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When you step into radio personality Ameen Sayani's home, you can't help but be humbled by the surroundings. Old records fill shelves on an entire wall. Trophies and film posters, more old records and archives of radio programs… and then in person, the legend himself. With a brand new show on 93.5 Red FM, Mr. Sayani is back, enthralling listeners with his unique style. The Record got an exclusive with the man indisputably known as the “face of Indian radio”.
If I am the face of Indian radio, then it's not a very good looking face. [Laughs] Radio was my first love …
I happen to come from a family which was very deeply into the National Movement of India. I had, fortunately, an elder brother and guru who was a magnificent broadcaster and multi-talented person who taught me a lot of things. I went to good schools which encouraged my aptitude and talent for communication. Then I got into Radio Ceylon as a commercial broadcaster and had a lot of opportunities. Radio Ceylon was coming up because they were playing Hindi music which was banned (in some places). I had the first countdown program in Asia on Hindi film music. The program hit almost instantaneously. Music was out of this world. Top-notchers in every field, lovely films, lovely music and I happened to be a new comer riding the wave. So I held on. And I grew to understand the medium and love it. I love my listeners and I get along very well with them. I get along fairly well with people, especially with young people. And that's how I keep myself young along the way! (Smiles)
The essential element of a good radio show lies in a very simple thing called - interest value…
If your program is interesting, people will listen. That's one part. How do you create this interest value? By proper research, by an in depth approach to your program and by having an attitude which is open to the world. If you remember, Gandhiji had said “I would like my mind to be like a room with open windows. Where breezes from all over the world can come and go and enrich my life. But I do not want that my feet should be so weak that those breezes should uproot me from my country.” In depth understanding of communication - a strong desire to know what to communicate and how to communicate it. Also the ability to stop talking when one talks too much! [Laughs]
Radio has many plus points which in some aspects makes it better than television…
For instance, radio is cheaper to produce and to receive and transmit. It's quicker, you can rush off with a little recorder, anywhere without a camera and still take people's views. There is a better stock of music in radio stations than there can ever be in television stations because not all music is backed by visuals or it is backed by visuals of a film which may not be available at that particular station. The fund of archival material is much wider on radio than on television. The archives if well maintained started long before television came into being. I have programs more than 40 years old when there was no television! I still play them in my program Sangeet Sitaron Ki Mehfil on 93.5 Red FM where I play old archival material along with recent material. Then I'm doing another kind of mix - I'm taking some people of the older generation and recording them afresh. Like I've just done a program on O.P. Nayyar, and one with Ashaji which was recorded not too long ago. They were talking about the old days and the memories and personalities of the people have come out.
You can read the rest of our exclusive interview with Ameen Sayani in the October 2003 issue of The Record Music Magazine available at your local newsagent.
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