I can't believe it's been five years already. I know it's not like 50 or 60, but even five years seems quite a lot when you're 28. I have to say this about it though - it's been quite a ride! I've had a great time doing something I truly truly love - sharing my love for music.

It has honestly been that and nothing else. I got into radio because I love music...not because I think I'm witty or funny or want to tell people how to live their lives. I wanted to talk about music, about artistes and share some of the best songs in the world with people who wanted to know more about good music. Looking back, I can say that, while playing music for my listeners, I got deeper into the world of music and I'm still on this beautiful journey,

Okay I'm rushing it right now. :) 

Let's start at the start.

I'm an Electronics Engineer! Finished my engineering from Fr.Agnels, Bandra in 2003 and right then, the moment it was over, I knew I could possibly not live in that field. Though I got a first class and all that, I knew that I had to follow my heart and move into music in some way or another. Primarily, I like to think of myself as a singer. I was the singer of my college band and after college ended, all the other guys in that band went on to serious jobs and studies. I knew however that if I wasn't doing something I was passionate about, I'd go nuts. So I thought if I wasn't going to get an opportunity to sing, I would do the next best thing and share the songs I love with people through the radio.

I auditioned for All India Radio's FM Rainbow in 2004 and got through. In June 2004, I began my career in radio as a radio jockey for a late night show on FM Rainbow 

I've had some great experience working at AIR. The first thing I loved about AIR was that there was no restriction on the kind of music and choice of songs that I could play. I made it a point to play as many varied genres in my five years there as I could. On my shows I've played oldies, pop, country, rock, jazz, blues, disco...well pretty much every genre that you can think of. I've had artist specials of some of the biggest artists and some pretty rare artists in the music world. (You can see a list of some of my special shows on my website www.musicmanmihir.in )

I've had the opportunity of interviewing pretty much every international band that's come to India in the last few years and I've been told that I'm the first RJ to have interviewed over 30 Indian rock bands on radio.

I've also had the pleasure of doing many hours of Hindi radio. I tried to keep this interesting as well by playing the kind of Indian music you don't generally get to hear on radio. Loads of Hindi pop, rock, Sufi songs, ghazals and non-Bollywood stuff often featured on my shows. I also had the pleasure of interviewing a lot of Indian (Hindi) playback singers and pop singers on my Hindi shows  

Of all the interviews I did I will most fondly remember talking to Engelbert! I mean…he's a living legend and it was incredibly cool to talk to him. The highlight of the interview was when he complimented me for my research while the interview was going on. I even have it on tape! It was pretty cool for a relatively inexperienced radio jockey like me (this was probably in my very first year on radio) to be complimented so by someone who's certainly given at least a million interviews. (and I'm sure that's no exaggeration.)

It was also a thrill to meet Mark Knopfler, Roger Waters, Deep Purple, Bryan Adams, Joe Satriani, Iron Maiden and so many other fabulous international artists in these few years 

I've had some very interesting experiences and meetings with some of my radio listeners in these last five years as well. Here are a few that remain in my mind quite clearly.

I met Imran Khan (Jaane Tu... actor) at Blue Frog. I introduced myself as Mihir and said that I was a singer for a band and also hosted a radio show. He blew me away with his response. He asked me "Are you the Musicman!?" I can honestly say I was quite blown away. I found out that he was a regular listener of my show for quite a while and he was genuinely happy to finally meet me. I think he was incredibly sweet and he certainly gave me a really interesting memory to hold on to.

Another interesting meeting I had was once after a late night show. I got out of the AIR building at 1am and found a couple waiting for me outside. The man told me that he and his wife were listening to my show in their car and they were really enjoying themselves...and since they were close by they thought that they'd come over and compliment me on my show. I was obviously quite flattered and was thanking them when he told me that he who he was. He said "I'm Kunal Ganjawala and this is my wife Gayatri."

I was blown away again! I mean…it was incredibly nice of them to do what they did and that was something I'll always remember. :)

I'll always remember exchanging tons of messages with Gary Lawyer who always sat up late with his wife to listen to me play oldies and jazz standards from midnight to 1 am!

There were so many other fabulous experiences and I can quite vividly remember almost all of them (even with my horrible memory that seems to remember only song lyrics and random music trivia.) :)  

While doing all this on radio I started writing about my interviews and about music in general for many newspapers and magazines. I started my own online music magazine as well called www.emusicpost.com to share my love for music with people. I worked with a couple of major music instrument companies in Mumbai and then worked for one of the biggest music labels in the world (EMI Music India) and formed the thing that gives me the most joy right now. My band, The Works. It was great to finally be able to do the thing that kind of got me into the radio business to begin with. I love singing and performing with my band and we're hoping to record our first album some time soon. We've had some really crazy adventures in the time that we've been together and played a whole lotta really fun gigs. We recently even acted in an Australian TV show which was aired a few weeks ago on the ABC Network & MTV in Australia. They actually found us just through Youtube and apparently this is the first of its kind collaboration in the world!

And now, five years after I began this journey, I've joined Radio One to host their Night Shift. Its been a little over two weeks at Radio One and I'm totally loving It here! I'm getting to play rock n retro music...and getting to connect with people just the way I would have liked to.

I'm looking forward to what the future has to bring...but right now, looking back, I can honestly say, in the words of The Godfather of Soul, James Brown, "I feel good!"