I know I know! I promised this post way long back! Excuses apart, here goes 10 days to being an RJ! I shall be giving it in ten installments, and I request you to go one day at a time! At the end of 10 days, you might feel a little clearer about where you are heading…
Now, let us get going!

Day 1:

Being an RJ is not an easy task. It involves a lot of passion and a lot of effort. These 10 days are just here to introduce you to the art of RJing! But before you begin, you need to make a promise!
That you will continue to learn, to seek!

Radio is a local medium. Your city’s radio can be heard only in your city. And your radio talks through people like you: the RJs!
It is highly important for an RJ to know the city well.
Your first task does not teach you how to be an RJ, but prepares you for it.

Do you ride a bike? Lovely! Here goes Day one’s task.
Take a pocket notebook and a pen that writes. Start your bike and leave your house. You don’t need to know where you are heading. Take all the routes you have never taken before! But, keep looking at signs and boards. Stop after a while and note down the path you took, the houses you saw, the schools, churches and temples you came across, the supermarkets and roadside vendors that you noticed, and what they sold. This exercise doesn’t stop with day one. In fact, it is best that you make it a daily exercise, find new places in your city.

Once you come back, pull out a local newspaper (preferably in the local language) and read through all the small articles that you would generally have missed. Note down the names of locations you come across and see how many you are aware of.
Go online and pick out a road map of your city. See if you know the roads mentioned in it. At the end of the exercises, if you feel that you don’t know much about your city, take 3 more days to do research before you go to the next day’s task. Your ten days are hereby extended to thirteen!
If you feel you have a decent knowledge about the city, make sure you develop this knowledge further. Close your eyes and visualize the path to various areas in the city. Keep doing everyday hence. What is next?

Day 2:

Let’s test how much of an RJ you already are! First, Lets start an imaginary radio station for you! Think of a name for the radio station, and a by line to go with it! You can name it anything you want! If you are out of ideas, try Blue FM! The colour of music! I know! Bad creative! But trust me! If you can make this one sound good, you can probably sell anything!

Now for the real task! Take a paper and pen! Now write down 10 things you like talking about and 10 things you simply hate talking about! Don’t forget to number these things!

Done? Good stuff! Now what is your favourite number between 1 and 10?

Take the topic written across that number from both your lists! Try writing a small “LINK”. Now remember this word! A LINK or JOCKTALK is what the RJ talks between the songs. Make sure you include your Name, the station name and the byline at least once in the Link! And make sure it lasts for a maximum of 60 seconds only!

Done? Cool! You must have a recorder on your phone right? Switch it on and read your links!

You can overwrite the file only twice! Actually, you don’t get a second chance in Radio, But since this is your first time, you get a special discount!

Done? Great! Now go to sleep! We’ll meet again tomorrow! Don’t listen to what you recorded. If you start feeling bored, try the other 18 topics from the 2 lists! But don’t listen to what you recorded yet!

Day 3, 4, 5 & 6:

Who is your best friend? Get hold of Him/her! And who is the person who criticizes you the most? Get hold of them as well! You are going to need their help for the next 4 days!

On Day 3, play them what you recorded the previous day! Ask them if they like the way you spoke! But more important! Ask them if it sounded the way you’d speak to them!

And that, my friend, is the key! Even when you are doing a link as an RJ, you should sound just the way you do when you talk to a friend! If you do, you have crossed half the line!

For the next 3 days, write things: random stuff, random topics.

Try describing your hide-out! Try talking about the drama behind election in USA, Talk about the nuclear deal, about terrorism, about your neighbour’s little daughter, the loudspeakers that disturb your nights, porn movies, Kamasutra techniques, the life cycle of a butterfly, Quantum theory, goofups that you have done in your love life, the thing you hate the most about yourself, just any topic!

And keep reading out the links to your friends. After a while, try doing the links without the paper! Take down all the comments that come your way! Work on the comments! Improve yourself! Keep pushing yourself! Keep trying to make yourself perfect! Till you feel confident to go to the most difficult part of the 10 day training!

Day 7:

Your seventh day’s purpose is extremely simple! You need to figure the answer out for a simple question! But trust me! The task isn’t that simple!

The question is this: WHO ARE YOU? The Real You!

Before you try answering this question, let me introduce one more term to you! USP - Unique Selling Proposition! You must have heard this term if you are in the advertising or marketing industry. Basically, it is that special quality of any product that makes it stand out in a crowd!

Now, let me make the earlier question clearer to you. What is your USP?

Take the whole day to think about this! Ask your friends, ask your mom, dad, bro, sis, neighbour, enemy, anyone! Make notes, compare and figure out which part of you seems to be the most popular in your circle!

Well, your USP could be anything; you could be the funniest flirt, the craziest news man, the gossip uncle, the agony aunt, the live Discovery channel, the drama queen, Bollywood basha, the ape man, or even the love guru! Or anything that is not even close to this list! Whatever it is, be proud of your USP! That is what is going to give you your radio Personality! Now, having done this, go take rest! You have earned it! You have 3 long days to go, starting tomorrow!

Day 8:

Right! Now you know who you are! Now be who you are! Take any topic that you have talked about in the past 7 days and tweak it to suit your radio personality!

For example, if the topic is say, the tigers in India, and if your radio personality is ‘the live Discovery channel’, you might talk about the number of tigers in India, their locations, how they are decreasing in number steeply, and so on!

If you are the gossip uncle, you might talk about how a particular actor has an original tiger skin rug in his living room and go on about it!

If you are the flirty girl, you might talk about which hero is closest to the tiger for you

And so on….

Try doing this with at least 10 topics. Ask yourself if you liked hearing yourself!

As long as you feel you need to improve just a little more, you are on the right track!

Day 9:

Pick out 10 random songs from your MP3 list! Today, you are going to do your first 1 hour show!

Before that! There are some types of link that you need to know about!

The Intro link, as the name suggests is the first link of the show, it should be a teaser for all the things that you intend to do in the show

The Crunch and Roll. You must have heard these songs which have a long lead music before the lyrics of the song starts right? Your crunch and roll is nothing but a link that will fit right in that lead music. It starts a second after the lead music starts and finishes a second before the lyrics of the song begin!

The tease, which basically just teases you to the next bit of the show.

The Handshake Link is the last link in your show, which concludes your show and leads in the next show!

The caller interaction link as the name suggests is the RJ talking to a caller

Make sure you try all these things at least once in your show today! Open the windows media player or any other music player of your choice. Use the stop and play buttons and the volume controls (Decrease the volume of the song when you are talking over it, and gradually increase the volume after you are done talking. I didn’t want to get into technical stuff yet, but still, I just want you to have a good show!) Put the phone on the loudspeaker while doing your caller link!

Record the entire thing on your system (use sound forge, or any sound software of your choice, or take a friend’s help, or better still, use a tape recorder!) and hear yourself! Do at least 3 shows in the course of the day! Select the best show of the lot, and keep it cued! Call your friends and ask them to come over the next day! Go to bed now! We’ll catch up again tomorrow!

Day 10:

Hear yourself with your friends! From the first link you ever recorded, to the show you did! If you feel there has been some kind of improvement, and if your friends genuinely second that, BRAVO!!!! You are doing well! (A pat on my back as well!)

If you feel you are not making any headway, maybe you need a real trainer! Let us hope you get the best!

And hey! Whatever you do, Don’t stop believing in yourself! You are almost an RJ material now! You just need to meet the right people and impress them to start going on air! No radio station wants to miss a really good talent! So all the best and keep in touch!

The government of India is planning to put on offer additional frequencies in 70 or more cities in the third phase of FM privatization. If my math is right, that will be some 200+ radio stations on the prowl really soon, which means need for at least 1800 RJs in the next few months!

Does that sound like an opportunity?

Well, to give you a brief introduction, I have BEEN an RJ for a few months (in Big 92.7 FM, Chennai, India). I had a health problem and decided to stop RJing (not necessary all of you who want to be an RJ will face the same problem, so don’t worry!) I have been producing content for radio and training RJs in the process for about a year now, before I decided to move out of radio. For the sheer reason, my employers wanted me back as an RJ. They all felt I was an idiot to not be one!

Well, I have to admit, I loved being an RJ! The adrenaline rush and the idea of speaking to millions of faceless people who literally worship you is a feeling you cannot avoid enjoying. I am sure that it is this feeling that drives you to want to be one. I had my personal reasons to opt out of a dream! I am sure you have million others to pursue it!

So, what does it take to be an RJ? Let’s find out!

This is an excerpt from the careers page of a top radio station in India

Position Vacant: Radio Jockey

Job Description:

If you love to talk, and are warm and out-going, and have the ability to match anyone’s wits, and if you have a voice that can reach out to the listener’s soul, then you have the makings of an RJ. As an RJ you should know the pulse of the City and know what makes your listeners tick. You would be the image of the station and would work along with the Producer in designing the programming format. You must also have a flair for digging up locally relevant stories. You must have an ear for music and should have knowledge of regional film music and the local film industry. You must be fluent in English and the local language. You would be required to lend your voice to jingles, commercials & promos. Prior experience in the voice industry in areas such as dubbing and voice-overs is an advantage.

Does that feel like you? Awesome!

That doesn’t feel like you but you still want to be an RJ? Even better!

Before I explain that statement, I’d like to give you a simple test! Just 4 questions! Answer them with just one word! Write it down on a piece of paper maybe! ‘Coz this is the test which is going to tell you if you are fit to be an RJ.

1.       What is your name?

2.       Do you believe that the world is round?

3.       Describe your voice in a word

4.       If you were given a chance to be someone else, who would you choose to be?

Now, to see how you fared, in one simple step.
Is the answer to question 1, the same as the answer to question 4?

Yes? Great! You have just proved that you are a great RJ material!

Well, according to me and the international mentors and radio gurus who trained me to be an RJ (Courtesy: Big 92.7 FM), there is only one mandatory pre-requisite for an RJ. “BE YOURSELF and love being yourself!”

It is not necessary that an RJ be loud. It is definitely not necessary for the RJ to be a fast talker! And it is an absolute myth that the RJ has to have a great voice!

“So what are you trying to say? Who gave YOU the authority to be a radio guru?”

Is that what you asked me now? My answer: I am no radio guru! If you want a radio guru’s advise, I would strongly recommend www.danoday.com! But, I have been an insider. I have been an RJ, and I have been a producer, and spent sleepless nights auditioning and training wannabe RJs! I could just give you my insights!

Give me 10 days and show some passion. I can turn you into an RJ. This is FREE! You don’t have to pay me anything. You might have to spend 300 rupees or less on buying stuff for your own practice sessions, and that’s it!

Are you game? Then I am! But playing radio guru involves a lot of preparation time! So please be considerate and watch out for more in this space. “10 days to being an RJ”, coming soon…