Bengaluru tunes into its first theatre radio station

No points for guessing that listening to the radio is everyone's favourite commute-time activity. And considering the fact that many people in urbanscape actually end up spending a good chunk of the day travelling from one part of the city to the other, plugged ears are a common sight. Music and news updates apart, storytelling podcasts are also catching on among listeners, lately. Harping on this, Bengaluru-based arts collective Organizational Theatre (OT) has come up with the city's first dedicated radio channel, which primarily focuses on play-readings, documentaries, reviews, interviews and panel discussions.

"The idea of starting a radio channel on theatre was inspired by our team's instant messaging group, where members often share short scripts and concepts that are later translated into plots for dramas. Because this has been a regular practice, we decided to broaden the horizon a bit more and thus conceptualized the radio angle," says Ranji David, actor-director and founder of OT.

While things are still at a nascent stage, 'OT Radio' aims at bringing playwrights, actors and thespians closer to the audience. "Although currently we are working on an in-house setup through basic podcast streaming, the long-run plan is to connect with theatre practitioners and art lovers from across the globe and spread more awareness about the art form," explains Ranji, who has previously worked on stories and documentaries on theatre at the All India Radio.

For now, the channel will air stories every fourth Saturday of the month, while interviews and tales on original background scores will take the second Saturday and fortnightly slots respectively. "A framework is also in place to rope in radio jockeys and begin live shows every day to make the programmes more engaging. In the future, we will also try to collaborate with different radio channels in the city as well as devise a user-friendly app for smart handheld devices," he explains, adding, "Things are at a trial-and-error phase and we are going back and forth with the feedback from listeners."

Among the qualities that are necessary to verbally communicate with the listener, the ability to tell a story engagingly as well as voice modulations are vital. Workshops are also being conducted to hone such skills and encourage art lovers to practice theatre.