RJ Darius Sunawala, who started his career 14 years ago with All India radio (AIR), has now become a name to reckon with in the radio industry. Sunawala started working with AIR in 1998 while still in college. He then joined Indigo while it was on the WorldSpace platform, and in 2002 he joined Radio City as a content researcher. In 2006-07 he left to join, set-up and launch Fever 104 FM in Bangalore.

Apart from radio, Darius is a man of multiple passions. His current passion is scuba-diving and he’s now an Advanced Open water diver. Sunawala also loves to travel and took a year-long sabbatical to backpack through Europe and SE-Asia along with his wife, Arati Sunawala. He enjoys theatre and has acted in a number of productions from Indianised classics like "A mid-summer night’s tale" to all out comedy like "Pub Crawl".

In a conversation with Radioandmusic.com’s Tarachand Wanvari , Sunawala speaks about his journey in the radio industry, growth of FM radio during his career and  his take on changes in the industry.

Excerpts:

What prompted you to work with radio way back in 1998? There was not much scope at that time?

It was a necessity!!! My parents gave me an allowance of Rs300 per month and that was nowhere near enough to pay for all the movies I wanted to watch and definitely not enough for all the popcorn I needed to buy. Sometimes, I think girls only went out with me for the free meal!
So to make some extra money on the side, I joined All India Radio on a part-time basis and that’s where the love began!

You have played various roles in radio on different stations and cities – an RJ, a content researcher, etc. Could you speak about this and your experiences?

Gosh! I’ve been around for 14 years now so I’ve done practically every job from making coffee to playlists!!! But the two most exciting experiences are designing and setting up Fever 104 FM in 2007…and..of course, every single time my “Mic Live” light goes on!!!

Could you tell us about how FM radio has moved, from the start with AIR/Radio City 91 (its 91.1 now) to the present?

Well, like any nascent industry, radio in India began with baby steps in early 2001. In the beginning, there was tremendous variety in the music and formats of the stations but unfortunately, as competition increased after Phase II in 2006-07, stations started getting safer --- fewer songs with more rotations! But in the recent past, some stations have started breaking the norm and they are doing different things like Fever’s ‘Prastuthi Gandhi!’

Hopefully, with Phase III fast approaching us, we should be able to see some further variety in the offering that radio has for us!

Mispronunciation of your name has been leveraged by radio stations, how has that effected you personally as well as professionally?

Heheheheh… actually I think the joke has now worn thin and I hardly ever use it on the radio… but still, my friends still call variations of my name from Dowrius in typical Band Master Bobby style to Dry-ass!!! But it has always been light-hearted time pass so I don’t think it has affected me at all… except..strangely enough… it’s made people remember my name!

AIR and then Radio City Bangalore, being the oldest FM stations in the city seem to be the churning pots that created a number of well known RJ’s in Bangalore. These stations saw a lot of attrition with people moving out to other stations – this includes you. What do you think is the reason? Are their models of employment different from the others?

Well, the first players in the market are always lucky because they get the guts, glory and all the learning. Once competition comes in and stations start playing safer and safer, they lose the appetite for risk. This means the new stations want experienced people who made the gambles and know which ones will pay off… and the only place to find people like this would be the existing stations. At that time it was Radio City, so all the first few radio professionals from that era graduated into heading other stations.

How is the radio experience - from the other side of the mike, content preparation, etc., different between cities that you have worked in? Also how different are listeners in different cities vis-?-vis programming?

Extremely different! How much masala, what kind of humour, what kind of music, what time they wake up etc, changes widely from city to city. And as the taste of the listener changes, so does the RJ! And along with that, the manner in which they prepare --- some cities like and want a spontaneous RJ, some cities want flamboyant RJs, some others just want a friendly voice… but the basic philosophy of ‘good radio’ almost always remains the same --- give the listeners what they want!

You enjoy acting at theatre – is this just a hobby or a profession? Any co-relation between radio and theatre in any manner?

Theatre has been my first love. In fact, I got into radio through theatre with ART’s Sumit Raja. Theatre trains you to understand the narrow line between portraying reality and being over-the-top. And trust me, that is an excruciatingly thin line… the one that divides a performance from “realistic” and “they were just faffing around”. Understanding that line is crucial when you’re on the radio because you have to stare at the mic, or worse, your producer Arjun!!! And talk like the listeners are sitting right there with you!

Over the 14 years or so since you have done radio, how has music changed – in India - Hindi, regional as well as internationally?

It couldn’t have possibly changed more. From the manner of distribution from cassettes, to CDs, MP3 and online streaming to the way the artists are packaged! In India, you just have to hear any song from the 90s and then another recent hit to instantly hear the difference in the musicology of both.

Do you think that the radio fraternity in India needs a change within itself, something internally that will improve things across the value chain - the radio personnel, listeners, advertisers, broadcasters or owners? 

This is a tough question to answer... especially since I am, 'on the inside'. But the truth is, every industry has it's own pace of evolution and this evolution has to happen with all the stake-holders in sync. This means that the evolution, or progress if you want to call it that of the medium is determined not just by the custodians of the medium -the 'radio-people', but also by the advertisers who define the design of campaigns and the listeners who define the design of content and most importantly, the government which controls all the rules and policies that define the other three stake holders. But to answer your question more directly; Yes, the industry will change, is set to change and will have to change ... from inside and from out!

Any wish list from the authorities who control radio and music in the country?

More licenses, forced increase of variety like the London model, please open news in a mature manner, tradability of licenses and most definitely make community radio more accessible to the people who can best utilize it!

Who are your music idols - (Musician, band, singer, and of course RJ)? Why?

There are so many idols --- from incredibly insightful wordsmiths like Javed Akhtar and Bob Dylan to music geniuses like AR Rahman and Santana. But honestly, its always the lyrics that grab me first, which is why people like Dylan, Knopfler and our own desi artists like Rabbi and Kailash appeal so much to me!

Among the current RJs who do you think is really good - in Bangalore, in India and of course internationally?

I've said this many times before and I'll keep saying it, I’m a huge fan of Shraddha! (Shraddha hosts the Mad Morning Show on Fever 104 in Bangalore on weekdays). Her wit is only surpassed by the effort she puts into crafting each link into a superb piece of radio. Internationally, as clichéd as it sounds, I'm going to have to say Ryan Seacrest because he really does the kind of radio that I enjoy!!!

Any message/s for people aspiring to join radio?

Come on over! there’s space for everyone and lots of fun to be had!