When life seems to be caught in a picture frame, utterly static, refusing to budge, one often finds oneself turning the pages back, trying to relive or recreate the bright spots etched in the past. In one such exercise, I recently tuned into the Wicked Hour, the western music late-night show (1 a.m.) on AIR FM Rainbow. It was an integral part of my daily routine a few years back, and very often, I found myself staying up only to listen to that entire show. Or even if the lights were out, I'd still have my earphones and cell phone ready in bed. I couldn't imagine going to bed without listening to it. Now it seems like ages have gone by since then. I don't tune in to any western music show on AIR now, while not so long ago, they were...........
Anyway, for as long as I can remember, the radio has been an integral part of my life. Even from the reserves of faded memories of childhood which one tends to retain (or build up in one's imagination), I can recall waking up to the sounds of old Hindi film classics, or classical music from the radio set, (which would now look out of place even in an antique-piece showroom, but is still safely tucked away beneath the piles of old quilts in my house), as my mother cleaned the house, gently humming along with it. Those were, I imagine, the a.m. days. Then skipping a few years in the limited reserves of memory, I arrive on the F.M. days, when following the footsteps of my teen-aged sister, I began to revel in the sounds of Whigfield, Boyzone, Backstreet Boys, Spice girls and the likes. This is when my long and memorable association with AIR FM began. This is when I first heard the sound of Shibani Kashyap's iconic jingle in English - "We got the music playing, night and day.......". Those were the days of pagers. SMS was still unheard of. I used to rush home from school, to maximize the amount of time I could spend listening to the 2-3 western music show, and not miss listening to "Words" by Boyzone, or "Sexy eyes" by Whighfield, again. Then at night, there was YAFI - You Asked For It". People used to send hand made cards and letters and what not to the RJs.
Then, as I grew up, the bond became deeper and stronger - some new artists, Shania, Savage Garden, Westlife and so on. The 2-3 show became Just For You, the pagers gave way for e-mail messages. I remember, my very first e-mail was in 9th standard from a cyber cafe, to this very show, a request for songs. The thrill of listening to my mail being read out by my favorite RJ (Meghna on Just for you), as soon as I walked into the house from school, and hearing my request being played, was no less than Halle Berry's Oscar moment! Soon, the number of shows increased - take off and time out in the morning were the reason I used to get out of the bed SHARP at 8 even on weekends. Then different shows everyday from 5-6, 8-9 and 10-11. LiveWire on Sundays was a must - thanks to my sister again. Each RJ was liked or loathed with sincere intensity. I don't exactly remember when I started listening to the Wicked hour, but I know that it became the most awaited hour of the day during my college days. Musical tastes improved, sources for western music diversified with the advent of other FM channels and cable television at home, but my loyalty to AIR was unflinching. Somewhere down the line, it became AIR FM RAINBOW, but as long as Shibani Kashyap's voice continued to entreat you to listen to the station, all was well with the world.
The world moves with the times, but not AIR FM RAINBOW. At least the western music section. The RJs, at least till the final year of my college were mostly good, and the music was, well, a mixed bag. Plenty of other channels cropped up, but they were all (and still are!) so similar that it became difficult to distinguish one from another. But AIR retained its old world charm. RJ's still continued to speak over the songs according to will, describing the merits of the song and only stopping when half of the song had already played out. Belinda Carlisle's "heaven is a place on earth...." still played out day in and day out on each and every show. Celine Dion was still the queen, though the world may have forgotten her, and "Nothing's gonna change my love for you....." was still the lovers' anthem. AIR was like a stubborn kid, which had to be different from all the other kids in class, and refused to move on to the next grade, happy and comfortable with familiarity of the old. And who would blame them, the saccharine coated messages from devout listeners (yes, SMS had arrived by now), continued to pour in, and Enrique's Escape was still requested at least 100 times a day. A few good RJs who were a breather, and gave a chance to Coldplay, Nirvanna, Alanis and others, slowly started drifting away to other lucrative assignments on th newer crop of FM stations. But the Belinda Carlisle fans refused to budge from the studios of AIR. Still, people like me were also there, staying up entire nights listening to them, living their lives along with the station, and forming bag-full of memories.
Then I went to Pondy, and not being such a big fan of the Tamil music on the local radio station, radio was replaced by my mp3 player and computer. And now, there is no more take off or time out, there is no Just for you, no more Meghna, no more Lokesh, no more Dr. Feel Good (doing quite well on another channel though). It seems AIR western music section has vowed not to budge an inch. And as I discovered the other day, Wicked hour is still there, the annoying RJs with fake accents who apparently have sworn to speak over every song innumerable times are still there, the faulty players and CDs which get stuck are still there, Shibani Kashyap still sounds as fresh as ever, heaven is still a place on earth for AIR (long live Belinda!!) .......... and all the memories, of course, still are there. As they say, somethings never change.
