flirting that fine line between decent and questionable stuff.  Once in a while I also catch the super drive show with Shreeja who seems to be back after a hiatus. She is pleasant and speaks well and I had rated her highly last time. The show lacks variety considering it is a daily show and how much variation can one bring. I think a good male co-host will add a lot to her show and could make this as a top drive time show across the two channels.

I have caught some day time shows but not much to write home about except the show that plays retro songs is nice. Other than that I hear some heavy accents and poorly produced shows which I could not care much about and I am invariably back to NPR or FM stations.

Evening time gets much better with some exceptions. Ritu who was on KLOK is back on Desi 1170 (which I think is the same station under a different management). She is upbeat  but unspectacular and plays decent songs. What follows her show is the ultimate in non sense, this is the Pam Pam show, the most pointless show ever whose hosts show up with no content. They depend on ‘caller generated content’ and callers have nothing interesting to add. The hosts call themselves Altu Faltu, an appropriate branding for this show.

Some of the other shows I have caught in the evenings are with Ayesha, Shalu, Uday, Rohit, Sameer, Saiba and a few others which are more entertaining most of the time. I enjoy Shalu’s humor and energy and her banter with her co-hosts is entertaining although her co-hosts overdo things a bit and are not very good. Jagruti, who I reviewed in the last blog is  lack luster and boring. She does have good content so it is best to listen to the songs she plays but not her. I enjoy Rohit’s casual show most of the time with some good songs and chemistry with the co-host who is also good. Another RJ I rated very high last time was Sameer and he continues to be impressive with an impressive voice and unparalleled content including some impressive celebrity interviewing. The show about movie reviews is below average and not very informative. Din Mani another interesting host who seems to have out lasted most others is a mystery to me, a good voice and an accent from another planet.

Last time I got a lot of feedback on my blog and I certainly hope it is taken in the right spirit this time. We as listeners can only hope that our comments only help improve the quality of the shows that blare on radio in our cars and ears. We are certainly thankful that there is an avenue for local business to promote themselves and keep us in touch with our culture.

Indian Radio Station, KLOK 1170 in Bay Area California

Growing up in Europe during the 80’s where German TV was as alien to me as ET, I took up listening to radio as a hobby primarily to be able to listen to All India Radio, BBC and other stations where I could hear my native Hindi being spoken. All India Radio was a stretch but I did catch BBC Hindi Service which was fantastic.

The big Grundig 7 band radio became my best friend and was proudly in my family room. Radio has continued to be a hobby since then and I rarely watch TV here in America other than an occasional movie or a Giants game close to the world series.

When I moved here two years ago and fired up the big Grundig it was a complete shock, there was nothing on my radio that I could relate to. It took me a mere 6 months before I was sick all the garbage that was perpetually being blurted on FM stations.

It was at a social gathering when I first found out that there was a local Indian station broadcasting on 1170 AM. I promptly went to my car and turned the dial to 1170AM and listened to it at every opportunity I had, which was mostly during my commute and occasionally during weekends while driving the kids around. I even bought an AM antenna and connected it to my Grundig to boost the signal, which was not the best in Pleasenton, where I lived.

My excitement was short lived and soon I became dis-enchanted with the amateur productions and the voices who had no business being in a broadcasting studio. I removed 1170 AM from my car radio presets. I however admit that I would still tune in once in a while only to make a stronger resolve that there was no hope for these guys. I felt sorry for the few good hosts who were putting in a lot of effort but their talent was being tarnished by the image KLOK had developed. It was not cool to be part of the KLOK brand. Having been a die hard fan of radio in general, I had a hope that things would turn around at some point.

I have put this station back on my presets and there are many shows that I have started to enjoy. I will give my summary of what I like and dont like on this station. I hope that the station administration will take this in the right spirit, which is to help them get better. This is a constructive blog with the hope that together we can make this station what it can be.

In the last few months things have improved but their branding is still confusing. What is Pravasvani and what is Radio Fundoo. Cant imagine how much confusion this creates with their sponsors and potential advertisers. They give away many different phone numbers during the day which must make it difficult for their potential advertisers not to mention the listeners.

Here is my assessment of what is good and what can improve on this station. I will score some of their shows and their hosts. This is strictly my opinion and I acknowledge that some of you may not agree…and I can live with that 🙂

Since I dont understand the various languages, I will stay away from commenting on the regional shows or on the day time shows involving doctors, dentists and jaadu mantar fellows..who I never listen to.

My overall feedback is that some of their shows are fantastic while others have no business being on air. Most stations save their best for the morning and evening drive times. KLOK morning shows are mediocre at best with Naaz and Kathy.  After work commute shows are better by a long shot with 6 to 7 slots featuring the best shows they have to offer. Ritu and Saurabh being very good while Sameer hits a home run with a professionally executed Karaoke show. The latest addition “Fundoo Pati” is interesting with no more than a 90 day shelf life unless they find some new ideas. The banter between the hosts is entertaining though.

Dont know why 7PM has become so dull considering a lot of people are still driving at that hour.  Seema Mahajan, who has been very promising has a hit or miss show…just the regular faire of music and nothing more.

Late night gets dull with the exception of Jeev and Noni who crank it up a notch.

Here is my attempt at rating the various shows and hosts. All ratings are on a scale 1 to 10 (10 Being highest)

Host	Show	Radio voice	Language	Production	Remarks
Naz Khan	Morning	8	5	6	Experienced
Ritu	Morning/Evening	9	7	7	Good energy and entertaining good Hindi
Shelly	Morning	7	6	7	Has potential but very inexperienced
Shreeja	Drive Time	10	9	8	Good show lacks engagement. Should go solo
Din Mani	Drive Time	7	4	8	Fun personality, language skills lack
Raj Kumar	Ocasionally	4	4	3	One of the weaker anchors
Seema Mahajan	Evening	9	8	6	Excellent but content lacks variety
Sameer	Evening	10	9	10	Great voice, engaging show, good language command
Saurabh	Evening	9	9	10	Engaging, fun and experienced
Jagrati	Night	6	5	4	Too monotonous
Jeev Noni	Night	9	9	10	Fun productions and engaging

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