‘Don't convert an RJ into an influencer, convert the influence into ad strategies’

Few of India’s finest RJs, Mumbai ki Aawaaz Jeeturaaj, Radio Mirchi, RJ Rahul Makin, Fever FM, Vrajesh Hirjee, BIG FM and RJ Ginnie Mahajan, Radio City, came together at the e4M Golden Mikes conference to discuss the role and importance of RJs. The panel discussion was chaired by Sthitipragnya Dash, Senior Producer, exchange4media.

Discussing the changes brought about by the digital promotion of RJs as influencers at e4m Golden Mikes, Makin said, “Whatever you are doing on radio, parallely you do it on digital media. You do a project then you amplify it on social media. Because the universe of social media and the universe of radio are different and this era being the era of collaboration, if both of them do not collaborate, then these two horses will go on different paths. Hence, it's very important to align them together. And if both radio and digital work together, then their reach will also increase.”

Jeeturaaj highlighted, “How do we gel radio and online together? We will have to come up with strategies. The ball is in the court of the advertisers where you will have to understand the persona of the RJ on air. And devise strategies to put them online. Don't convert an RJ into an influencer. Convert the influence of an RJ into ad strategies.”

Hirjee opined about the need for a plan while creating a link between and digital and radio.

“Can a social media influencer, host a breakfast show on radio and get away with it? It is a very specialized job being on radio. When we sell something on radio as radio show hosts, we all do it in our own separate ways which our listeners get drawn to. They become part of that story. Social media influencing is very different. Yes, there should be some sort of a sync between digital and social media and radio because that is how it is at this point. But it is not possible to do it randomly. There has to be a plan.”

Disagreeing with Hirjee, Mahajan said, “I don't think digital and radio are absolute opposites. You need to learn to find a middle path. If I'm doing an activity where I'm influencing people to vote, making a digital video of it sort of exposes it to a different varied audience, who I'm happy to address. Does it mean that when I go on digital, I need to become an influencer? No, I'd be a miserable failure at that. But somewhere or the other, there is a common ground that can be done.”

The session then moved on to the discussion of storytelling and how RJs and their persona needs to be taken into consideration while devicing startegies. Sharing how the essence of radio doesn't change with digital, Makin said, “These things don't change at all. Our shows haven't changed, the way of doing them hasn't changed. Advices haven't changed but the language has. Similarly, the language of radio can change a little and adapt to modern lingo.”

Echoing Makin’s opinions, Mahajan highlighted, “Have we changed a bit of our presence because of digital? Initially, because we had no competition to a large extent, we could afford to do a lot of things and go on talking. But we've changed. We've become a little smarter. We've become a little more fun in terms of giving information.”

Answering the question, have the RJs changed as storytellers or changed their narration due to digital, Hirjee said, “If we change how we tell stories then how does that differentiate us from an Instagram influencer? How can we? We are here today, because we do what we do well in our own ways, and other people cannot replicate that. So, why change that. Why put a spoke in a good thing? So, to answer the question, no.”

Jeeturaaj then discussed how in order to achieve the middle ground between radio and digital, agencies shouldn't mix the two and reduce their importance. “This is going out to all the advertising agencies and the other senior heads of the industry, we should not mix radio jockeys with influencers. We could try to get the influencer market into the RJ fraternity, but if we start making RJs influencers,
then the fun of RJs will be lost.”

“Someone who has never mixed her hand in Vada Pav's chickpea flour in her life is a Vada Pav influencer. You cannot become an RJ like that. You have to do a lot of training to become an RJ. So, we will have to amalgamate some place where RJing and influencers come together but in this amalgamation, advertising agencies should not reduce the importance of radio.”

Mahajan then took the session forward to discuss the emotional connect of radio as a medium and RJs. “For the emotional connect, there's nothing better than radio. And just the fact that you are absolutely inconspicuous on radio, nobody knows your name, allows you can come and say anything. Rahul's show is testament to that. So, there are a lot of real emotions, as compared to any other medium that exists.”

Makin shared, “As time goes by, everything changes. I cater to the younger audience, say 16 to 28, so I have to talk about all those words, all those Gen Z dating terms. I cannot be obsolete. I cannot speak about stuff which they won't understand. Similarly, the evolution of radio is also happening and it’s happening perfectly and parallelly, it's happening digitally but in order to be in sync with that, we have to understand the persona of the RJs. There's a morning jock, there's a night jock. Maybe a night jock cannot carry that morning persona. That needs to be taken into consideration.”