When nervous fumbles with consoles took a 91.1 turn

RJ Anjana Anand at her studio. | (Romani Agarwal | EPS)
RJ Anjana Anand at her studio. | (Romani Agarwal | EPS)

Chennai  :

If you are an avid radio listener, you eventually fall for a faceless voice that hosts the show and get all curious to know the person. Here is one.

Hailing from a conservative Tambram family from Palakkad, Anjana Anand, a Radio Jockey at Radio City 91.1 FM, has had quite a ride to live a dream that her mother wanted to live once.

Anjana had always wanted to try new things. When her friends were busy coaching for engineering and medical entrance exams, Anjana would spend her time applying for television channels until she was called for audition by D-Tv a local channel in Coimbatore.

She got selected. “I worked with D-tv for two years as a part time job. In the beginning it was scary, but after while, I got used to it and kind of got a hang of what I was doing.”

She was pursuing BA Journalism and while in her third year, she quit her job due to work pressure. Within a few months after she completed college, she met with a serious accident. But ver soon, she bounced back, and went on to work at Edelman for two years, which was her dream job initially.

A multi tasker, her passion was dancing. “I cannot stick to one thing. So I thought it was time to quit because I was all over the place ,” she explains

During her internships in college, where she learned a bit about how things worked in radio, she actually thought it was cool to wear headphones and fumble with consoles. Eager but the thought of doing it as a career took a backseat then.

Until an old colleague of hers from D-Tv, Munna, who works as a Breakfast jockey told her about the vacancy at Radio City and she considered it her ‘destiny’s call’. Even though she felt a little disconnected from cine world, she just wanted to go ahead and give it a try.

“I start my day by reading 10 to 15 newspapers, then going through the social media for information; anything that will interest my set of audience because I have a lot of segments in my show which is more about what’s happening in the city,” explains Anjana. She finds it amazing that a one-and-half minute link can hold a lot of news content.

No room for giberrish at all! When asked about her first day in the studio she said she had ‘butterflies in her stomach’ thinking that the whole city is going to listen to her voice. She was very curious to know the response of her listeners which turned out to be really good and she was happy.

Lucky to have been given the freedom to do anything, she credits it to her mother. “During my mother’s time, media studies was not something that people would want their children to pursue. Opportunities were limited and not many knew how to go about it. She had always wanted to learn dance and be a part of the media. Times have changed and I am living her life, and perhaps my dream too.”

(Anjana hosts the 11 am to 2 pm segment in Radio City 91.1 FM )

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Vidya Krishnan / Express News Service / May 28th, 2016