Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (NR)
 
Mangalore, Mar 2: It can't get any better. Now youngsters and other city folk will have their own forum to put forth requests for songs, musicals, jingles, commentaries and what have you, all on their favourite radio channels. Welcome to the city, a first of its kind, the city's very own 'Radio Listener's Club' which was inaugurated according to schedule on March 1 at the SDM Law College, here on Saturday March 1. 
 
The club has been started with the aim to giving a voice to the radio listeners  hereby fulfilling the dreams of listeners and artists alike and filling in the void created by the launch of a string of FM radio's in the city. The founder president of the club U Rama Rao in his welcome speech rocked the audience packed with radio buffs and declared that the forum would function as a 'soul' of radio in the city. 

Holding forth on the board parameters of the forum, he informed that the club would regularly submit feedback garnered from listeners on quality programmes. En-numerating on the social objectives of the club he said "the club will collect clothes for old age home, set up radio parks and organize meaningful events."  With regard to his inspiration for starting this club, he said that it was father-in-law Bailoor Vasudev Rao, passed on his passion for radio to him. Practising what he preached Rao even gifted transistors to visually impaired singer Kasturi Kamath and talented SSLC student Archana.
 
Speaking on the occasion well-known writer and critic Amruth Someshwar said "listening is an art and something which is inherent within Indian culture." Listening, according to him could be gaining knowledge through one of the senses and also understood as persistent questioning and he felt both aspect of listening incorporated in this forum. Admitting that he was not an regular full-fledged listener, he pointed out that radio unlike television was "intimate, a friend, philosopher and a guide."
 
Moreover he said that while radio still functioned within its limitations, the television appeared in different identities bordering on decent to sometimes indecent. Someshwar rued that the forum should have been launched many years back, and wished it now to function as a regulator giving voice to faceless listeners and being instrumental in broadcast of meaningful programmes.
 
Also present on the occasion were radio enthusiast Shuba Jayaram Bhat, retired lecturer Ramesh Kedilaya, Vasanth Kumar Perla from Mangalore Akashvani and Club secretary Savithri Rama Rao (spouse of founder Rama Rao).