Internship at 92.7 BIG FM (Reliance Broadcast Network) – Debjani from St.Xavier’s College,Ranchi

There is no one giant step that does it, it’s a lot of little steps. Debjani is pursuing Mass Communication and shares her wonderful experience of internship days.

If I had the chance to speak to my eight year old stammering self today, I would definitely tell myself this one little secret. That I, of all the things in the world , would be lending my voice to the radio one day.

Hi, I am Debjani Chakraborty, a student of Mass Communication with fierce choice and a part time journalist with Morning India, an English Daily published from Ranchi. In the first summer of my college life, with two virtual internships on my résumé; I was hell bent on finding myself some great industry experience. Being a media student at a college where most professors are either active or members of the media; it is always easier to establish contacts if you have the talent.

So, after fidgeting through half a dozen options in late May, I zeroed in on BIG 92.7 FM, an unit of Reliance Broadcast Network, as my perfect internship destination. I mailed them my résumé and waited patiently for their reply; which was to my surprise, a pretty quick one. So this rainy morning of 7th June, 2015 I walked into the office of Big Fm and was interviewed by Mr. Omar Shahdab Hashmi;Cluster programming head of Bihar and Jharkhand. A few minutes into the conversation; and I remember feeling that I would be accepted as an intern there somewhere at the bottom of my heart. A week later, they called me back confirming my selection and I joined the office the following day.

I remember entering the office all jittery and sweaty palmed and walking over to a geeky looking guy (who eventually turned out to be Vishal Pathak, the head intern) explaining things to a pretty chubby cheeked girl. For the first three days, we were taught the ins and outs of how the things worked at the FM office. Back then,shows for both the Ranchi and Jamshedpur stations were scheduled from our office and in less than a week, the three of us interns, Vishal Bhaiyya, Neha (the chubby cheeked one) and of course me, were learning the intricacies of radio scheduling at an incredibly obscure speed. And to be honest, I was loving it.

I remember waiting every evening for the clock to strike five, because it was the time Gaurav sir would enter the studio and settle down to record his show for the evening. I and Neha would sit there wide eyed, amazed at how the man behind the famous voice of RJ Gaurav works in real life. He was an exceptional teacher in all aspects, with the superpower of extreme patience; enduring all our queries. To be honest, it was like living through a fairy tale; and handling the console in the off air studio in our free time was the best feeling in the world.

I remember running late one morning, the traffic in Ranchi being obscurely daunting that day and when I finally managed to reach the office, I was swiftly whisked off to the recording studio by Abhishek sir, the sound engineer at BIG FM Ranchi. At six feet two inches, Abhishek sir stood tall and bold, but his humble persona stood in dark contrast with his overbearing looks. A quick whisper from Neha was enough to sum up the fact that we, the interns, were finally being tested for their voice quality.

The scene remains the prodigal one; not to mention the drama. I lifted up the piece, an Advertisement written for some local power pump brand and gave it a go. All Abhishek sir did was to rerecord the stuff once again, and some twenty crazy minutes later, the edit was done. An hour later, the Ad got approved and suddenly everyone around was super excited. I gaped in awe as Abhishek Sur animatedly sang praises of my voice and how Gaurav sir pulled my leg about trying to have a dig at his position. And that rainy day became a day I would tell tales of to my grandchildren; the day my first radio ad went on-air.

Routine at the office became all the more hectic after that and the trips to the studio all the more frequent. Two new members joined the team that week, Anand Karmakar, the Music Producer for Jamshedpur station and RJ Jay, who came down from Allahabad to join the Ranchi studio. They had an induction training on all the basics and then the advance operations from Omar Sir, and I was lucky enough to be there all the time thanking my stars. It was like getting the best out of those few days, and every morning I couldn’t just wait to get back to the office.

Bhojpuri is one language I hardly use; though it is commonly spoken in these parts of Jharkhand. There was this voting awareness campaign we had to record in Hindi, English and Bhojpuri and I remember Jay sir spending two long hours translating the script into Bhojpuri. And guess what? I was pulled in again, this time to record in Bhojpuri. The scene in the studio was an absolute riot; as neither me nor Neha could stop giggling like eight year old school girls. To add to it, Jay sir took it on himself to get the recording done, and he was a hearty man himself. Shananda mam, who goes on air by the name RJ Shanvi was roped in too; and by the time we finished recording and mixing the whole thing, it was late into the afternoon and we even skipped our lunches. But the effort was a reasonable one, and all through the next week each time we heard the ad played on air in the office, nobody could stop grinning.

When the forty odd days came to an end, it was terrifyingly heartbreaking for me to bid the goodbyes. It had become more of a second home to me. To all the students and seniors who spoke of the strict corporate attitude in such internships at big media houses; I feel glad that I got the opportunity to work with people with hearts of gold. As a young student, the only thing I possessed was the zeal to learn something new. And as Omar sir always said,”Learn something new everyday. Life is too short to be stuck in a routine.” I am proud that I did my best to learn something fresh everyday.

Two months later, I still feel at ease to walk into the office at an hour’s notice any given day and every one is polite and all smiles. The internship at BIG FM has taught me that like knowledge, the quest for knowledge is also treated with respect. The journey has been a fragment of what I plan to travel, but it was a chapter that had many firsts of my life and no fancy words can describe the euphoria that the internship at BIG FM brought to my life.

If Debjani’s experience motivates you, you can check the latest internships in Ranchi.

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