When I noticed the advertisement: “At last, an FM radio without a speaker” on some hoardings and buses in London about twenty years back, I couldn’t decipher the meaning. To spend my spare time in London during my six week stay, I decided to buy this radio, curious to know how one can possibly listen to a radio without a speaker.

The pretty sales assistant at the famous shop was totally puzzled when I described the radio I was looking for. She said no such radio set was manufactured. When I told her about the advertisement, she couldn’t resist her laughter. The woman told me the advertisement was for a radio station that broadcasts music without an announcer.

Now the so-called RJs of FM music channels were then referred to as presenters, announcers, comperes, hosts and friends.  Be it in English, Hindi or Tamil, the announcers of the Ceylon Radio had a very great number of fans in India.  So were the presenters of Delhi B’s “A Date With You” and “Forces Request” programmes.  Unlike the RJs of today, none of them were given awards.
Before the official launch, new FM radio and TV channels air non-stop music in their test transmissions.  One such Tamil TV channel has been showing film songs, old and new, 24x7 for more than a year.  Despite my liking for songs, listening to such non-stop music from those radio and TV channels, I reached a point of saturation. 

For the sake of creating a world record or to go with the taste of their listeners, FM radios have constantly been experimenting with new ideas.  Deccan Herald reported on September 9 about an RJ of a Chennai FM radio presenting a 92-hour non-stop programme and on 10/9 about different RJs offering just 20-minute modules by a Bangalore FM radio. I am surprised to know the obsession of the Bangalore youth with their favourite RJs. Well, listeners change to different FMs, which in turn change its programmes to the tastes of their disparate listeners, but I often switch on to my favourite 19, 25, 31 and 41 metre bands in SW for a variety of programmes from radio stations, national and overseas, despite disturbance in reception!