MUMBAI: Today India celebrates its 70th Independence Day. This is a very special day for each citizen of India and to make it memorable the radio stations celebrating it in different ways.

FM Tadka, MY FM, Radio Mirchi and Fever FM have some special Independence Day plans.        

FM Tadka – The station has come up with ‘Democracy of Music’. The songs which their listeners do not like to listen will not be played on the station. Tadka will be the first FM station to run ‘Democracy of Music’.

The listeners have the liberty to give the station a list of their favourite songs. Also, they can ask the station to pull down songs they do not wish to listen.

“We are floating our Whatsapp numbers where people can message us their request. So the music will be for the people, of the people and selected by the people. In this way we will also know which songs are popular amongst the listeners except for air-check,” said RJ Devangana from FM Tadka.

MY FM - The country, before and since 1947 has heard various stories of struggle for freedom, but this year MY FM went out to meet with people who suffered the most during the moment which gave us independence.

MY FM brings stories of people who saw the most dreaded word in Indian history - partition. The listeners will hear those horrific stories, those nightmarish incidents, those ghastly tales of pain and suffering straight from the mouth of people who were forced to leave their motherland and move to other places in a newly formed country.

The story-tellers are old but the memories are still fresh in their minds.  MY FM brings these people to share those stories for the newer generation who probably has forgotten the real meaning of Independence. Because, even though nostalgia mostly is beautiful, this time, the truth comes out in its naked form on MY FM. 

Radio Mirchi – The station initiative’s to salute the spirit of India on Independence Day. Listeners will share their different stories of true friendship between people from different communal backgrounds in a campaign called a ‘The Friends of India'. This campaign was launched on Friendships Day and will culminate on I-Day as a salutation to the spirit of India. The idea is to celebrate the very reason why India asked for its Independence.

Standing out of the crowd, Mirchi decided to not celebrate this day in its traditional form. The station will entertain its listeners with aisi kahaaniya jahan insaniyat dharm se kai guna bada hai.

In this campaign listener from a different community will share their uplifting, encouraging stories of communal harmony where people have helped each other keeping aside their caste, religion etc. The campaign will crowd source stories and the best stories shared by the listeners will get a chance to go on-air.  Also, today Mirchi will be launching an e-book that showcases the best stories on social media.

Fever FM - Fever FM decided to provide a platform to those who are still bound - by guilt. The #FreedomFromGuilt campaign features ex-prisoners of Tihar Jail expressing regret for their crimes and gives them an avenue to express their inner thoughts, their burden of guilt, for the first time, on-air. This program is supported by an extensive social media campaign and will be aired on 15 August on Fever FM 9 pm onwards in Delhi on Pyar Ka Punchanama with RJ Rahul Makin and 5 pm onwards in Mumbai on Nana Chi Tang with RJ Sidhu.  

In designing this campaign, Fever  FM and Ogilvy were supported by Tihar Jail and the NGOs, The India Vision Foundation and Siddhartha Vashishta Charitable Trust, to approach those who had completed their jail terms and give them this unique radio platform. 

Commenting on the initiative HT Media Ltd CEO Radio and Entertainment, Harshad Jain said, “Fever FM has always believed in bringing about demonstrable change in the society. Fever Voice of Change has been one of the biggest CSR initiatives in the history of Radio and within the ambit of the same we have taken up many a cause including rehabilitation of acid attack victims, celebration of the unsung heroes of the Indian Armed Forces and driving people to vote with ‘Each one Kheench One’ to name a few. Fever FM has always been a thought leader in the category and we are very proud to have taken up this initiative. #FreedomFromGuilt is a campaign that celebrates freedom in its truest sense and brings out a side of the society that few have seen. We hope to collaborate on many such initiatives and take up many such causes in future as well that air aimed towards creating a marked difference in the society”

Speaking about the initiative Ogilvy Deputy CCO, Ajay Gahlaut India said, 

“Not all convicts in jail are hard core criminals. A large percentage of them are in fact one-time offenders who have committed a crime in the heat of the moment. On Independence Day, as an expression of Freedom, we felt that these people should be given a chance to express their repentance as a step towards mental peace and a Freedom from Guilt.”