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FM Rainbow — one-stop shop for songs, news & a comfort companion for millennials

AIR launched FM Rainbow Delhi in 1993. Conceived as a channel featuring entertainment & information, it soon became a go-to station for youth for their daily dose of pop culture.

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New Delhi: For most millennials, FM radio was a steadfast companion and a trusted source of news and entertainment. And for many, FM Rainbow by All India Radio (AIR) was a lifeblood, one that worked like a bridge to nostalgia while also keeping them up-to-date.

For most listeners, their fondest memories are waiting for their song requests to play. For others, the channel was a medium of comfort.

Shahrukh Jamal, a 28-year-old writer based in Delhi, told ThePrint how FM Rainbow’s signature jingle still takes him back to the time when he would listen to the radio while getting ready for school.

Talking to ThePrint, M.S. Rawat, the Delhi station head for AIR Rainbow, said the idea behind the jingle was to “highlight the seven colours of a rainbow i.e. variety of music, content, format style, presentation, articulation and language”. The jingle was composed by Pandit Jwala Prasad, he said.

AIR launched its FM Rainbow Delhi channel in February, 1993. Originally conceived as a channel featuring entertainment and information presented in an informal, conversational tone, it soon turned into a go-to station for the youth for their daily dose of pop culture.

FM Rainbow’s programme bouquet featured special items for children, women, senior citizens, as well as defence and paramilitary personnel. Hindi songs, ghazals, classical, folk and western music can be heard on the airwaves at any given time.

The radio channel also aired a news update every hour and a half, lasting about two minutes and switching between Hindi and English. Over the years, listeners have also shown interest in live interactive shows and phone-in programmes.

According to AIR officials ThePrint interacted with, FM Rainbow still has devoted listeners all over the world, including in South Asia, Europe, and the US. The AIR’s NewsonAIR app is now available worldwide and the Indian diaspora community can easily listen to broadcasts in real time.


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One-stop-shop for nostalgia

Ranchi-based Vanya Lochan, a special projects editor at Verve Magazine, said FM Rainbow was her go-to place for English songs at a time when most other FM channels would play only Hindi music.

“That’s where I learnt the old classics and that we could send requests for songs to be played,” Lochan told ThePrint, as she fondly remembered the time when one of her requested songs ‘Hey there, Georgy Girl’ was played at the station.

For Lochan, FM Rainbow was her sole companion in the dead of night when everybody would be asleep and she would stay up listening to its programmes.

“It gave me two of my favourite songs and I still listen to their shows. It’s a fantastic channel,” she added.

For Camellia Biswas, PhD scholar at IIT Gandhinagar, it was her first brush with English songs.

“Despite my inability to understand the lyrics at the time, FM Rainbow was my first exposure to English pop music. The jingle was instantly recognisable. I stopped listening to AIR rainbow as a teenager and instead became obsessed with Red FM and Radio Mirchi. However, after relocating to Delhi in 2015, I began listening to it more often during my commutes and quickly grew to enjoy the station because of our driver’s habit of constantly tuning in to FM Rainbow. The station now features a wide variety of musical genres, from indie to Bollywood to mainstream. But I still remember they did have this special Bollywood retro night program, which he would always tune to”, she said speaking to ThePrint.

Not just the young, FM Rainbow was a staple for every age. There were shows like ‘Sakhi Saheli’, ‘Street Top 10’, and ‘Manoranjan FM’ among others.

For Chennai-based physician Hariharan (who goes by his first name), 55, FM Rainbow used to be his companion when he travelled to visit his mother in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. What attracted him most was their broadcast of Carnatic music. He also remembered how the channel would update scores during live cricket matches.

For some, what appealed were the channel’s star radio jockeys, especially RJ Andrews. Fondly called ‘Vintage Andy’, he was FM Rainbow’s “golden voice”, said Rawat.

RJ Andrews was associated with FM Rainbow for 20 years and hosted shows like ‘Country Carnival’ and ‘Just For You’. He also hosted shows like ‘Words and Music’ – a Christian gospel music programme.

Speaking to ThePrint, RJ Andrews said, “Never once did I write a script for my programmes. It was always listener-based…where the listeners would send me messages and requests. I had a listener from Dehradun who was 90 years old and my youngest listener was 7 years old.”

He also shared an incident during one of the episodes of his midnight show ‘Wicked Hours‘. A young woman, he said, had sent a message to the channel saying it was her last correspondence since she wanted to take her life. What followed next was her favourite RJ staying on call with her all through the night as the show went on and he finally convinced her otherwise. That episode ended with the Bobby McFarlane song ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’, something that saw her through it, he added.

“She still sends me messages, once in a while,” he said.


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Streaming apps vs good old radio

Many of the earlier RJs have now left the station and the show schedules have changed. The programmers at AIR FM Rainbow Delhi have added new segments — including musical and informative — in response to feedback from listeners.

Rama Pandey, an RJ who has been associated with FM Rainbow and has hosted programmes like ‘Dil Dhundhta Hai’ and ‘Tere Sur Mere Geet’, said, “Things change from generation to generation but there is still a loyal base of people who tune in to the radio, every day. For them, it comes as naturally as their everyday cup of chai. There are things you learn by listening and radio does exactly that, it teaches you to listen and learn.”

In this age of OTT platforms and music streaming apps, there are still some loyal fans. For Kashmir-based media researcher Aarif Shah, radio filled the gap of his mother’s absence.

“From entertainment to knowledge and historical events — it acted like a person, who teaches you the ways of life,” Shah told ThePrint. An ardent listener even now, he said that while we have music apps today, the charm of a radio remains unbeaten.

As Rawat rightly said, “This (Radio channel) is like a family — we guide, we entertain and give advice. Perhaps, that is what has kept the trust and credibility of radio still alive.”


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