Power Of Words: Shaping Radio Narratives

Language in its basic form, allows us to express our needs and at its height enchants and transports us to different worlds and timelines. It is the most effective tool for wooing your beloved and a powerful weapon through which leaders galvanise the masses. Language experts deliberate on the evolution of language through the lens of radio.

“Choice of words is critical in language, the two are intertwined like eyes are with eyelids. Eyelids are essential to filter out the impurities in the air and enable the eyes to see clearly, similarly, choice of words can filter out language. You cannot simply read the script on the radio, it’s your job to connect with the people, you must tweak the language in such a way that people like listening to you and can understand you completely regardless of which language you’re communicating in,” asserted Rama Pandey, Radio Journalist, Producer and Director.

Pandey noted that the language being used on radio today is very crass according to her, she outlined her experience and some ways in which she used to tweak her own language on air in order to sound elegant even if the script did not demand it.

Rakhshanda Jalil, Author and Literary Critic emphasised, “Radio is not just a world of sound, it’s also a world of language and writing. Even Manto, Krishnachandan and more iconic writers of the time worked in All India Radio when they were not getting much work in films. The raw material for radio comes from writers. Radio has an immense reach even today, it’s unfortunate that the fraternity believes that content needs to be dumbed down for the masses. Granted, it should be simple and easy to understand, but it needs to have a certain standard.”

Jalil opined that she believes the vocabulary of the people has shrunk considerably in today’s time and that it’s unfortunate that the masses adopt language from WhatsApp forwards today.

Ritu Rajput, Former Head of Programming at AIR, Delhi highlighted, “When we talk about attracting audiences, it’s not necessary to be using only Bollywood songs or double entendre. I do not believe that this is what the audience wants, language does not need to become cheap in order to connect with the masses. When I speak on the radio, there are instances where instead of saying ‘zaroorat’, I say ‘awashyakta’ which conveys the same meaning while still sounding elegant. If you understand the language then I feel like you can definitely tweak the script as long as you get the meaning across to the audience.”

Suchitra Gupta, Veteran Radio Presenter and VO Artist revealed that voice modulation plays a vital role in radio and changes the meaning and context of the content.

Gupta explained, “You have to live the character you play. Modulation becomes key in any kind of speaking including acting. In my time with radio, we were taught to underline the words in the script which we want to put an emphasis on. Even when I used to teach history, I used to make sure I modulated my voice in my lectures so that the students remained engaged. Modulation changes the meaning and context of the sentences you are speaking.”