May 17, 2024 • 48 mins
In this episode, we explore the evolution of Radio Zindagi, an AM radio station as the vibrant heart of the Bay Area's Indian community. In the control room of the Fremont Boulevard studio, we uncover a story of skepticism, ambition, and ultimate triumph. Our guests recount the early days of skepticism from brokers, the strategic cultivation of a multi-lingual audience, and the transformation of their platform into a beacon of entertainment, education, and information for immigrants and their families—an auditory bridge between cultures.
We delve into the multicultural make up of the audience, and we tackle the challenge of crafting content that resonates across various South Asian dialects and traditions. With stories of technological innovation—visual radio, multi-channel apps—and a spirit of inclusion, we reveal the secrets to their close-knit connection with listeners. Personal tales weave through the narrative, showcasing how the Bay Area's embracing community has found a home on the AM radio airwaves. In the heart of it all, Radio Zindagi emerges as more than just a station—it's a lifeline.
It’s clear that the power of radio extends well beyond the microphone, fostering unity, empathy, and change—one story at a time.
For more, tune in to 1550AM in the Bay Area or find them on their website here.
If you would like to contact The Fremont Podcast, please text us here.
Petrocelli Homes has been a key sponsor of The Fremont Podcast from the beginning. If you are looking for a realtor, get in touch with Petrocelli Homes on Niles Blvd in Fremont.
Haller's Pharmacy is here to help. They have been in our community for decades.
Founder: Ricky B.
Intro and outro voice-overs made by Gary Williams.
Editor: Andrew Cavette.
Scheduling and pre-interviews by the amazing virtual assistant that you ought to hire, seriously, she's great: your.virtual.ace
This is a Muggins Media Podcast.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm outclassed with my recording gear.
You guys have an incrediblesetup here and I love, I feel
special being here, thank you,thank you.
This is a great space, but youwere talking about different DJs
that feature different shows ordifferent channels.
(00:23):
There's not really anybodyrunning the program right now.
I can hear the radio running.
It's on automation, right, it'son automation, okay.
So my question is I mean, whenis this space?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
used.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And then also you were mentioning what it seemed
to be like remote disc jockeyson different channels and stuff.
Where are they located and howdo you channel them into your
app or into your station,whatever?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
you're doing.
Coming to you straight fromFremont, california, this is the
Fremont Podcast, dedicated totelling the stories of the past
and present of the people andplaces of the city of Fremont.
One conversation at a time ofFremont one conversation at a
time.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
Normally I make these little episode number stories
and they are totally unrelatedto the guest, but we are
interviewing a radio station,1550 AM, and I thought it would
(01:25):
be kind of neat to try, unedited, see if I can tune in.
I've never tried to do it onthis radio and it's not
satellite and it's not a digitaltuner, it's an old radio, so
I'm gonna have to twiddle inwith this plastic knob and just
my fingers.
Oh, I think I got it.
(02:06):
You are listening to episode118 of the Fremont.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Podcast.
Now here's your host, ricky B.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Well, I'm going to go ahead and get started and we'll
jump on into this.
Yeah, pull that up on you thereand I'm going to see.
You came in from Pleasanton,your drive.
What was your name?
Again?
Tarish, tarish, tarish, nidaj,nidaj, Okay, okay, got it,
tarish, you came in fromPleasanton today.
Yes, how was your drive?
It was good.
Yeah, not too bad.
(02:34):
Yeah, you had a comfortableride I had.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
That's good, that's right.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
That's good, that's good.
So, um, so, are you got you got?
So I'm here in this really cooluh radio studio right in
Fremont, on Fremont Boulevard.
Um and uh, I used to live Idon't know a few blocks from
here and I had my phone.
I told you I had my phone fixedacross the way a few times.
(03:03):
Uh, the screen was broken,broken.
But I think I walked by thisstudio a number of times and I
just don't think I paidattention to it.
But this is really cool, thisis really cool.
Thank you, yeah, so are you two?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
uh, you two are co-founders of of this radio
station uh, yes, in in a waylike uh, this particular radio
station was reinvented a coupleof years back.
Okay, and uh, that, and that'show it was.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I'll tell you a little.
You know how it started.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, that'd be great .
I used to work for a company inNew York, Okay, and they used
to have multiple businessesabout media, entertainment and
broadcast, okay.
So they shifted me to Bay Areaand when I landed I saw there is
a lot of opportunities here inBay Area in terms of Indian, you
(03:53):
know, entertainment and media.
And then one of my friends whowas one of the co-founders of a
radio station we thought let'sstart a radio here because there
was a big opportunity, bigIndian, you know, yes, a lot of
Indians were in there.
Yeah, so we somehow were ableto found one broker who was, you
(04:19):
know, getting radio stationsfor people.
Okay, so we had a meeting withhim and he said, oh, this market
is too small for Indians.
I mean radio here, yeah, in thearea oh, wow we try to convince
him and somehow he was notconvinced.
Huh, and then eventually thereone day there was a radio
(04:39):
station in the area and it wasstreaming Indian songs and
eventually that station did verywell.
People were very excited.
It got very popular.
In like couple of months wewent back to that broker and
said see, we told you there wasa big market for Indian radio
(05:00):
and you didn't listen to us.
And then he said then werequested him if you can find
something for us.
He said now there is alreadyone station and I don't think
there is market for anotherstation.
Wow.
At that time, we were able toconvince him and he found us
this station, you know 1550.
(05:21):
Okay, and we started in 2011.
Okay, that's great.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
That's the story and I thought, I thought the.
I thought the hook on the storywas going to be it was this guy
right here I joined actuallylike I, I came on board in 20,
21.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
20 means, uh, everything right now is always
Nidhuj's baby.
He's the brain behind it.
Yes, I do come to look atdifferent aspects of it, but I'm
glad that overall, this mediumof radio has caught up a lot,
(06:03):
not just limited to the drivetimes.
We have audiences who actuallytune into the radio, sitting at
home listening, and that's thebasic reason being that we were
able to provide them with avariety of broadcasts which
include shows, entertainment.
(06:25):
So it's a combination it'seducation, it's entertainment,
as well as information.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
We have so many lawyers on there, we have
doctors on there, we have somany CPAs talking about when the
tax season, is there CPAstalking about giving you advice
what to do, what?
Okay, uh, like that um.
And then we have um for kidseducation.
(06:52):
We have like a lot of clients.
Uh, we have visitor insurance.
You know they're guiding us,you know when somebody's
traveling, because a lot ofimmigrants are from india, right
, and their parents or relativescome from India.
They need a lot of assistance.
So you know there is a lot toyou know.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, absolutely yeah .
Well, I mean, I was listeningto the radio station on my way
over here this morning justbecause I wanted to hear what
you know, you guys do and what Iwas getting into here, and at
first I was listening, listening, and I think the music was
something that I probablyexpected, but then we got into
(07:30):
the DJ part or all thetransition.
It sounded like it might havebeen like a movie trailer or
something, something advertisinga movie, infotainment.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I call it infotainment, it's entertainment
plus the information.
Ah Okay, Then all of a sudden Iwas like wait a minute.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I understand what they.
Okay, all right, we call itinfotainment.
It's entertainment plus theinformation.
Ah, All go together, Okay, okay.
Well then, all of a sudden, Iwas like, wait a minute, I
understand what they're saying.
There was some, like a bunch ofads that were in English as
well and so.
And then there was actually oneof the ads was an immigration
lawyer talking about, like, ifyou need help with family or you
know whatever, then this iswhat we do and we've helped
hundreds of people.
But yeah, I think it'sinteresting and I asked this to
(08:10):
you before we got started buthow many different languages are
there?
Speaker 7 (08:15):
Because I understood.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
No, no on the radio station.
Like, what is the language baseof the radio station?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
I think we cater mainly to the uh of the radio
station.
I think we cater mainly uh tothe majority of the like the
major languages, uh across,spread across india, um, and we
try to kind of uh, at least geta bit of a flavor overall, um,
and so that we keep them happy,but not just limited to india, I
would say well, we also tryinclude other South Asian
(08:46):
communities, like from peoplefrom Pakistan, people from Fiji
okay, for a matter of fact,we've got many RJs who are from
Fiji as well.
So that is the the beauty of it, that it kind of brings
everyone on the same platform.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Wow, that's great.
Right now we have like eightIndian languages shows going on.
Yes, in India we have like 152languages.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
You know they say what do you call someone that
speaks three languages?
Trilingual, Trilingual, yeah,trilingual.
What do you call somebody thatspeaks two languages?
Bilingual?
What do you call someone thatspeaks?
Speaker 7 (09:23):
one language, trilingual, trilingual yeah
trilingual?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
What do you call somebody that speaks two
languages?
Bilingual?
What do you call someone thatspeaks one language?
An American right?
I think, I think, yeah.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
Yes for heavy.
I want to also add to theearlier comment that a lot of
people ask us why we are playing.
Our audiences are not justlistening to us or tuning in to
us for music.
Music today is easily availableon so many platforms.
I think when we talk aboutradio, the first thing is
(09:56):
nostalgia.
And the second thing is, ofcourse, there's a radio jockey,
somebody who's traveling withyou.
You're not driving alone.
You know, yeah, there's a radiojockey, somebody who's
travelling with you.
You're not driving alone.
You know, and a wide percentageof our audience want to listen
to talk.
Radio is a source for them.
(10:17):
It's a local source.
It's the local connect, becausethere's no other connect for
the Indian community or theSouth Asian community here that
caters to their community.
They do have TV stations, butall of the content comes from
that home.
So, as they do enjoy that, thisis what's happening in the
locals.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
I think that's great, that's very, very helpful,
because I do think that you'reexactly right Radio is a
nostalgia media.
It is something that I remember.
I grew up listening to theradio.
Because I do think that you'reexactly right Radio is a
nostalgia media.
It is something that I remember.
I grew up listening to theradio and I remember the
particular programs that Ilistened to.
There's certain sound bitesthat they come on.
I would know exactly.
I mean, it would take me backto my childhood, and so radio is
(11:01):
definitely all of those things.
I think what's challenging, orwhat I think is probably
challenging and this is thepoint that I was making earlier
when I was saying telling thejoke was that I think, as an
American, it's hard for me toimagine listening to a station
or being being a part of acommunity where a radio station
would engage in multiplelanguages on on one platform.
(11:24):
Like I feel like for anAmerican, I would listen to an
English station and that'sprobably all I would listen to.
I think that I don't know whatit's like to be in a country
where there are 150 languages orwhere there are different
regional languages, and I thinkthat that's something that
probably the Indian community ismore accustomed to than I'm
(11:48):
accustomed to, but it appearsthat that's something that is
also part of that nostalgia.
I guess part of the question orwhat I'm getting at is if you
were to go to an Indian stationor a radio station in India, is
that what you would get ismultiple languages on one
platform?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Not necessarily, oh, not necessarily.
Yeah, so it all depends,because out there it could be
regionalized, Like you said,over 152 languages across India
and the dialect also changesevery few hundred kilometers or
maybe 100 miles.
So they have radio stations orthe streaming broadcasts
(12:33):
directed to a particularaudiences, but primarily it
would be one regional languageand English.
But then you know, thinkingbroad, I think entertainment or
music per se has no boundaries.
That's right.
You know I could groove on towith my two left foot, you know,
(12:57):
groove on to any sort of music,at least you know it is, uh,
whether it's american, spanish,uh, any, uh, you know different
parts of india or any music perse.
You know it's the beats thatthat kind of keeps you going
we'll be right back.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
You can hear the rest of this conversation in just a
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And now back to ourconversation.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
And now back to our conversation.
Yes, of course we try and kindof merge or kind of, you know,
do it in a way that it's thebest way possible, where we
bring in the information that'srequired by the South Asian
community together on oneplatform out here.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, do you guys?
Do you find that I mean whatyou're doing as far as the
bringing the different languages, the different people into one
radio station?
Do you find that to be achallenge for you as far as
keeping the audience connectedto what you're doing?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Actually I think it helps the audience right.
Audience loves us for that, notjust limited to.
We also do a lot of events, andSeba can also talk more about
that and that is where thecommunities from different parts
and even many South Asiancommunities, different parts of
(17:11):
the world.
So we're trying to build thatkind of a platform where we are
able to first acknowledge andaccept the welcome that we got A
first generation migrant here,you know it was.
So we moved back from India youknow calling this our home
(17:33):
landed in San Francisco 24 yearsback, never moved out of here,
wow yeah.
But then the people have beenso welcoming.
My elder kid was four when wemoved here.
My younger one was born here.
So we got to give back andunderstand the other communities
that we live together with.
Speaker 6 (17:56):
I would like to say that I can imagine it's a
question for you, right yeah?
It's a question of which ischallenging, but when, in Jata,
it is not a question ofchallenge.
India is a memory form, it is acognitive, it combines all the
cultures, all the languages, soit's not new to us or unknown to
(18:18):
us.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Hmm, that's great.
That's great.
I think that you guys, asco-founders, as producers, I
think that you guys probablyhave to put on a creative hat in
order to be able to think thatway.
I mean, yes, india is a meltingpot and, I think, probably in a
(18:41):
different way, but stillsimilar to the Bay Area it is a
melting pot where people comefrom all over the world.
But I think that, in order tobe able to produce something
that truly reaches people fromnot just India, but from
different places around theworld that end up here, being
able to really be creative andto think through how do we reach
(19:03):
, you know, more broadly, asopposed to like just more
narrowly, I think that you guyshave to put on different
creative hats to be able to dothat.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Obviously, you know.
You know it's, it's, it's.
It's a place where we have tothink every day what different
we should do.
I'll give you a very goodexample.
You know, when COVID happened,there were no traffic on the
roads, so we thought what shouldwe do?
The, you know, the businesswent down and even the
listenership went down, becausethere are no cars.
(19:32):
So then we came up with an ideathat you know, people are at
home, so instead of going on airon 15, 50 and we should look
for an alternative where we can,people can see us, and we
should look for an alternativewhere we can, people can see us.
So that's how the idea started.
So we started the concept radio.
You cannot only listen, you canalso see us.
Okay.
So then we started live onFacebook, live on Instagram.
(19:56):
So that's how you know.
You see all these gadgets here.
Now, from our studio, you can,anyone can see you anywhere in
the world sitting, you know,anywhere, yeah that's exactly
right.
So we made this radio.
Not only you know, you canlisten to us on 1550 AM, you can
also listen to us on Instagram,on Facebook, all the different.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
You know, I would say Indians, we take pride in
moving in from being called acountry of snake charmers to
people who work with the mouseright.
So more in the technology side,right, sure, that's good.
So we've controlled that One ofthe world leaders in the
(20:47):
technology side.
So what we did was also launchan app where all their different
channels which are streamedonto your palm right, so most of
the.
I think we have over 11channels that are streamed on
our Radio Zindagi app.
Wow, you could download andstream different genre of music
(21:11):
nonstop.
Wow, where the people like theelderly, they like more
devotional, or there is a NorthIndian or a South Indian, or
Guzzles, which is a differentform of music, hip-hop or the
country music, whatever you wantto do.
We've got 11 different streamswhich you could, and they were
(21:34):
growing as well.
So we took the technology partof it and kind of merged that
into our overall radio, into ouroverall radio.
So radio is not just thefrequency that's aired of the
towers.
We also utilize the power ofFacebook, insta or other live
(21:56):
channels where we become moreinteractive but also reach out
to the audience wherever theyare.
So it kind of delimits us withthe coverage area.
So people you know 1550 bayarea could also be listened to,
(22:17):
not just in any part of us.
You could go to your uhbirthplace which is baltimore.
You said baltimore is where Imoved from before coming here.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Or South Carolina.
You could listen to that upthere.
Rick or you could be sittinganywhere in the world and
listening to the broadcast, sothat is where we moved out of.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah, that's good, yeah this is really cool to me.
I mean, we're sitting in a very, very I'm outclassed with my
recording gear.
You guys have an incrediblesetup here and I love, I feel
special being here, thank you.
(22:59):
Thank you.
Different DJs that featuredifferent shows or different
channels.
There's not really anybodyrunning the program right now.
I can hear the radio running.
It's on automation, right, it'son automation, okay.
So my question is, I mean, whenis this space used?
And then also, you werementioning what it seemed to be
(23:20):
like remote disc jockeys ondifferent channels and stuff.
Where are they located and howdo you channel them into your
app or into your station,whatever you're doing?
Speaker 3 (23:31):
So sorry, so let's Seba, you answer this Right, so
all right.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
So it's a mixture of things, Vicky, we do have a
production office in India.
We do have a production officein India.
A lot of our shows are alsopackaged as to be in India and
those are the filler shows.
(23:58):
And when I say filler shows Imean the non-drive time, because
the focus is to 10 am, which isyour prime morning drive time
going to work.
It is being done by local radiojob people who come to office.
They are not employed full time, they are basically part time.
Okay, they come in for the show, so they come in at the time of
(24:21):
the show.
So, like Nirav said, it lookslike it's fun and it's vibrant
and if you see our reviews andvideos, it looks like, oh,
everybody's just having fun.
But honestly, every second onradio is programmed, it's
managed, it's flagged way backlike two weeks in advance.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
You can imagine the kind of coordination.
Speaker 6 (24:46):
it means so many teams, local and remote, bring
everything together into theradio as one product.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Wow, that's amazing.
So I'm curious you have allthese different people that you
have come in.
You said doctors, lawyers,different people that have
different shows.
As you started to explore thedifferent people to have in to
talk or to be a part of yourradio station broadcast, has
(25:18):
there been something that youhave invited, maybe a person
that you've invited in, thatonce you had them in, you were
surprised at the response or thelistenership that has developed
from that particular person.
So, in other words, maybe youthought let's give this
particular you know, a teacheror a lawyer a shot at coming in
(25:42):
and doing a show, and thenyou're like looking at the
metrics, thinking, wow, I didnot think that that was going to
get the attention that it did,but it seems to be something
that's really catching on.
And, in other words, I think Ifind that the Bay Area is a
place that's always reinventingitself, and I think you kind of
always have to be reinventingyourself if you're going to stay
with it.
(26:02):
And so I'm just wondering ifthere's things that you guys
have experimented with or showsthat you've experimented with
that you've found to besurprisingly successful.
About 10 years ago, when westarted this, radio.
Speaker 6 (26:15):
You know we had a doctor who you know.
The initial idea was to do ashow around health and medicine,
but he turned out to be such agreat contributor because his
language skills were great, hispoetic skills were great, his
Hollywood knowledge was great,so it became such an
(26:36):
entertaining show, not just aninformational show, but truly an
all-round entertaining andinformational show.
That show really took us bysurprise and we had a lot of
listeners.
There were times when you know,we had to play an archive show
where people immediately calledand recognized that oh, this is
an archive show.
That means the doctor was notin office.
(26:57):
He was an amazing personality.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
You know, one of the things that you said is that you
had, for instance, a doctorcome on and you thought that the
information that he might giveon the show might be a
contributing element to to thelistenership, but then you found
that the way he talked and hisability to communicate, his
(27:21):
poetic speech and all thosethings were very, very were even
more drawing to your particularaudience.
One of the things that I tellpeople and I didn't say it here,
but I typically will say topeople before we start our
interview is that I'm moreinterested in stories than I am
in data, because, I said, thisis an audio, it's an audio
(27:43):
medium, and so people they don'thave the opportunity of other
senses, like visual orinteractive senses, to be able
to stimulate them.
They need to be able to bestimulated by what they hear,
and stories stimulate theimagination.
The imagination is the biggesttool that we have on our side,
(28:05):
and so we need to be able tostimulate the imagination
without all the data and I thinkthat's what you guys are saying
as well that has proven to betrue the people not just the
people who have all theknowledge, but the people that
know how to communicate whatthey know and how they know in a
way that really, reallycaptures the listener all right,
(28:26):
and as a radio station we alsohave a responsibility to you
know.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Uh, give back to the community, that's right.
So, in fact, when you know wehad a meeting, you know a few
years back that we only are intoradio, let's do something for
the community now.
So then we came up with an idea.
Let's do some events whichbring culture uh back to the
area, because there are so manykids who are born here doesn't
(28:52):
know much about india.
A lot of people here doesn'tknow much about india.
So we came up with an idea andwe bought an event called
ganeshutsa.
Okay, I would like to, you know, request RAG to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Let's hear that.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Which is our annual event now and one of the biggest
in the area.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Okay, wow, let me hear about this.
So, ganesh, see, ganesha is agod that is I'm sure you would
remember him more as elephantgod, okay, okay, and he's
supposed to be the one who is,like, the first to be worshipped
(29:35):
and that event is celebratedmajorly across all of India,
okay, majorly across all ofIndia, okay.
So what we found was like wehave different temples,
different places where people dosome part of it, but it does
not bring together the communityat large, bringing them
(29:59):
together and closer, and alsolooking at the grand overall
scope of events that's supposedto be done at this particular
event, and that's where Neerajand his team got together.
I think it's the 7th, 8th, 10thyear.
(30:21):
The same, yes, no, but we werenot able to do it for a two day.
Well, yeah, one year, becauseof covid right had to scale it
down.
Uh, 10th year, we have um,ganesha's uh idol, which is
almost about 16 feet of the idol, and um spread over two, uh,
(30:42):
two.
Okay, you know, weekend we geta crowd of almost about 50,000
visitors at the very minimum.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
One of the biggest events in the area.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Where is this held?
So we started First we wantedit to be floating.
Okay, the first year we startedat New Park Mall, then the
second, the the year next wewent to mill peters, okay, um,
then the year after we were atthe great america parkway, then
we went to santa, south san jose.
(31:15):
Um, then, uh, we came back toicc and then we brought it back
into new park mall and, uh, thisyear again it's.
It's a two-day event inSeptember which is going to be
held at the New Park Mall,towards the AMC side, so we take
the entire parking lot there.
(31:35):
There are at least hundreds ofbooths where not just the
cultural part, see, it's aboutthe entertainment, it's about
bringing the kids, the secondgeneration, second or the third
generation kids, bringing themcloser to the culture which the
(31:56):
parents or the grandparentswould so want.
So we try to bridge that gapfor them and they're happy
because their culturalperformances, their kids getting
involved, uh, there aredifferent.
Uh, 1500 plus participants,correct, right and wow that's
all packed in it's uh power packperformances.
(32:17):
Energy is super, super high.
Uh, you know the teams,especially seba.
Seba has a close bond with thisparticular event because she
comes from maharashtra, mumbai,where this is the most.
It's celebrated at the grandestlevel.
(32:38):
Okay, you could even imagine,yeah, and seba puts in endless
hours of work, uh, trying tomake it happen and so this
particular, this particularevent is something that you guys
started, yes, yes, and in thebay area.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
In the bay area, and this is something that you guys
have grown and and just justdone better and better every
year, oh, yes it keeps gettingbetter and better year on year
and different challenges anddifferent solutions to that you
know it is interesting because Ithink you can be the
(33:17):
stereotypical radio station orwhatever it is.
I could be the stereotypicalpodcast in some ways, and
there's different ways that youcan just kind of do things the
way that everybody else does it.
But I do think you have toanalyze the local community, the
audience that you're connectingwith, and you have to figure
(33:38):
out what it is that they youknow, what are the challenges or
what are the topics that arecoming up where you are.
That may not exist anywhereelse but they exist here.
And two things.
So one of my more recentepisodes that I had on the
podcast I think it was two weeksago it came out there was a
lady who's an actress and afilmmaker who wanted to um abuse
(34:04):
in the home and that sort ofthing and um and the uh, the,
the community that she's from isan Indian community, and so she
she also coming to the UnitedStates um really wanted to
create something that may beconnected with people that they
wouldn't necessarily um receivethat sort of like attention or
(34:26):
that sort of empathy, uh, youknow, in other, in other places,
but that you know if you get to, if you, if you become aware of
, like, the type of abuse that'sin our community.
Um, it's not just tied to oneparticular community, it's tied
to like, it's, you find iteverywhere, you know.
And so I think that what shedid was she found something that
(34:47):
was, um, something that she hadgone through personally, but
then she found a way tocommunicate that would, that
would span, um, the you know, abigger audience, um, across a
variety of people.
One other one that kind oftouches to what you guys have
been talking about, which I likeI don't remember what episode
it was, but I think it had tohave been over a year ago, maybe
(35:09):
a year and a half ago Iinterviewed a kid.
I see a kid right now.
He's in college.
He's probably out of collegenow, but he grew up here in
Fremont and he's asecond-generation Indian
immigrant, so his parents movedhere and then he grew up here,
um and uh.
Then he wanted to go and becomea filmmaker.
So he, I actually interviewedhim over I don't I don't
(35:31):
interview most people on zoom,um, I I like to do it in person,
since it's a Fremont basedpodcast.
If I can't get there, you knowI w I want to kind of do that
there.
But anyway he was in school atNYU in New York City, going to
school for filmmaking, and thefilm that he was doing for his
main project was on what it'slike, what it was like to grow
(35:52):
up in Fremont as a secondgeneration Indian immigrant.
So he wrote this film that healso came back to Fremont and
recorded, filmed it and producedit here.
It was called Dreamline and itwas his journey as somebody who
wasn't from an Indian family butdid not grow up in India, did
not have all the culture and allthe other things in his life
(36:16):
firsthand, had to experience itthrough the lens of his parents,
being involved in the.
No doubt I'm sure if we were totalk to him he'd probably been
to your festival or your bigevent that you've had growing up
.
But he wanted to write thismovie and produce this movie
(36:37):
about what it was like growingup as a second generation
immigrant, trying to learn andadapt to the culture of his
parents who grew up in India.
And so in some ways you guys arereally tapping into.
I mean, this is somethingthat's unique here and I'm not
saying it's not unique somewhereelse in the United States like
(36:59):
New York or wherever.
We have a lot of otherimmigrants coming together from
a particular area.
But I do think that what you doand how you analyze the local
audience here is going to bedifferent than what you might
get in another melting pot, in adifferent country or even in a
different part of the UnitedStates.
And so I think what I'm hearingfrom you guys is really great.
(37:22):
I think it's really cool to hear, because even on my street I
was telling's really cool tohear uh, because even even on my
street I was telling youearlier that most of the people
live on my street are from India.
Um matter of fact, I couldprobably remember them going to
your festival or your uh, your,your event, because they all got
dressed up and they were allheaded out and they and they
were like this is the biggestevent in the Bay area.
I had no idea what they weretalking about, um, but but they
(37:44):
must have been going to thatparticular uh event.
Um, and, and we've workedreally hard to try to, I've
worked really hard to try to getto know um them and get to know
that your culture through myinteraction with them as well um
, but these are all things thatare very, very helpful and I
think that you guys thinkingthrough all these things in the
way that you are is is reallyreally good for our area.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (38:10):
And that's why I think the music is important.
But talk is important too,because it's through talk that
we can have a big change.
It's through talk that we canopen dialogue and it's through
talk that we can bridge thiscultural divide and make that
gap smaller and smaller.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
So talk is really important to us.
Yeah, that's great.
What were you?
Speaker 3 (38:29):
going to say I was talking about.
You know, you were talkingabout that domestic violence
thing.
So in fact, we, a few yearsback, we found that there are a
lot of cases happening in Bayarea, especially in our
community.
So we approached a you know,nonprofit organization who was
helping these people and theycame up with an idea.
(38:50):
They started giving us storiesof different people.
So the idea was not only to getthose stories on air, but the
idea was that through thosestories we can educate people.
You know, you are not alone.
Yeah, there are people who areready to help you if you are in
that situation.
That's cool yeah, we only don'tthink commercially, we also
(39:16):
think, you know that we have aresponsibility towards that's
right.
You know people, yeah, do youknow?
Give them, you educate themwith different things.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Well, I can totally sense that you guys have.
I mean, you guys are aboutmaking sure that this is a
successful business, but I think, in some ways, I can already
feel it from you guys that thereason you want this to be such
as a big success is for thebetterment of the community.
Yes, to make the community abetter place.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
This is all the community, yes, to make the
community a better place.
It's all about community, yeah,and also try to, you know, get
an acceptance to, you know, fromdifferent parts.
So no community, nosub-community in a society be
left out.
Yeah, so we try get theminvolved in one place or another
.
What Neeraj mentioned was, likeyou know, we wanted to get that
(40:08):
word out about domesticviolence so that at least you
know people are not left alone,they have a friend in need when
they need it to be.
You know.
So, and that's what Sebo alsomentioned about voices.
I think we covered that covered.
One part of the broadcast wasdedicated to DV as well.
(40:30):
That's great, that's great.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
I love it.
Well, this is really cool.
If people wanted to know moreinformation, I guess they could
probably find you guys on socialmedia as well as website.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Radio Zendagi.
Okay, everyone you know,especially in our community,
knows us, but for other peoplewho doesn't know us, you can log
on to wwwradiosindiggycom.
And we are on social media too.
We are on Instagram.
We are on Facebook very activenow.
Not only through radio you canlisten to us, you can listen to
(41:01):
us through app also.
You can see all our podcasts onour Facebook too.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Rick, I just wanted to add on.
I think most of us do know themeaning of Radio.
Zindagi Radio, obviously radio,but Zindagi is life Okay.
Speaker 7 (41:22):
Thank you, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
And that's why a tagline is Radio Zindagi GHR.
It's like GHR means live, liveyour life.
That's why a tagline is RadioZindagi GHR.
It's like GHR means live.
Live your life.
That's great.
So that's very important.
Like breathing is not justliving.
Ensuring that you're able to dowhat you want to, to be able to
enjoy each and every moment,that's great and that's how you
(41:45):
live.
That's great, that's great Seva.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
any parting?
No, absolutely.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 6 (41:53):
Sometimes it's just nice to hear your own thoughts
about your own product.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
I completely understand that.
I think sometimes you ask mewhat is the Fremont podcast?
Or tell me a little bit aboutit before we get started.
Fremont podcast, or tell me alittle bit about it before we
get started.
Um, you know, and I, I do say alot of the same things, but
then I find myself maybe I'vethought about it a little bit
differently, or I met somebodyand we had a conversation about
(42:18):
it, and then it just justverbalizing it allows me to be
able to express maybe adifferent facet of it that I
don't normally think about orthat I don't normally say.
So I I do think it is helpful,especially when you're on the
back end of things.
You guys are the ones behindall of this making it happen.
I think that sometimes, for I'll, I'll, I'll back up just a
(42:40):
little bit and I'll say thisI've had, I've had moments,
especially recently, where Ijust wanted to give up on the
podcast because I'm just I'mjust like I, I it's a lot of
work, it's not, it's not a, it'snot my main thing, and I think,
chasing down sponsors andtrying to find the financial
support and the just all theother support that I need, I
(43:01):
have an, I have an incredibleteam.
I have two that work with meand they schedule and they edit
and they do all that stuff.
But it's just sometimes it'sjust a lot of work and sometimes
you're like I just want to.
I'm call it quits.
It was a good run.
You know, we had over 100episodes.
But then you run into somebodyand you're like they're like I
heard your episode and this, itchanged me, it did this and this
(43:21):
and this for me, and you'rejust like, oh my goodness, like
if, if everything I did was tohelp that one person, it it
feels like it was worth doing it.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
It was worth it.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
And so I imagine with you guys, even like on various
parts, all the contributionsthat you give to make this a
reality.
I'm sure there's times whereit's just like exhausting, and
you know this is a lot of work,but I can see where you guys get
the feedback from people.
Speaker 7 (43:48):
Yeah, exactly yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
And then it just kind of spurs you on to do, to do
more and to do better.
And even having theconversation now, getting you
guys all together in the sameconversation, to be able to hear
, hear you and say, yeah, thisis why we're here, this is what
we're doing and this is whywe're doing it.
You know, I think that's reallygood, very true, yeah, that's
great.
Well, thank you all you all.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
We have a lot of listeners who feel that way.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
What's that?
Say that again.
Speaker 6 (44:11):
No, I said we have a lot of listeners who you know
exactly what you said, right, Imean you know, when they call in
like almost into every show orthey participate in our you know
different things that we do,whether it be a raffle or a
contest or just call in and tellus your views, I mean we
(44:32):
realize some of you listenerstake us so you know so seriously
they listen to us every day.
It's almost like a lifeline forthem, you know.
And then just one parting thingwas that you know music today
is available everywhere.
You can have your own uh listright like your music, yeah,
yeah but when there's a radiojob, you're listening to radio,
(44:55):
you're driving your car andthere's a song that comes up
which is not on any of your list, but it's a beautiful song,
it's something you love, maybelong ago, maybe when you were
growing up, and when you listento that song and it brings up
those memories, it transformsyou back into that space and
time.
The beauty of that is just thatnatural moment.
That nostalgia is amazing.
(45:16):
So sometimes it's nice tolisten to music that is curated
by someone else, because itmight have a little meaning in
there for you.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
I like that.
I like that.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
Yeah, and to end, you know, I will tell you one good
story.
I want to hear it yeah so youknow, a few years back we got a
call and a lady she used to callin every show and we were doing
I don't remember exactly whatwas the show about, but she
started sharing her you knowlife story.
(45:48):
She said I was about to end mylife, I was so frustrated, I was
alone, and suddenly I startlistening to the radio Zindagi
and the way the RJs responded tome.
I thought I got a family in Bayarea and she used to call in
every show and every RJ used to,you know, talk to her and you
(46:10):
know give her some advice or youknow she used to, you know talk
about.
You know what she's thinkingtoday and because of that, and
she used to demand a lot ofsongs, you know what she wants
to listen.
And she said my life changedand I you know that this because
(46:30):
of Radio Zendiky.
I'm alive now.
That's great, I mean, even ifwe can contribute to one life.
I think we are done.
That's great.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
And it's truly worth it.
Speaker 3 (46:42):
Yeah it's truly worth it.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Well, thank you guys.
Thank you all for being a partof this podcast.
I'm excited to be able to sharethis episode with our community
and, yeah, thanks for takingthe time to be here with me.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Thank you, Rick, for all the one and good luck for
best wishes for all thewonderful work that you've been
doing.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
I would love that.
It would be my honor to do that.
So yeah, whenever you havesomething open or when you have
an idea, let me know, and I'dlove to try to make that happen.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
Thank you, Ricky, yeah thank you.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Thank you Thank you.
Speaker 4 (47:20):
This episode was hosted and produced by Ricky B.
I'm Gary Williams, schedulingand pre-interviews by Sarah S.
Be sure to subscribe whereverit is that you listen so you
don't miss an episode.
You can find everything we makethe podcast and all of our
social media links atthefremontpodcastcom.
Join us next week on theFremont Podcast.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
I just wanted to give up on the podcast because I'm
just like it's a lot of work.
To give up on the podcastbecause I'm just like it's a lot
of work, it's not my main thingand I think chasing down
sponsors and trying to find thefinancial support.
Speaker 5 (47:58):
Please consider donating $1 a month on a
reoccurring basis to help thispodcast that you enjoy.
Buymeacoffeecom.
Slash TheFremontPodcast slashmembership.
Speaker 7 (48:12):
This is a Muggins Media Podcast.
I'm outclassed with my recording gear.
You guys have an incrediblesetup here and I love, I feel
special being here, thank you,thank you.
This is a great space, but youwere talking about different DJs
that feature different shows ordifferent channels.
(00:23):
There's not really anybodyrunning the program right now.
I can hear the radio running.
It's on automation, right, it'son automation, okay.
So my question is I mean, whenis this space?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
used.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And then also you were mentioning what it seemed
to be like remote disc jockeyson different channels and stuff.
Where are they located and howdo you channel them into your
app or into your station,whatever?
Speaker 4 (00:48):
you're doing.
Coming to you straight fromFremont, california, this is the
Fremont Podcast, dedicated totelling the stories of the past
and present of the people andplaces of the city of Fremont.
One conversation at a time ofFremont one conversation at a
time.
Speaker 5 (01:05):
Normally I make these little episode number stories
and they are totally unrelatedto the guest, but we are
interviewing a radio station,1550 AM, and I thought it would
(01:25):
be kind of neat to try, unedited, see if I can tune in.
I've never tried to do it onthis radio and it's not
satellite and it's not a digitaltuner, it's an old radio, so
I'm gonna have to twiddle inwith this plastic knob and just
my fingers.
Oh, I think I got it.
(02:06):
You are listening to episode118 of the Fremont.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Podcast.
Now here's your host, ricky B.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Well, I'm going to go ahead and get started and we'll
jump on into this.
Yeah, pull that up on you thereand I'm going to see.
You came in from Pleasanton,your drive.
What was your name?
Again?
Tarish, tarish, tarish, nidaj,nidaj, Okay, okay, got it,
tarish, you came in fromPleasanton today.
Yes, how was your drive?
It was good.
Yeah, not too bad.
(02:34):
Yeah, you had a comfortableride I had.
Speaker 5 (02:41):
That's good, that's right.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
That's good, that's good.
So, um, so, are you got you got?
So I'm here in this really cooluh radio studio right in
Fremont, on Fremont Boulevard.
Um and uh, I used to live Idon't know a few blocks from
here and I had my phone.
I told you I had my phone fixedacross the way a few times.
(03:03):
Uh, the screen was broken,broken.
But I think I walked by thisstudio a number of times and I
just don't think I paidattention to it.
But this is really cool, thisis really cool.
Thank you, yeah, so are you two?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
uh, you two are co-founders of of this radio
station uh, yes, in in a waylike uh, this particular radio
station was reinvented a coupleof years back.
Okay, and uh, that, and that'show it was.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I'll tell you a little.
You know how it started.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, that'd be great .
I used to work for a company inNew York, Okay, and they used
to have multiple businessesabout media, entertainment and
broadcast, okay.
So they shifted me to Bay Areaand when I landed I saw there is
a lot of opportunities here inBay Area in terms of Indian, you
(03:53):
know, entertainment and media.
And then one of my friends whowas one of the co-founders of a
radio station we thought let'sstart a radio here because there
was a big opportunity, bigIndian, you know, yes, a lot of
Indians were in there.
Yeah, so we somehow were ableto found one broker who was, you
(04:19):
know, getting radio stationsfor people.
Okay, so we had a meeting withhim and he said, oh, this market
is too small for Indians.
I mean radio here, yeah, in thearea oh, wow we try to convince
him and somehow he was notconvinced.
Huh, and then eventually thereone day there was a radio
(04:39):
station in the area and it wasstreaming Indian songs and
eventually that station did verywell.
People were very excited.
It got very popular.
In like couple of months wewent back to that broker and
said see, we told you there wasa big market for Indian radio
(05:00):
and you didn't listen to us.
And then he said then werequested him if you can find
something for us.
He said now there is alreadyone station and I don't think
there is market for anotherstation.
Wow.
At that time, we were able toconvince him and he found us
this station, you know 1550.
(05:21):
Okay, and we started in 2011.
Okay, that's great.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
That's the story and I thought, I thought the.
I thought the hook on the storywas going to be it was this guy
right here I joined actuallylike I, I came on board in 20,
21.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
20 means, uh, everything right now is always
Nidhuj's baby.
He's the brain behind it.
Yes, I do come to look atdifferent aspects of it, but I'm
glad that overall, this mediumof radio has caught up a lot,
(06:03):
not just limited to the drivetimes.
We have audiences who actuallytune into the radio, sitting at
home listening, and that's thebasic reason being that we were
able to provide them with avariety of broadcasts which
include shows, entertainment.
(06:25):
So it's a combination it'seducation, it's entertainment,
as well as information.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
We have so many lawyers on there, we have
doctors on there, we have somany CPAs talking about when the
tax season, is there CPAstalking about giving you advice
what to do, what?
Okay, uh, like that um.
And then we have um for kidseducation.
(06:52):
We have like a lot of clients.
Uh, we have visitor insurance.
You know they're guiding us,you know when somebody's
traveling, because a lot ofimmigrants are from india, right
, and their parents or relativescome from India.
They need a lot of assistance.
So you know there is a lot toyou know.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, absolutely yeah .
Well, I mean, I was listeningto the radio station on my way
over here this morning justbecause I wanted to hear what
you know, you guys do and what Iwas getting into here, and at
first I was listening, listening, and I think the music was
something that I probablyexpected, but then we got into
(07:30):
the DJ part or all thetransition.
It sounded like it might havebeen like a movie trailer or
something, something advertisinga movie, infotainment.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
I call it infotainment, it's entertainment
plus the information.
Ah Okay, Then all of a sudden Iwas like wait a minute.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
I understand what they.
Okay, all right, we call itinfotainment.
It's entertainment plus theinformation.
Ah, All go together, Okay, okay.
Well then, all of a sudden, Iwas like, wait a minute, I
understand what they're saying.
There was some, like a bunch ofads that were in English as
well and so.
And then there was actually oneof the ads was an immigration
lawyer talking about, like, ifyou need help with family or you
know whatever, then this iswhat we do and we've helped
hundreds of people.
But yeah, I think it'sinteresting and I asked this to
(08:10):
you before we got started buthow many different languages are
there?
Speaker 7 (08:15):
Because I understood.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
No, no on the radio station.
Like, what is the language baseof the radio station?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
I think we cater mainly to the uh of the radio
station.
I think we cater mainly uh tothe majority of the like the
major languages, uh across,spread across india, um, and we
try to kind of uh, at least geta bit of a flavor overall, um,
and so that we keep them happy,but not just limited to india, I
would say well, we also tryinclude other South Asian
(08:46):
communities, like from peoplefrom Pakistan, people from Fiji
okay, for a matter of fact,we've got many RJs who are from
Fiji as well.
So that is the the beauty of it, that it kind of brings
everyone on the same platform.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Wow, that's great.
Right now we have like eightIndian languages shows going on.
Yes, in India we have like 152languages.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
You know they say what do you call someone that
speaks three languages?
Trilingual, Trilingual, yeah,trilingual.
What do you call somebody thatspeaks two languages?
Bilingual?
What do you call someone thatspeaks?
Speaker 7 (09:23):
one language, trilingual, trilingual yeah
trilingual?
Speaker 1 (09:24):
What do you call somebody that speaks two
languages?
Bilingual?
What do you call someone thatspeaks one language?
An American right?
I think, I think, yeah.
Speaker 6 (09:36):
Yes for heavy.
I want to also add to theearlier comment that a lot of
people ask us why we are playing.
Our audiences are not justlistening to us or tuning in to
us for music.
Music today is easily availableon so many platforms.
I think when we talk aboutradio, the first thing is
(09:56):
nostalgia.
And the second thing is, ofcourse, there's a radio jockey,
somebody who's traveling withyou.
You're not driving alone.
You know, yeah, there's a radiojockey, somebody who's
travelling with you.
You're not driving alone.
You know, and a wide percentageof our audience want to listen
to talk.
Radio is a source for them.
(10:17):
It's a local source.
It's the local connect, becausethere's no other connect for
the Indian community or theSouth Asian community here that
caters to their community.
They do have TV stations, butall of the content comes from
that home.
So, as they do enjoy that, thisis what's happening in the
locals.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
I think that's great, that's very, very helpful,
because I do think that you'reexactly right Radio is a
nostalgia media.
It is something that I remember.
I grew up listening to theradio.
Because I do think that you'reexactly right Radio is a
nostalgia media.
It is something that I remember.
I grew up listening to theradio and I remember the
particular programs that Ilistened to.
There's certain sound bitesthat they come on.
I would know exactly.
I mean, it would take me backto my childhood, and so radio is
(11:01):
definitely all of those things.
I think what's challenging, orwhat I think is probably
challenging and this is thepoint that I was making earlier
when I was saying telling thejoke was that I think, as an
American, it's hard for me toimagine listening to a station
or being being a part of acommunity where a radio station
would engage in multiplelanguages on on one platform.
(11:24):
Like I feel like for anAmerican, I would listen to an
English station and that'sprobably all I would listen to.
I think that I don't know whatit's like to be in a country
where there are 150 languages orwhere there are different
regional languages, and I thinkthat that's something that
probably the Indian community ismore accustomed to than I'm
(11:48):
accustomed to, but it appearsthat that's something that is
also part of that nostalgia.
I guess part of the question orwhat I'm getting at is if you
were to go to an Indian stationor a radio station in India, is
that what you would get ismultiple languages on one
platform?
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Not necessarily, oh, not necessarily.
Yeah, so it all depends,because out there it could be
regionalized, Like you said,over 152 languages across India
and the dialect also changesevery few hundred kilometers or
maybe 100 miles.
So they have radio stations orthe streaming broadcasts
(12:33):
directed to a particularaudiences, but primarily it
would be one regional languageand English.
But then you know, thinkingbroad, I think entertainment or
music per se has no boundaries.
That's right.
You know I could groove on towith my two left foot, you know,
(12:57):
groove on to any sort of music,at least you know it is, uh,
whether it's american, spanish,uh, any, uh, you know different
parts of india or any music perse.
You know it's the beats thatthat kind of keeps you going
we'll be right back.
Speaker 5 (13:18):
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And now back to ourconversation.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
And now back to our conversation.
Yes, of course we try and kindof merge or kind of, you know,
do it in a way that it's thebest way possible, where we
bring in the information that'srequired by the South Asian
community together on oneplatform out here.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, do you guys?
Do you find that I mean whatyou're doing as far as the
bringing the different languages, the different people into one
radio station?
Do you find that to be achallenge for you as far as
keeping the audience connectedto what you're doing?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Actually I think it helps the audience right.
Audience loves us for that, notjust limited to.
We also do a lot of events, andSeba can also talk more about
that and that is where thecommunities from different parts
and even many South Asiancommunities, different parts of
(17:11):
the world.
So we're trying to build thatkind of a platform where we are
able to first acknowledge andaccept the welcome that we got A
first generation migrant here,you know it was.
So we moved back from India youknow calling this our home
(17:33):
landed in San Francisco 24 yearsback, never moved out of here,
wow yeah.
But then the people have beenso welcoming.
My elder kid was four when wemoved here.
My younger one was born here.
So we got to give back andunderstand the other communities
that we live together with.
Speaker 6 (17:56):
I would like to say that I can imagine it's a
question for you, right yeah?
It's a question of which ischallenging, but when, in Jata,
it is not a question ofchallenge.
India is a memory form, it is acognitive, it combines all the
cultures, all the languages, soit's not new to us or unknown to
(18:18):
us.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Hmm, that's great.
That's great.
I think that you guys, asco-founders, as producers, I
think that you guys probablyhave to put on a creative hat in
order to be able to think thatway.
I mean, yes, india is a meltingpot and, I think, probably in a
(18:41):
different way, but stillsimilar to the Bay Area it is a
melting pot where people comefrom all over the world.
But I think that, in order tobe able to produce something
that truly reaches people fromnot just India, but from
different places around theworld that end up here, being
able to really be creative andto think through how do we reach
(19:03):
, you know, more broadly, asopposed to like just more
narrowly, I think that you guyshave to put on different
creative hats to be able to dothat.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Obviously, you know.
You know it's, it's, it's.
It's a place where we have tothink every day what different
we should do.
I'll give you a very goodexample.
You know, when COVID happened,there were no traffic on the
roads, so we thought what shouldwe do?
The, you know, the businesswent down and even the
listenership went down, becausethere are no cars.
(19:32):
So then we came up with an ideathat you know, people are at
home, so instead of going on airon 15, 50 and we should look
for an alternative where we can,people can see us, and we
should look for an alternativewhere we can, people can see us.
So that's how the idea started.
So we started the concept radio.
You cannot only listen, you canalso see us.
Okay.
So then we started live onFacebook, live on Instagram.
(19:56):
So that's how you know.
You see all these gadgets here.
Now, from our studio, you can,anyone can see you anywhere in
the world sitting, you know,anywhere, yeah that's exactly
right.
So we made this radio.
Not only you know, you canlisten to us on 1550 AM, you can
also listen to us on Instagram,on Facebook, all the different.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
You know, I would say Indians, we take pride in
moving in from being called acountry of snake charmers to
people who work with the mouseright.
So more in the technology side,right, sure, that's good.
So we've controlled that One ofthe world leaders in the
(20:47):
technology side.
So what we did was also launchan app where all their different
channels which are streamedonto your palm right, so most of
the.
I think we have over 11channels that are streamed on
our Radio Zindagi app.
Wow, you could download andstream different genre of music
(21:11):
nonstop.
Wow, where the people like theelderly, they like more
devotional, or there is a NorthIndian or a South Indian, or
Guzzles, which is a differentform of music, hip-hop or the
country music, whatever you wantto do.
We've got 11 different streamswhich you could, and they were
(21:34):
growing as well.
So we took the technology partof it and kind of merged that
into our overall radio, into ouroverall radio.
So radio is not just thefrequency that's aired of the
towers.
We also utilize the power ofFacebook, insta or other live
(21:56):
channels where we become moreinteractive but also reach out
to the audience wherever theyare.
So it kind of delimits us withthe coverage area.
So people you know 1550 bayarea could also be listened to,
(22:17):
not just in any part of us.
You could go to your uhbirthplace which is baltimore.
You said baltimore is where Imoved from before coming here.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Or South Carolina.
You could listen to that upthere.
Rick or you could be sittinganywhere in the world and
listening to the broadcast, sothat is where we moved out of.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
Yeah, that's good, yeah this is really cool to me.
I mean, we're sitting in a very, very I'm outclassed with my
recording gear.
You guys have an incrediblesetup here and I love, I feel
special being here, thank you.
(22:59):
Thank you.
Different DJs that featuredifferent shows or different
channels.
There's not really anybodyrunning the program right now.
I can hear the radio running.
It's on automation, right, it'son automation, okay.
So my question is, I mean, whenis this space used?
And then also, you werementioning what it seemed to be
(23:20):
like remote disc jockeys ondifferent channels and stuff.
Where are they located and howdo you channel them into your
app or into your station,whatever you're doing?
Speaker 3 (23:31):
So sorry, so let's Seba, you answer this Right, so
all right.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
So it's a mixture of things, Vicky, we do have a
production office in India.
We do have a production officein India.
A lot of our shows are alsopackaged as to be in India and
those are the filler shows.
(23:58):
And when I say filler shows Imean the non-drive time, because
the focus is to 10 am, which isyour prime morning drive time
going to work.
It is being done by local radiojob people who come to office.
They are not employed full time, they are basically part time.
Okay, they come in for the show, so they come in at the time of
(24:21):
the show.
So, like Nirav said, it lookslike it's fun and it's vibrant
and if you see our reviews andvideos, it looks like, oh,
everybody's just having fun.
But honestly, every second onradio is programmed, it's
managed, it's flagged way backlike two weeks in advance.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
You can imagine the kind of coordination.
Speaker 6 (24:46):
it means so many teams, local and remote, bring
everything together into theradio as one product.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Wow, that's amazing.
So I'm curious you have allthese different people that you
have come in.
You said doctors, lawyers,different people that have
different shows.
As you started to explore thedifferent people to have in to
talk or to be a part of yourradio station broadcast, has
(25:18):
there been something that youhave invited, maybe a person
that you've invited in, thatonce you had them in, you were
surprised at the response or thelistenership that has developed
from that particular person.
So, in other words, maybe youthought let's give this
particular you know, a teacheror a lawyer a shot at coming in
(25:42):
and doing a show, and thenyou're like looking at the
metrics, thinking, wow, I didnot think that that was going to
get the attention that it did,but it seems to be something
that's really catching on.
And, in other words, I think Ifind that the Bay Area is a
place that's always reinventingitself, and I think you kind of
always have to be reinventingyourself if you're going to stay
with it.
(26:02):
And so I'm just wondering ifthere's things that you guys
have experimented with or showsthat you've experimented with
that you've found to besurprisingly successful.
About 10 years ago, when westarted this, radio.
Speaker 6 (26:15):
You know we had a doctor who you know.
The initial idea was to do ashow around health and medicine,
but he turned out to be such agreat contributor because his
language skills were great, hispoetic skills were great, his
Hollywood knowledge was great,so it became such an
(26:36):
entertaining show, not just aninformational show, but truly an
all-round entertaining andinformational show.
That show really took us bysurprise and we had a lot of
listeners.
There were times when you know,we had to play an archive show
where people immediately calledand recognized that oh, this is
an archive show.
That means the doctor was notin office.
(26:57):
He was an amazing personality.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
You know, one of the things that you said is that you
had, for instance, a doctorcome on and you thought that the
information that he might giveon the show might be a
contributing element to to thelistenership, but then you found
that the way he talked and hisability to communicate, his
(27:21):
poetic speech and all thosethings were very, very were even
more drawing to your particularaudience.
One of the things that I tellpeople and I didn't say it here,
but I typically will say topeople before we start our
interview is that I'm moreinterested in stories than I am
in data, because, I said, thisis an audio, it's an audio
(27:43):
medium, and so people they don'thave the opportunity of other
senses, like visual orinteractive senses, to be able
to stimulate them.
They need to be able to bestimulated by what they hear,
and stories stimulate theimagination.
The imagination is the biggesttool that we have on our side,
(28:05):
and so we need to be able tostimulate the imagination
without all the data and I thinkthat's what you guys are saying
as well that has proven to betrue the people not just the
people who have all theknowledge, but the people that
know how to communicate whatthey know and how they know in a
way that really, reallycaptures the listener all right,
(28:26):
and as a radio station we alsohave a responsibility to you
know.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Uh, give back to the community, that's right.
So, in fact, when you know wehad a meeting, you know a few
years back that we only are intoradio, let's do something for
the community now.
So then we came up with an idea.
Let's do some events whichbring culture uh back to the
area, because there are so manykids who are born here doesn't
(28:52):
know much about india.
A lot of people here doesn'tknow much about india.
So we came up with an idea andwe bought an event called
ganeshutsa.
Okay, I would like to, you know, request RAG to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Let's hear that.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Which is our annual event now and one of the biggest
in the area.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Okay, wow, let me hear about this.
So, ganesh, see, ganesha is agod that is I'm sure you would
remember him more as elephantgod, okay, okay, and he's
supposed to be the one who is,like, the first to be worshipped
(29:35):
and that event is celebratedmajorly across all of India,
okay, majorly across all ofIndia, okay.
So what we found was like wehave different temples,
different places where people dosome part of it, but it does
not bring together the communityat large, bringing them
(29:59):
together and closer, and alsolooking at the grand overall
scope of events that's supposedto be done at this particular
event, and that's where Neerajand his team got together.
I think it's the 7th, 8th, 10thyear.
(30:21):
The same, yes, no, but we werenot able to do it for a two day.
Well, yeah, one year, becauseof covid right had to scale it
down.
Uh, 10th year, we have um,ganesha's uh idol, which is
almost about 16 feet of the idol, and um spread over two, uh,
(30:42):
two.
Okay, you know, weekend we geta crowd of almost about 50,000
visitors at the very minimum.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
One of the biggest events in the area.
Speaker 2 (30:55):
Where is this held?
So we started First we wantedit to be floating.
Okay, the first year we startedat New Park Mall, then the
second, the the year next wewent to mill peters, okay, um,
then the year after we were atthe great america parkway, then
we went to santa, south san jose.
(31:15):
Um, then, uh, we came back toicc and then we brought it back
into new park mall and, uh, thisyear again it's.
It's a two-day event inSeptember which is going to be
held at the New Park Mall,towards the AMC side, so we take
the entire parking lot there.
(31:35):
There are at least hundreds ofbooths where not just the
cultural part, see, it's aboutthe entertainment, it's about
bringing the kids, the secondgeneration, second or the third
generation kids, bringing themcloser to the culture which the
(31:56):
parents or the grandparentswould so want.
So we try to bridge that gapfor them and they're happy
because their culturalperformances, their kids getting
involved, uh, there aredifferent.
Uh, 1500 plus participants,correct, right and wow that's
all packed in it's uh power packperformances.
(32:17):
Energy is super, super high.
Uh, you know the teams,especially seba.
Seba has a close bond with thisparticular event because she
comes from maharashtra, mumbai,where this is the most.
It's celebrated at the grandestlevel.
(32:38):
Okay, you could even imagine,yeah, and seba puts in endless
hours of work, uh, trying tomake it happen and so this
particular, this particularevent is something that you guys
started, yes, yes, and in thebay area.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
In the bay area, and this is something that you guys
have grown and and just justdone better and better every
year, oh, yes it keeps gettingbetter and better year on year
and different challenges anddifferent solutions to that you
know it is interesting because Ithink you can be the
(33:17):
stereotypical radio station orwhatever it is.
I could be the stereotypicalpodcast in some ways, and
there's different ways that youcan just kind of do things the
way that everybody else does it.
But I do think you have toanalyze the local community, the
audience that you're connectingwith, and you have to figure
(33:38):
out what it is that they youknow, what are the challenges or
what are the topics that arecoming up where you are.
That may not exist anywhereelse but they exist here.
And two things.
So one of my more recentepisodes that I had on the
podcast I think it was two weeksago it came out there was a
lady who's an actress and afilmmaker who wanted to um abuse
(34:04):
in the home and that sort ofthing and um and the uh, the,
the community that she's from isan Indian community, and so she
she also coming to the UnitedStates um really wanted to
create something that may beconnected with people that they
wouldn't necessarily um receivethat sort of like attention or
(34:26):
that sort of empathy, uh, youknow, in other, in other places,
but that you know if you get to, if you, if you become aware of
, like, the type of abuse that'sin our community.
Um, it's not just tied to oneparticular community, it's tied
to like, it's, you find iteverywhere, you know.
And so I think that what shedid was she found something that
(34:47):
was, um, something that she hadgone through personally, but
then she found a way tocommunicate that would, that
would span, um, the you know, abigger audience, um, across a
variety of people.
One other one that kind oftouches to what you guys have
been talking about, which I likeI don't remember what episode
it was, but I think it had tohave been over a year ago, maybe
(35:09):
a year and a half ago Iinterviewed a kid.
I see a kid right now.
He's in college.
He's probably out of collegenow, but he grew up here in
Fremont and he's asecond-generation Indian
immigrant, so his parents movedhere and then he grew up here,
um and uh.
Then he wanted to go and becomea filmmaker.
So he, I actually interviewedhim over I don't I don't
(35:31):
interview most people on zoom,um, I I like to do it in person,
since it's a Fremont basedpodcast.
If I can't get there, you knowI w I want to kind of do that
there.
But anyway he was in school atNYU in New York City, going to
school for filmmaking, and thefilm that he was doing for his
main project was on what it'slike, what it was like to grow
(35:52):
up in Fremont as a secondgeneration Indian immigrant.
So he wrote this film that healso came back to Fremont and
recorded, filmed it and producedit here.
It was called Dreamline and itwas his journey as somebody who
wasn't from an Indian family butdid not grow up in India, did
not have all the culture and allthe other things in his life
(36:16):
firsthand, had to experience itthrough the lens of his parents,
being involved in the.
No doubt I'm sure if we were totalk to him he'd probably been
to your festival or your bigevent that you've had growing up
.
But he wanted to write thismovie and produce this movie
(36:37):
about what it was like growingup as a second generation
immigrant, trying to learn andadapt to the culture of his
parents who grew up in India.
And so in some ways you guys arereally tapping into.
I mean, this is somethingthat's unique here and I'm not
saying it's not unique somewhereelse in the United States like
(36:59):
New York or wherever.
We have a lot of otherimmigrants coming together from
a particular area.
But I do think that what you doand how you analyze the local
audience here is going to bedifferent than what you might
get in another melting pot, in adifferent country or even in a
different part of the UnitedStates.
And so I think what I'm hearingfrom you guys is really great.
(37:22):
I think it's really cool to hear, because even on my street I
was telling's really cool tohear uh, because even even on my
street I was telling youearlier that most of the people
live on my street are from India.
Um matter of fact, I couldprobably remember them going to
your festival or your uh, your,your event, because they all got
dressed up and they were allheaded out and they and they
were like this is the biggestevent in the Bay area.
I had no idea what they weretalking about, um, but but they
(37:44):
must have been going to thatparticular uh event.
Um, and, and we've workedreally hard to try to, I've
worked really hard to try to getto know um them and get to know
that your culture through myinteraction with them as well um
, but these are all things thatare very, very helpful and I
think that you guys thinkingthrough all these things in the
way that you are is is reallyreally good for our area.
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Thank you.
Speaker 6 (38:10):
And that's why I think the music is important.
But talk is important too,because it's through talk that
we can have a big change.
It's through talk that we canopen dialogue and it's through
talk that we can bridge thiscultural divide and make that
gap smaller and smaller.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
So talk is really important to us.
Yeah, that's great.
What were you?
Speaker 3 (38:29):
going to say I was talking about.
You know, you were talkingabout that domestic violence
thing.
So in fact, we, a few yearsback, we found that there are a
lot of cases happening in Bayarea, especially in our
community.
So we approached a you know,nonprofit organization who was
helping these people and theycame up with an idea.
(38:50):
They started giving us storiesof different people.
So the idea was not only to getthose stories on air, but the
idea was that through thosestories we can educate people.
You know, you are not alone.
Yeah, there are people who areready to help you if you are in
that situation.
That's cool yeah, we only don'tthink commercially, we also
(39:16):
think, you know that we have aresponsibility towards that's
right.
You know people, yeah, do youknow?
Give them, you educate themwith different things.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Well, I can totally sense that you guys have.
I mean, you guys are aboutmaking sure that this is a
successful business, but I think, in some ways, I can already
feel it from you guys that thereason you want this to be such
as a big success is for thebetterment of the community.
Yes, to make the community abetter place.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
This is all the community, yes, to make the
community a better place.
It's all about community, yeah,and also try to, you know, get
an acceptance to, you know, fromdifferent parts.
So no community, nosub-community in a society be
left out.
Yeah, so we try get theminvolved in one place or another
.
What Neeraj mentioned was, likeyou know, we wanted to get that
(40:08):
word out about domesticviolence so that at least you
know people are not left alone,they have a friend in need when
they need it to be.
You know.
So, and that's what Sebo alsomentioned about voices.
I think we covered that covered.
One part of the broadcast wasdedicated to DV as well.
(40:30):
That's great, that's great.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
I love it.
Well, this is really cool.
If people wanted to know moreinformation, I guess they could
probably find you guys on socialmedia as well as website.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Radio Zendagi.
Okay, everyone you know,especially in our community,
knows us, but for other peoplewho doesn't know us, you can log
on to wwwradiosindiggycom.
And we are on social media too.
We are on Instagram.
We are on Facebook very activenow.
Not only through radio you canlisten to us, you can listen to
(41:01):
us through app also.
You can see all our podcasts onour Facebook too.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
Rick, I just wanted to add on.
I think most of us do know themeaning of Radio.
Zindagi Radio, obviously radio,but Zindagi is life Okay.
Speaker 7 (41:22):
Thank you, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
And that's why a tagline is Radio Zindagi GHR.
It's like GHR means live, liveyour life.
That's why a tagline is RadioZindagi GHR.
It's like GHR means live.
Live your life.
That's great.
So that's very important.
Like breathing is not justliving.
Ensuring that you're able to dowhat you want to, to be able to
enjoy each and every moment,that's great and that's how you
(41:45):
live.
That's great, that's great Seva.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
any parting?
No, absolutely.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 6 (41:53):
Sometimes it's just nice to hear your own thoughts
about your own product.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
I completely understand that.
I think sometimes you ask mewhat is the Fremont podcast?
Or tell me a little bit aboutit before we get started.
Fremont podcast, or tell me alittle bit about it before we
get started.
Um, you know, and I, I do say alot of the same things, but
then I find myself maybe I'vethought about it a little bit
differently, or I met somebodyand we had a conversation about
(42:18):
it, and then it just justverbalizing it allows me to be
able to express maybe adifferent facet of it that I
don't normally think about orthat I don't normally say.
So I I do think it is helpful,especially when you're on the
back end of things.
You guys are the ones behindall of this making it happen.
I think that sometimes, for I'll, I'll, I'll back up just a
(42:40):
little bit and I'll say thisI've had, I've had moments,
especially recently, where Ijust wanted to give up on the
podcast because I'm just I'mjust like I, I it's a lot of
work, it's not, it's not a, it'snot my main thing, and I think,
chasing down sponsors andtrying to find the financial
support and the just all theother support that I need, I
(43:01):
have an, I have an incredibleteam.
I have two that work with meand they schedule and they edit
and they do all that stuff.
But it's just sometimes it'sjust a lot of work and sometimes
you're like I just want to.
I'm call it quits.
It was a good run.
You know, we had over 100episodes.
But then you run into somebodyand you're like they're like I
heard your episode and this, itchanged me, it did this and this
(43:21):
and this for me, and you'rejust like, oh my goodness, like
if, if everything I did was tohelp that one person, it it
feels like it was worth doing it.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
It was worth it.
Speaker 1 (43:29):
And so I imagine with you guys, even like on various
parts, all the contributionsthat you give to make this a
reality.
I'm sure there's times whereit's just like exhausting, and
you know this is a lot of work,but I can see where you guys get
the feedback from people.
Speaker 7 (43:48):
Yeah, exactly yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
And then it just kind of spurs you on to do, to do
more and to do better.
And even having theconversation now, getting you
guys all together in the sameconversation, to be able to hear
, hear you and say, yeah, thisis why we're here, this is what
we're doing and this is whywe're doing it.
You know, I think that's reallygood, very true, yeah, that's
great.
Well, thank you all you all.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
We have a lot of listeners who feel that way.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
What's that?
Say that again.
Speaker 6 (44:11):
No, I said we have a lot of listeners who you know
exactly what you said, right, Imean you know, when they call in
like almost into every show orthey participate in our you know
different things that we do,whether it be a raffle or a
contest or just call in and tellus your views, I mean we
(44:32):
realize some of you listenerstake us so you know so seriously
they listen to us every day.
It's almost like a lifeline forthem, you know.
And then just one parting thingwas that you know music today
is available everywhere.
You can have your own uh listright like your music, yeah,
yeah but when there's a radiojob, you're listening to radio,
(44:55):
you're driving your car andthere's a song that comes up
which is not on any of your list, but it's a beautiful song,
it's something you love, maybelong ago, maybe when you were
growing up, and when you listento that song and it brings up
those memories, it transformsyou back into that space and
time.
The beauty of that is just thatnatural moment.
That nostalgia is amazing.
(45:16):
So sometimes it's nice tolisten to music that is curated
by someone else, because itmight have a little meaning in
there for you.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
I like that.
I like that.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
Yeah, and to end, you know, I will tell you one good
story.
I want to hear it yeah so youknow, a few years back we got a
call and a lady she used to callin every show and we were doing
I don't remember exactly whatwas the show about, but she
started sharing her you knowlife story.
(45:48):
She said I was about to end mylife, I was so frustrated, I was
alone, and suddenly I startlistening to the radio Zindagi
and the way the RJs responded tome.
I thought I got a family in Bayarea and she used to call in
every show and every RJ used to,you know, talk to her and you
(46:10):
know give her some advice or youknow she used to, you know talk
about.
You know what she's thinkingtoday and because of that, and
she used to demand a lot ofsongs, you know what she wants
to listen.
And she said my life changedand I you know that this because
(46:30):
of Radio Zendiky.
I'm alive now.
That's great, I mean, even ifwe can contribute to one life.
I think we are done.
That's great.
I love it.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
And it's truly worth it.
Speaker 3 (46:42):
Yeah it's truly worth it.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Well, thank you guys.
Thank you all for being a partof this podcast.
I'm excited to be able to sharethis episode with our community
and, yeah, thanks for takingthe time to be here with me.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
Thank you, Rick, for all the one and good luck for
best wishes for all thewonderful work that you've been
doing.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (47:02):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
I would love that.
It would be my honor to do that.
So yeah, whenever you havesomething open or when you have
an idea, let me know, and I'dlove to try to make that happen.
Speaker 3 (47:16):
Thank you, Ricky, yeah thank you.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Thank you Thank you.
Speaker 4 (47:20):
This episode was hosted and produced by Ricky B.
I'm Gary Williams, schedulingand pre-interviews by Sarah S.
Be sure to subscribe whereverit is that you listen so you
don't miss an episode.
You can find everything we makethe podcast and all of our
social media links atthefremontpodcastcom.
Join us next week on theFremont Podcast.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
I just wanted to give up on the podcast because I'm
just like it's a lot of work.
To give up on the podcastbecause I'm just like it's a lot
of work, it's not my main thingand I think chasing down
sponsors and trying to find thefinancial support.
Speaker 5 (47:58):
Please consider donating $1 a month on a
reoccurring basis to help thispodcast that you enjoy.
Buymeacoffeecom.
Slash TheFremontPodcast slashmembership.
Speaker 7 (48:12):
This is a Muggins Media Podcast.
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