MUMBAI: Mumbai is known as the city that never stops, but the city of dreams came to a standstill, yesterday, as all FM radio stations, in the city, were shut down!

Reports and sources have revealed that there was fire outbreak in the transmitter room of Radio Mirchi, near All India Radio (AIR), in Mumbai, which led to the sudden shut down of all FM stations, excluding AIR stations. The fire broke in morning and disconnected radio lovers from their favourite companion, radio for a few hours, until all were back on air by 2pm. Only three radio stations were working in the city, including AIR stations. Also, one specific radio station was out for a longer period because the fire had broken specifically in its premises.

When it comes to, both, the incident and Mumbaikars, the  top radio jockeys of the city, have their respective stories to reveal.

Speaking on the incident, Mumbai chi Rani RED FM Mumbai Ki Rani Malishka revealed, “Somewhere around 8-8:30, fire broke in the radio tower in Mumbai and as all of us are in the vicinity, radio stations went down for a while but we came back by 12:30 pm.

Everyone in Mumbai started Mumbai started messaging me and said, ‘hey we can’t hear you.’ People were banging their phones, finding that their radio apps were not working. The panic was obvious because radio  is a support for many people and their ‘sahara’ had vanished for a few hours.”

Radio City star radio jocks, RJ Salil and RJ Archana also spilled beans about the incident. The duo told, “The private FM stations, including Radio City went offline as the relay was cut due to the fire that broke out. However, we continued to stay in touch with the listeners through our digital channels, specifically via Facebook live that works in conjunction with our on-air broadcast.”

“We were gearing up to share all the updates from the Nick Jonas- Priyanka Chopra reception, we attended the previous night when we were suddenly cut off.  We urged our listeners to connect through our web radio stations that remained unaffected and also engaged them through our social media channels to keep the entertainment going,” the duo, who recently won the best RJ award (West Zone) at Radio Connex 2018, further added.

Radio Nasha’s RJ Anmol also spoke about the event, while also mentioning how people realised the importance of radio, which is world’s third largest medium.

 The fire broke in the morning, but in spite of my radio show being a night show, a lot of people, who know me personally, started calling me and that’s how I got to know. They called and told me ‘Hey all radio stations are closed.’ I was like what is happening and it was frankly a confusing thing because, earlier, I had never received these kind of messages. So, I called my radio station and learnt about the fire outbreak.”

“I don’t know till what time our radio station was shut, but what I got to know after this incident, was that people realised the importance of radio as a medium is a free medium that runs all the time. The love people have for radio was evident because there was panic in the city. The incident brought to the light, how important is radio in the lives of people because people had no company be it while driving their cars or the ladies cooking at home. So, somewhere it woke up people, who were wondering, ‘ye hamaara saathi kaha gaya.’ The incident created a lot of buzz. Radio is a companion that doesn’t demand anything and one day, its absence, made people realise the importance of radio,” Anmol further told.

RJ Anmol also credited the technical team of Radio Nasha to fix the issue and connect them again with the radio lovers.

Well, the city of dreams is back in sync with their favourite radio stations and of course radio jockeys, but this incident indeed brought Mumbaikars more closer to radio!