Twice as nice? No not in this case. Why Katrina chose to dress like a 12 year old is beyond me. Why she chose to wear the same outfit (albeit different t-shirts) twice in a row baffles me.

Image Source and Image Source

Looks like Rani is going from cute to sexy or at least attempting to. Of late, she’s been spotted in dresses, short and long, more so than I’ve ever seen on her. This latest is a not-bad BCBG dress, although better shoes would have pulled this outfit together. But what the heck is she wearing on Salman’s show?

Where’s the rest of this ‘dress’?

Image Source

Not going frequency wise but rather by the order of dislike – next comes ‘[self-proclaimed] Pune’s number one radio station – Radio City 91.1 FM!’ Radio City, actually is not so bad but at the same time, ends up having nothing interesting or fun about it either! Some time back, as and when I used return late from office and flip to this station; they would have this deep baritone voice – who would more often than not be taking a call from one his fans [read: friends he pleads to or folks he gives prizes/incentive to!] and discussing why he is so good [!!!] – [and yes he would make the very-obvious-sounding attempts to play the praise down and act modest ]. Off late in the evening slot, someone with a “double A” has probably taken the place of deep-baritone and is actually much better.

Next in my personal list comes the ‘oldest and most popular‘ radio station of Pune – ‘Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM – it’s hot [:-|]‘. And I have to write about the worst RJ man has had to endure – RJ Shrikanth! But before I talk about his disastrous work on air, I would like to mention, that Shrikanth single-handedly killed all the interest of the crowd at AR Rehman’s concert in May this year. He was such a letdown, that some sponsors probably pulled back their adverts or thanks being mentioned by him, rather than having those come from ‘His Master’s Voice’. Shrikanth cracks the worst jokes on air and unfortunately no one stops him More unfortunately, the other RJ’s on this station are no better… These two female RJ’s [smita and aditi maybe?] discuss their clothes, neighbors and god-kn0ws-what on AIR and unnecessarily so in English. I have always wanted to tell them – that it’s completely possible to speak ONLY in Marathi and sound cool but speaking in English with a Marathi undertone ends up making both the languages sound bad! But keeping all this aside, they have SUD [who I know a lot of people hate!] and I think he is brilliant! His opinions about his boss, his tragic marriage plans, his falling in love with his office colleague [Suchi Smita], his hiring Pinky detective agency to snoop around Suchi and some phoren-return dude friend of hers – IMHO all of it is too funny! He is the only reason why I place Radio Mirchi after Radio city in my dislike-meter.

And finally, a station which is probably the ‘best amongst the worst’. Radio One – 94.3 FM. Radio One has some plusses to it:

• Good RJ’s – Sangram is absolute fun to listen to when he is at his witty-best – as also when he is concerned about the stock markets ; Gya is smart, energetic, wacky and once-in-a-while-the-shayaar; Subhav has started English music late in the evenings [though of course his mix or choice is something not to be commented on as yet!]; Meenal seems to be the chatterbox – and with that I think I know this station really well!
• The music generally is decent – they keep it simple by playing the popular songs only – though that’s exactly the reason why everyone flips stations – listening to the same songs repeatedly gets very boring – Radio ONE if you ever read this – please change this aspect!
• Ghanta Singh – he used to be really good… after the initial buzz, more or less he has been quite uncool – way below the SUD level
• And I think they play the most hated ads with lesser frequency – like the ‘khao vimal re, khao vimal re… vimal pan masala, isme hain asli Kashmiri kesar ka dum or something-on-those-lines’

Of course since I crib so much about these stations, I must be listening to them very often. Reason being I am very lazy when it comes to burning/buying CD’s and hence depend on radio while going/coming back from office and generally driving in the city. When going out of the city though, ipod + itunes = the best combination – but this makes sense only when you have a good navigator-cum-ipod jockey!

Anyway this post came more from my [and am assuming every Puneite's] wish that there was more of both – quality and quantity – on the Pune radio scene…

Not going frequency wise but rather by the order of dislike – next comes ‘[self-proclaimed] Pune’s number one radio station – Radio City 91.1 FM!’ Radio City, actually is not so bad but at the same time, ends up having nothing interesting or fun about it either! Some time back, as and when I used return late from office and flip to this station; they would have this deep baritone voice – who would more often than not be taking a call from one his fans [read: friends he pleads to or folks he gives prizes/incentive to!] and discussing why he is so good [!!!] – [and yes he would make the very-obvious-sounding attempts to play the praise down and act modest ]. Off late in the evening slot, someone with a “double A” has probably taken the place of deep-baritone and is actually much better.

Next in my personal list comes the ‘oldest and most popular‘ radio station of Pune – ‘Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM – it’s hot [:-|]‘. And I have to write about the worst RJ man has had to endure – RJ Shrikanth! But before I talk about his disastrous work on air, I would like to mention, that Shrikanth single-handedly killed all the interest of the crowd at AR Rehman’s concert in May this year. He was such a letdown, that some sponsors probably pulled back their adverts or thanks being mentioned by him, rather than having those come from ‘His Master’s Voice’. Shrikanth cracks the worst jokes on air and unfortunately no one stops him More unfortunately, the other RJ’s on this station are no better… These two female RJ’s [smita and aditi maybe?] discuss their clothes, neighbors and god-kn0ws-what on AIR and unnecessarily so in English. I have always wanted to tell them – that it’s completely possible to speak ONLY in Marathi and sound cool but speaking in English with a Marathi undertone ends up making both the languages sound bad! But keeping all this aside, they have SUD [who I know a lot of people hate!] and I think he is brilliant! His opinions about his boss, his tragic marriage plans, his falling in love with his office colleague [Suchi Smita], his hiring Pinky detective agency to snoop around Suchi and some phoren-return dude friend of hers – IMHO all of it is too funny! He is the only reason why I place Radio Mirchi after Radio city in my dislike-meter.

And finally, a station which is probably the ‘best amongst the worst’. Radio One – 94.3 FM. Radio One has some plusses to it:

• Good RJ’s – Sangram is absolute fun to listen to when he is at his witty-best – as also when he is concerned about the stock markets ; Gya is smart, energetic, wacky and once-in-a-while-the-shayaar; Subhav has started English music late in the evenings [though of course his mix or choice is something not to be commented on as yet!]; Meenal seems to be the chatterbox – and with that I think I know this station really well!
• The music generally is decent – they keep it simple by playing the popular songs only – though that’s exactly the reason why everyone flips stations – listening to the same songs repeatedly gets very boring – Radio ONE if you ever read this – please change this aspect!
• Ghanta Singh – he used to be really good… after the initial buzz, more or less he has been quite uncool – way below the SUD level
• And I think they play the most hated ads with lesser frequency – like the ‘khao vimal re, khao vimal re… vimal pan masala, isme hain asli Kashmiri kesar ka dum or something-on-those-lines’

Of course since I crib so much about these stations, I must be listening to them very often. Reason being I am very lazy when it comes to burning/buying CD’s and hence depend on radio while going/coming back from office and generally driving in the city. When going out of the city though, ipod + itunes = the best combination – but this makes sense only when you have a good navigator-cum-ipod jockey!

Anyway this post came more from my [and am assuming every Puneite's] wish that there was more of both – quality and quantity – on the Pune radio scene…

After appearing on the cover of Verve, Genelia makes an appearance at Radio Mirchi to promote her latest movie ‘Life Partner. I’m not digging the dress nor are the gladiators paired with it. Somehow, Genelia looked better on the pages than off.

Image Source

Radio City with Indimoto launched Carpool on Radio initiative for Mumbai and Delhi audience (Read full news here.).

Radio Mirchi with Aircel announced Mirch Lift Kara De service in Mumbai (Read full news here.).

Back to Pavilion an initiative by BIG 92.7, Kanpur targeted students’ community in a very fresh way.

Read my complete analysis here.

Disclaimer: Whatever follows are my views only and is not intended to hurt anyone, so please do not take offence. This is meant to be a ‘funny’ post. If it doesn’t make you laugh, I shall hone my humour skills. But if it makes you angry, please calm down, take a deep breath and close the tab/window )

I was in one of those brain-blocked moods, with nothing to do. I was blog-hopping, trying to land up on something really interesting. Well, I guess the best bloggers are already on my roll ! Either that, or I was too dumb to understand what was written in all these new ones I hopped into.

I was fighting against boredom, crawling up the slope of irritation and frustration (one followed by the other) and finally saw my latest, favourite hobby loom up ahead — and I promptly started cursing Christianity. (1st round was for Hinduism; am done with it! )

I’ve been caught up in this great urge for blasphemy recently! I’ve been having sessions with a Christian lady who is trying to teach me Christianity. It’s a recent mishap. I got into it voluntarily, now am striking a delicate balance… to resist being pulled in and avoid being pulled out Though I find the religion, the faith very nice (and a lot too similar to Hinduism), I despise the Church and the priests for skewing it up! And in the process, though a part of me likes the faith quite a lot, a bigger part absolutely despises the Church (read as preachers)! And well, ahem, I’m fed up of these classes and am in hiding now. I do not attend her calls and am pretending to be out-of-town (forever)!

Meanwhile, relatives and friends who know of this recent religious awakening of mine, are trying to convince me why Hinduism is superior to any other faith. How we are more tolerant. How they are violent and murderous. And I’m delving deeper and deeper into blasphemy! (Any Muslims who wanna preach and send me deeper down ?)

“Priya! Don’t talk like that. Blasphemy will get you nowhere. You’ll be a sinner. You will not be one with God. You’ll not attain salvation.” (Gist of what the Christian lady tells me!) :-|

“Priya! Don’t talk like that. Christians and Muslims are totally different. They’ll do everything to pull you into their faith. We are a different class of people. We are tolerant. We accept. We are open minded. They are not.” (Gist of what my relatives and friends keep telling me.) :-|

I am not an atheist, in the true sense of that word. But I do not believe in “Gods” who have form, body and sound. I can never fathom a God who walks down in a king’s attire wearing necklaces and bangles and anklets and earrings and a crown (some dress sense, I must say! ). I cannot fathom a God who drapes himself in a white cloak, has a long white beard and speaks unto humans in a booming voice from the skies…or in His Son who can walk on water and perform miracles, but cannot realise He’s being plotted against and then dies a painful death! (Love and forgiveness? Crap!) In this wide, wide (er er…round) world, I really cannot fathom a God who makes devotees go sit somewhere at about 80 km from the Red Sea Coast! (If God is powerful and omni-present, why not bless them at their houses?!) :-|

“Bah!”, I think, “God! Divinity! Rubbish! What I need now, is to watch Rock-on! I’v been bombarded by raving reviews of the movie from all over the country!”

And then my phone rang…

It’s a number that’s foreign to me. Must be the Christian lady calling, from another number, to check if I’m out-of-town in Trivandrum !

In a voice that I’ve never heard myself speak before, I say:

“Hello?”

“Hi, this is xxxxxx, calling from Radio Mirchi. Your number was selected at random from

a list of previous callers. You’ve won two tickets for Rock On! Would you be interested?”

“Huh? Yes…yea…yes, of course. “

“Come to our office anytime before Saturday. It’s for the Saturday show!”

“Wow, thanks!”

“Bye…and keep listening to Radio Mirchi. Sangathi hot aanu!” (That’s their “It’s hot!” tagline in Malayalam.)

Divine intervention? A reminder of divine existence? God’s awareness programme?

I slowly let my phone fall on my lap…and felt that wicked smile at the corners of my lips. And I said to myself: “Priya! Blasphemy will take you to the theatre, if not anywhere else!”

P.S.:Thank you, Radio Mirchi!

P.S.: Uh…uh…thank you, “God”!

P.S. of P.S.: There was no “list of previous callers” and “random picking of numbers” The RJ who called up is a verrrrry close friend. I’d been bugging her for tickets for quite some time. She just happened to call at an apt time .

Image courtesy: cartoonstock.com, google-images

Listen Free Radio online. Radio TeenTaal- Paris 128 Kbps

Listen Free Radio TeenTaal – Paris online

Listen Free Radio online. Radio Mirchi (22 Kbps) free @ www.radio.dLoadmp3.com

The Car Tracks survey conducted by IMRB on June 4, across various busy traffic signals, during the drive times showed 32% listenership for Radio Mirchi followed by 25% for Club FM, 19% for S FM, 18% for Big FM and 6% for Ananthapuri FM.

Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM, the FM radio network of the Times of India Group, was launched in Thiruvananthapuram on January 18. With a clear positioning of Malayalam music for Malayalees and young, edgy jock-talk, Radio Mirchi has managed to become a friend next-door for every citizen.

PS:After a great deal of effort to embed some snaps here, I have given up. You can find them instead on my picasa page

- Muralidhar S

Class of 2009

]]> http://tvtoday.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/mirchi-shines-with-11-awards-at-33rd-rapa-awards/ Wed, 14 May 2008 08:25:56 +0000 harino1 http://tvtoday.wordpress.com/2008/05/14/mirchi-shines-with-11-awards-at-33rd-rapa-awards/ Radio Mirchi walked away with the lion’s share at the 33rd Radio and Television Advertising Practitioners’ Association of India (Rapa) awards with 11 metals. In the TV category, Sony Entertainment Television (Set) pocketed the highest number of awards, along with being honoured as the Entertainment Channel of the year.

At the Rapa awards function held in Mumbai on Tuesday evening, the coveted best radio jockey (male) award was shared by Radio Mirchi Mumbai’s Jeeturaj and Red FM Delhi’s Nitin, while Radio One Mumbai’s Tarana was adjudged the best female radio jockey.

Radio Mirchi Chennai’s Devasana was named best radio jockey (female) in the Tamil language and Club FM Kochi’s Sanjana walked away with similar honours in Malayalam.

Radio Mirchi’s awards included the Radio Jingle Marwari and Tamil, Radio Spot Bengali and Gujarati, Radio Trailor Hindi and Tamil, Radio Sponsored programme non-fiction and the Radio Sponsored humour Hindi award, among others.

Big FM took home eight awards, Red FM, Radio One, World Space bagged five awards in various categories each.

In the TV category, Zee Marathi long running soap Asambhav bagged five awards , including ones for Best serial, Best Direction TV serial, script, cinematographer and the Rapa Sheel Kumar Trophy Best Performance on TV (male) which was awarded to veteran actor Anand Abhiyankar.

Set’s soap on conjoined twins, Amber Dhara managed two awards in the Music TVC and Music Video categories, while the Smriti Iraani produced Virrudh bagged two awards – for TV commercial programme and Music Title Song TV Serial.

Star One and Jaya TV have received two awards each, both Star Plus and Zee News had to be content with one each.

Rapa this year expanded its reach to cover 63 categories in 15 Indian languages. Over 60 entries had been received in the radio jockey and TV anchor categories, while the public service advertising categories saw more than 50 entries. T

he 33rd Rapa Awards also introduced a new category – short film produced by media students of various institutes.

We are now at #3 on the Radio Mirchi / Times Music chart which is based on sales at Planet M outlets across the country!!! This means a lot of you are buying the music and I can’t tell you how grateful the band is that you guys are doing that! Once you have bought the music, you should join ‘The Raghu Dixit Tribe’ at once!

Thanks Abhishek Pandey for sending us this info! Do send us more updates as they come!

I also did a quick check at Hummaa dot com, we are beginning to own the chart there. Hey Bhagwan leads the pack by a mile and the first 3 positions are our songs! Thanks to everyone who has been listening to us on Hummaa dot com, I hope you guys have bought the music though!

The band is preparing for a highly gruelling tour that is coming up in less than a month’s time .. so keep your eyes and ears open for that!

The band is on the road again and we have a few shows over the weekend. We are playing at NIT, Calicut tomorrow for their cultural fest and this is the first time this line up is playing in Kerala. The organizers are expecting and have been promising us a packed house!

We had a quick stop over in Chennai this morning at the Radio Mirchi studios for our very own ‘Darbuka Siva’ special show where we were interviewed in Tamil mostly, but ended up answering in English mostly!

Also, for the first time ever in the history of radio in Tamil Nadu, a band played Hindi and Kannada songs live in the studio!! actually, Siva tells me, in the history of Mirchi in Tamil Nadu, no band has played anything live! so this is quite a first!

We had a total blast playing acoustic versions of our songs with a lot of impromptu live stuff and a fun interview which is infact routine Siva stuff!

The interview will air this Saturday night between 9 and 11 PM and all of you in Chennai, better not miss it! I will get my hands on this interview somehow after its aired and it shall be available to The Raghu Dixit Tribe exclusively! so make sure you join the Tribe!! More about the tribe itself coming soon ..

Now its time for a contest! Lets hear the best caption you can come up with for this picture! The best caption wins a free CD autographed by the band!! So lets hear it!

people say that world has become a smaller place with the advent of internet,i really felt so for the first time after realising that my favourate radio channels like radio mirchi,radio city are available on the net,now i can listen to them on the net,and can just feel the hawa of hyderabad.iam so glad.i just want to share the link where you can listen those channels becoz there are so many people like me who want to get connected to hyderabad living far away from india.so for all of them this is the link.

http://www.voicevibes.net/

Radio Mirchi the largest private FM Radio operator in the country in terms of number of operational stations and revenue.

Though Radio Mirchi FM radio stations are located in diverse regions in India it’s been successful in attracting local audiences in each of these markets. This is largely due to a superior understanding of audience preferences, which enables it to provide content customized to the taste, language and culture of the local audience. A track record of developing creative and innovative content or programming formats has helped Radio Mirchi expand and retain its audience and advertisers.

Tune in to Radio Mirchi for regular updates on Samriddhi!!

Radio Mirchi Patna Station Director Mandar Patwardhan is confident of winning the hearts of the people of Patna by “delivering programmes that are relevant to the people of the city. This is a station for the people of Patna – playing their music and speaking their language.” Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM will broadcast a diverse mix of shows including their breakfast property Hello Patna, Khoobsurat which deals with contemporary women’s , Total Filmi for the latest Bollywood gossip; Bumper2Bumper, a gaming show; Purani Jeans for retro music and Dil Chahta Hai, a dial in request show.

Positioned as an entertainment channel, with music forming the core of its programming the station promises to entertain and inform audiences. Contemporary music, city happenings, Bollywood gossip, special interviews and exclusive film promotional tie-ups is what the listeners in Patna can tune in for.