Be it for the late night soothing songs or the latest blockbusting performance of international artists or events going on around town, radio today has turned out to be that one friend of the youth which is reliable and available readily through a push of the button.
The history of radio in Nepal dates back to April 1, 1951 when Radio Nepal officially began to air the program. In 1996, after a gap of 45 years, HITS FM 91.2 began to broadcast at 100 MHz through Radio Nepal. And in quick succession, more FMs were opened. In 1998, Kantipur FM came into being as the nation´s first private radio station completely changing the past landscape of the radio. Radio has now evolved into not only a must trustworthy friend and an entertainer for the youth but also a perfect opportunity for pastime.
A Radio Jockey (or "RJ") today is an unconventional and an exciting profession for it brings along the opportunity whereby ones voice is aired, meeting celebrities is regular and also there is glamour attached to it. RJing as a profession, therefore, has managed to lure a large portion of the younger generation.
Priyanka Gurung, 19, is currently working as a radio jockey at Hits FM 91.2. She joined the station a year ago after completing her A-Levels because she found the job exciting and a moment to relish with.
"I grabbed the microphone and time flies," she says smiling from ear to ear. Priyanka currently hosts three shows a week and also manages to fill up for her colleagues. Working as an RJ, she says, is not a tough task "for all you have to do is speak."
RJ and producer Keshav Jung Pandey at Citizen FM 94.0 shares his views, "Our job is to constantly inform the people of the current happenings and they depend on us for information and we have a huge responsibility. Along with style and presentation, there is also journalistic abilities involved." Pandey has been on the job since 1997 when he worked for Radio Nepal´s "Baal Karyakram".
Pandey says there is more to RJing than just talking. One needs to be equipped with skills, including script writing, presence of mind, pronunciation, and the knowledge on current affairs.
Lack of any of these skills can potentially damage the reputation of the radio station as well the career of RJ. As a matter of fact, ignorance toward such critical issues has already led some of the youth toward viewing some radio stations in a negative light. "The voices on the radio these days are terrible," says Shamita Shrestha, 18, a student at St Lawrence School, New Delhi. Shrestha, who is on a vacation here in Nepal, observes that most of the young voices on radio these days fake an accent or have poor elocution. Apart from that she also complains that these shows have no quality substance
to offer.
Ashish Syangden, a radio presenter for the past 13 years, agrees with Shamita when he says, "I have come across many youngsters who after receiving an RJ´s job feel the compulsion to sound unique and therefore sounding fake." The mushrooming of private FM stations, albeit managing to provide job opportunities for the youth, has also contributed to degrading the medium.
Ghama Raj Luitel, Station Manager at Radio Sagarmatha 102.4 FM, the first community radio in the country, agrees with the notion of ever-degrading quality of the speakers on air. "Youngsters these days take the job of an RJ for granted, they believe it´s only about being able to pass an hour or so talking," he says.
Also a lecturer of Radio Journalism, Luitel believes that many training institutes that provide training on RJing are to be held responsible for eroding the quality of speakers. Most of the institutes are run on the sole motive of making profits and hardly care of the quality of education.
As on the part of radio stations ,they seem to be looking for cheap labor and ignoring the more important part, quality presentation. For this, Prabhat Rimal, station manager at Kantipur FM, holds youngsters along with stations accountable. "There are definitely those stations who hire staff only because they are willing to work on low pay but there are also those youngsters who come asking for jobs promising to work on no pay."
Radio or any other mass medium for the youth is vital source of information and communication that keeps them moving in the right direction. The fact that the youth send letters to shows asking for help to solve their problems ranging from personal life to education and career choices should be reasons enough for stations and the RJ´s to start paying attention to their
deliverance.
Mandira Dhungel, Chief Program Coordinator and a trainer for the past 15 years agrees with Rimal and blames the youth along with the media houses and training institutes.
"The youth take the media field as a glamorous option and jump into it at the slightest opportunity," she says. During her training, she has come across many such students who want to join only for the sake of meeting popular personalities or attending high profile events.
Also, there is a belief that money can be earned easily while at the radio. However, our RJs dismiss this as false. While Priyanka manages to earn enough for her pocket money, Sanjay says he makes "enough". Keshav puts in, "If it were for money, I would have quit the job long back."
For all those who see their future in the radio, Dhungel advices them to have patience, read lots of books and also have determination, before joining the radio. "An RJ career requires enthusiasm, rationality, creative mind, good sense of humor, excellent communication skills and ownership of a live appealing voice," she says.
Though many radio stations and their RJs seem to be to be ignoring their significance, in lives of the youth, its high time they realize that they are central to the development of adolescent identities, creativity, and the look toward the society and country as a whole. The radio can act as a contact zone between the society, politics and the youth. "As an RJ, we are endowed with immense trust and are idolized by our listeners, and, therefore, we need to be extremely careful about every single statement we make," opines RJ Sanjay Gupta of Kantipur FM.
The immediate issue radio needs to face is helping young people develop critical lens through which they can explore their identities communities and the media, as well as encouraging them towards civic responsibilities.
RJ Basics
= An interest in the current affairs
= To know how and where to find stories and also how to produce and present them
= A lively awareness of people, places and events
= An aptitude of communication which for the listener is easy to understand
= Good grammar, punctuation and pronunciation
= A willingness to work at odd and irregular hours (you might have to fill in for your colleague´s late night show)
= Willingness to work under pressure and meet deadlines
= Determination and persistence
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