No Space For Music

The New Year will create a permanent void in the lives of some Indians—estimated to be at least 100,000. Not because of the loss of a near or dear one. The emptiness will come from the silence of a small instrument, a satellite receiver that caught signals of the World Space satellite radio station broadcasts—music of a wide range of varieties and some news programmes.

That things were not going well at the US-based World Space had become apparent long ago, much before the terse announcement in the last week of December through a press release carried only in a section of the print media that World Space would terminate its India service at midnight on December 31, 2009.

Despite an increase in the number of listeners, the subscription rates were going up. The publication of the magazine that came to subscribers stopped many months ago. The comperes of the jazz show were taken off. One cannot be too sure of it, but some of the regular channels were also scrapped.

What will be missed by World Space listeners will not only be the variety of music that catered to almost all tastes but also the technical quality of its broadcast. ‘Crystal clear’ digital sound and that too without the abominable ‘commercial break’ that really tests one’s nerves at times.

It is not clear why it has not been possible to transfer the ownership of World Space to some other enterprise either in its home country, the USA, or India. It has been reported that 90 percent of the World Space audience was in India. In recent months after its tie-up with an Indian satellite entertainment company, the subscribers’ base of World Space had trebled in India. It may sound simplistic and perhaps based on ignorance, but one would like to think that a bit of cost cutting would have avoided the losses that World Space allegedly suffered.
If there is some good soul who has the enterprise to buy off World Space he or she can be sure of one thing: absolute loyalty of the customer and a pan-India reach. The disappointed and dejected World Space customer is not angry because his or her subscription will not be refunded but because there will be no alternative to the good listening experience after the closure of World Space.

If good reception alone is the reason for bemoaning the demise of World Space, one might say that FM reception on the radio is also clear and free of electrical interference. But the most glaring difference is that the FM broadcasts in India come with that irritant called ‘commercial break’ and it is made worse by the inane and incessant chatting of the comperes.

The World Space did not have commercials, though some of the programmes did have comperes to present them. The opinion may be disputed, but the World Space comperes did not sound even half as jarring as those on the ordinary FM radio stations.

For the lovers of Western classical music and Jazz, the loss will be all the greater because the radio broadcast of these forms of music in India is negligible and the presentation awful because most of the Indian comperes appear to be uncomfortable, rather unfamiliar with the ‘non-pop’ genres of Western music.

At the Delhi station of All India Radio, for instance, many presenters of the Jazz and Western classical music programme do not have even rudimentary knowledge of either varieties of music. Some of them cannot correctly pronounce the names of well-known Jazz performers or the musical instrument they played.

It is a bit intriguing that such lapses on the Delhi station have only increased in recent years. Maybe, that is really not that surprising because AIR is, after all, an arm of the government where the concept of accountability is on way to becoming extinct. The stalwarts who set up the AIR services are all dead and gone. Their legacy has been long forgotten.

The radio itself was on way to extinction in India before FM revived interest—but solely for the lovers of popular film music. The FM stations, despite their profusion all over the country, have shown no interest in catering to the audiences that may like others genres of music. Admittedly, the audience for classical music and Jazz is very limited in India.

The executives of World Space must have known this. Yet, they did devote separate channels for the broadcast of classical (both Western and Indian) music as well Jazz and even Country music. The satellite station also catered to those who were interested in news, relaying programmes from a few Indian and foreign TV and radio stations.

To be able to receive news broadcasts from foreign stations at World Space was a great feeling after the atrocious quality received on the short or the medium wave stations. But short and medium wave programmes on radio sets, especially the more widely used portable ones, have always been technically poor.

Matters have not been helped because Indian-made portable radio sets are not readily available or if they are they are far too expensive compared to the Chinese radio sets that have become ubiquitous but are of vastly inferior quality.

In any case, even a good quality radio set cannot guarantee ‘crystal clear’ and perfectly audible reception of short wave or all medium wave programmes. The government policy does not allow foreign news broadcasts to be beamed by our FM radio stations.

The sense of loss of World Space broadcasts can be realised by anyone who continues to prefer radio to television. True, its service did not come free; but customers never complained about the money they had to pay for the service, which was free of irritants.

Just how annoying and frustrating the radio broadcast with commercials can get becomes abundantly clear when a cricket match is being broadcast. Most of the crucial moments of a match are interrupted by a commercial. If World Space had been in the business of broadcasting running commentaries of cricket matches the listener would have been saved from this despicable distraction.

It is likely that sooner or later Indian listeners may be able to receive satellite radio services. The listener will, however, pray that it does not sound just like the FM stations where the accent is on earning money not on presenting quality and varied programmes.

- Asian Tribune -