If you have a confession to make and are feeling guilty about it, you have an easy option now - just go on air and confess it to a secret friend, your friendly, neighbourhood RJ!

Apart from playing songs, radio jockeys are also dishing out advice for your dilemma. There are listeners from every walk of life who discuss their problems with these 'modern counselors'.

RJs have essentially become the confidants for listeners with slots planned on the lines of 'Agony Aunt' going on air. The format of the slots is more or less the same on all radio stations where the listener calls up the RJs and they in turn offer a hearing ear to their problems.

Radio one RJ Malini who hosts 'Malini till midnight' and 'Love guru' says, "Listeners easily connect with RJs and form a friendly bond so it is easy to interact about their problems."

Even though there are RJs known to the listeners, there are some who seem to be thinking otherwise and their identity stays concealed. Big FM Chennai RJ Ragasiya Snegidhi (which means a secret friend) who hosts the midnight show, Ragasiyamaai from 10.00 pm to midnight says, "It is mainly the anonymity which encourages people to come on air and discuss things with me. If people know who their secret friend is, then they might hesitate to open up.

Being a women RJ, I get calls discussing personal and sexual issues and the surprising part is 70 per cent of my callers are men!" Night slots
The general time slot when most of such shows go on air is generally in the late evenings or night. Night slots are popular with many listeners as the ambience at night is more relaxed and people are more open and honest about their feelings, believes My FM's national programming head Viplove Gupte.

Citing reasons he says, "It is only during the night that people are at peace and wish to rationalise their lives. I don't think any such slot would work during the day as people have hectic lives and would not like to discuss problems with the RJ."

RJ Ragasiya Snegidhi says, "Such shows are normally in the night because that is the time that people are alone with nobody to confess things to."

Content

Talking about the content on such shows, Radio Today COO Anil Srivatsa says, "Being a women's channel, we have many slots throughout the day like Mama Meow which deals with parenting issues, colour therapy, between the sheets discussing serious issues like marital rape, child abuse, domestic violence etc."

The problem with all radio stations is, as Srivatsa puts it, almost all of the radio stations, such slots revolve only around love issues but he thinks there are serious issues to be discussed too. "Meow, being a women oriented radio station, we address issues like problems in internal relations with in-laws, colleagues etc."

The target audience for most of the slots seems to be the youth. As RJ Ragasiya Snegidhi puts it, "My target audience is mainly youngsters between the age group of 15-26 because these are the confused lot and cannot guide themselves. But my show does have listeners who are 40 plus. My callers are mainly the college students, BPO employees who discuss everything from relationships, love life, sexual problems, and any thing under the sun."

Advice on air

Big FM station head Sudarshan Saha is of the opinion that the discussions on air are not about giving heavier doses of counsel, but are rather friendly advice to the listener.

Anil Srivatsa who also hosts the show 'Between the sheets' on Meow is of the opinion that more than the advice given on air, "it is a platform for people to open up about their problems and speak to the anonymity of the radio.

Having a professional background is not really essential for an RJ hosting such slots but it might just be an added feature."

Big FM- Mumbai's RJ Anirudh who hosts the night slot Uncensored with Anirudh LLB on from 11 to 2 am, clarifies that he is the mediator and not the judge.

"My show is a very Masti bhara show where I interact with the listeners and don't judge them and is divided in three slots film, relationships and love. Issues like bi sexuality, safe sex, one night stand are discussed in my show", he points out.

RJ Malini supports the thought saying, "I don't think a professional backing is needed as all the listeners need is not advice but a friendly ear."

However, Ragasiya Snegidhi recommends suggestions over advice, when on air. She is also of the opinion that some kind of psychological backing is needed to solve problems as listeners look forward to solutions. "I had 15 sittings of psychology before going on air becoming an Agony Aunt!"

Response

Srivatsa says Meow has 600 callers at his radio stations in Delhi and about 300 callers in Mumbai every day.

Ragasiya Snegidhi also addresses problems via mail and has received about 2600 mails in the past four months. "Apart from the mails, I get about 200 calls in the slot of two hours that I go on air, out of which I address about eight callers on air and try to talk to others off air too."

RJ Anirudh says, "I get about 2000 SMSes and interact with 20 people on air. The other numbers are stored in the data base and I eventually call them up later."

Viplove Gupte states, "The concept seems to be working very well with the audiences as in an hour slot, we receive about 140 calls in smaller towns."

Advertising pattern

With the listenership boosted in these slots, do the advertisers look to invest during these programmes? Gupte responds, "There are many advertisers who want to advertise their products associated with the slots. Slots where the RJ interacts with the listeners about their problems have a bit of higher listenership because people wish to listen about others' problems and associate with it and it is an opportunity for advertisers to reach out to many."

Srivatsa expresses that advertisers are not always running after listenership numbers. "Many times, if the listenership is more but the show does not suit the product placement, then the advertiser might pull out his ads. And even we look at the ad profile, for example, in case, we are discussing a serious issue like marital rape then we won't have an ad saying- 'Go on a blind date this weekend', so we need to sensitive and choose our ads in such cases."

Seconding the argument, Saha says, "Advertisers choose the slots seeing how their product best suits our programmes and target audiences. The advertisers check the RAM ratings and spot their target audience and if it matches these slots, they advertise."

Although many listeners end up having a friendly relation with their secret friend, the RJs ensure that their identity is concealed. RJ Ragasiya Snegidhi believes that unlike other RJs, 'Agony Aunt' has to be anonymous to better connect with their listeners. Recollecting one incident, she adds, "I once went to a college festival and just said 'Hiee' on the mike and the crowd shouted Ragasiya Snegidhi, so that is the impact we have on people that they recognise us by a mere Hiee!"