Radio is Back!
I first came across the WorldSpace Radio in Prasads Multiplex Theatre and felt very happy to atlast see 'cd quality radio' at the disposal of the hyderabadis. The initial cost of Rs.5,500 and rather high Rs.1200 per month prompted me to take some time before deciding to go with it. After sometime, I revisited the shop at Prasads with the intention of giving it a go for atleast one year, but another surprise was waiting for me: one year subscription would now cost Rs.1800. That's equal to my cable tv rent. I was assured that the fee would not be increased again for around another 5 years and that was some consolation for me. But i decided to wait for the festival season and see if they come up with some nice offers: they came with one and that sealed the deal for me. The BPL Diva Reciever(Radio Device) + 3 month subscription to around 35 channels for less that Rs.2000. I decided to buy the reciever, try it for 3 months and then decide whether its for me or not and then either renew the subscription or not based upon the experience. I went to the shop that very day and bought the package.
I was warned that because of the festival season, they got lots of orders and hence they can do the installation only after 10 days. I was also told that the manual installation is not that hard. The manager then went on to say that it would take 3-4 days for the installation and one week at max. He suggested me not to try the installation manually. So much for their own confusion. I was asked to register the device with customer support office, get the password and unlock the signal(all but 5 free-to-air channels are encrypted). That dampened my spirits because i can't listen to the radio(yes, i decided to install it manually) until the next day as it was already beyond 8:00pm, the closing time for their customer support office. Called the customer support next day, gave them the details, got the password, entered it and started trying to recieve the signals.
I was told that the antenna should have clear Line-of-Sight to the sky, and trees, glasses etc are not a problem. What manual says is, curtains, glasses, plastic etc are no problem but walls and trees are. So much for the knowledge of the sales people. I got in a fix now: i have my house covered with either trees or other houses. Still tried to direct the patch antenna that comes with the device towards a small patch of sky partially visible under the sky and voila! got the signal after the annoying 'TDM GONE'(means no antenna/signal) for all morning. But it kept diconnecting and only some(Carrier 80) channels were coming. I tried it again in the evening and the signal was slightly better but only channels from Carrier 80 were coming - none of the channels from Carrier 75 were coming. Tried the next day and the 'TDM GONE' signal was all i saw for the whole day. Got a call from customer support saying that the installtion would be done on monday or tuesday - that's only 4 days from the buying date! so gave up on trying it myself and started waiting for the technician. Contacted the customer support again on thursday to be promptly told that it will take more than 10 days because of 'festive season' and started to give all kind of statistics as to the number of orders and available personnel to handle them - wonder what statistics they used when they last called me. I decided to go with external Yagi antenna and extension cable for an additional cost of Rs.1000.
Spent another thousand bucks and bought the antenna and cable and installed the antenna on the roof. That was it. Got a very good signal strength(4 bars compared to 1 flickering bar earlier) and the music play was uninterrupted. The quality was better than what i had expected. And i was able to recieve all the channels: from both the Carrier 75 and Carrier 80. Finally, was able to tune in to Jhankaar and Farishta - channels for hindi film music.
In the end, i am pleased with the quality of the music and the kind of music that is played and as a bonus it also has some news channels like NDTV(English and Hindi) and CNN (BBC needs Gold Subscription - Rs.250 per month). Those who like English music would like it more as no radio in india plays that kind of music for 24 hrs a day; and there are like 10+ channels covering various genres(jazz, pop, country, blues, rock n roll etc).
Unlike FM, there are no advertisements(except NDTV). Anyhow the FM in Hyderabad is not something to talk and rave about. But the management and customer support leaves much to be desired. It works like any Indian government organisation - different departments are not well co-ordinated with each other and you don't get proper responses to your queries. The website is decent(
http://worldspaceasia.com/) but the forums are empty with just 9 members. There was another forum(
http://worldspace.in/web/forums) which had good traffic with lots of users but that has been closed or moved. There is also a group at Yahoo! Groups:
http://groups.yahoo.com/groups/worldspace-radio/ which has good activity.
So in summary, those who like only hindi film music may not like to pay such a hefty subscription fee for just 2 channels, especially if you can listen to sth like Mumbai FM. I listen to only hindi film music but i still got the subscription because i love music very much. Those who like english music channels or classical music(hindustani, carnatic, devotional etc) can buy the package with their eyes closed, especially during the offer period.
