Apart from radio show ‘Kal Bhi Aaj bhi’ on Radio City, RJ Gaurav is busy hosting television shows, dubbing and a lot more. But his love for radio continues to go stronger with each day. His show ‘Kal Bhi Aaj bhi’ completed five years which, has been the shortest five years of his life, he claims. And he hopes to continue bringing retro magic to his listeners.

The RJ brought ease and humour to an interview with Radioandmusic.com’s Jescilia Karayamparambil. He also allowed Radioandmusic.com to hang around him as he recorded his show.

Your show ‘Kal Bhi Aaj bhi’ completed five years, what thoughts are running through your mind?

It is a milestone to have completed five years in this competitive environment where so many things change. As radio stations have to innovate, there is always a change in programming. But ‘Kal Bhi Aaj bhi’ is a retro show and many people like it. It has been the shortest five years of my life because I can remember the very first link I delivered on air with the show. The song was ‘Zameen ga rahi aasman ga raha hai’. I can still remember everything that happened that day.

What have been the most memorable moments in these five years?

It is mostly the celebrity interaction be it Ashaji, Shammiji or Lataji, Rishi Kapoor or Neetu Singh coming together; or Gulzar Saheb. Every bit is memorable and sometimes strange things happen. One such incident is when Ashaji came to the studio saying that she had only 15 minutes, although I was hoping to get more time with her. I started asking her about reality shows. I asked her about the time there was a ‘Murphy Radio contest’ in the 50s and there was also a reality show. She looked at me and asked how I knew about it since I was not even born and still know so much. Then she said, “I was there then and we chose two voices Mahendra Kapoor and Arati Mukherjee.” This set the ball rolling and she sat down for 45 minutes and answered all my questions.

There was also an instance with Shammi sahib, with whom I had a discussion about the song ‘Aaj Kal Tere Mere Pyar Ke Charche’ from the film ‘Brahmachari’. By the end of our talk, Shammi saheb told me to meet him after a week to talk more about films. Such incidents are memorable.

If I start narrating memorable moments it will take other five years for me to tell you.

In the radio industry, there is lot of competition and there are many retro shows coming up. All of them are making an impact in some way. What is your view on the same?

As far as the competition is concerned it is good. It shows that people love retro music and the more the competition, the better the music. People love the show and one can see it through the ratings and the feedback. I am pretty happy about it. It is good that more people are coming to the show.

How often do you listen to your competitors?

Most of the competitors listen to me when I am on radio (laughs). Sometimes I listen to their recordings, which is not very often, but I do try to listen to them.

With competition coming in, you know people will be talking about trivia and they will talk about songs. They will replicate ‘Kal Bhi Aaj Bhi’ and we will bring in more stories. They will promote their shows very strongly. In the last five years, I have become quite a ‘Retro Person’; ‘Jo Mil Gaya Usi Ko Muqaddar Samajh Liya Aur Jo Kho Gaya Usko Bhulata Chala Gaya’ (What I got was my destiny and I forgot what I lost) and that is my approach towards life. On the radio, I do my stuff and listeners like it and that is all I need to know.

How often do you innovate and experiment with the programming of the show?

We did lot of experimenting in the beginning of the show, in 2009. It was the first six months that we were experimenting with content and phone calls. Looking at trivia and then we realised that it is not all about stories. If you can narrate stories then listeners love that and they love celebrity interaction. Radio is a habit forming medium and I believe that one should not make lot of changes; go with the flow and stay with what you are doing. One should stick to the basic, talk less but talk effectively and play more music. I do not think one has to experiment a lot with the programs. As whatever you do, things will come back to what happened. Be honest to retro and stay in that mood and you
need not experiment a lot.

What era of retro music would you recommend to the youth?

I think youth should listen to retro music from early 60s to late 60s. It was at that time that the film and the music industry were changing and technology was getting better. I think 1960 to 69 is exactly the golden period as retro music started to mature. By the 70s, they started to experiment a lot. Musicians during that time experimented with classical, western, folk and film style, so I think people should listen to music of that decade.