Radio Mango takes the listeners back to 1983

On February 18, listeners of the radio station relived the excitement of the red-letter day in India's cricketing history.

Ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, Radio Mango celebrated February 18 as a tribute to India's 1983 World Cup triumph, when India brought home the Cup. On that day, listeners of the radio station were transported back to June 25, 1983.

Talking about the initiative, Ravi Nair, director, programming, says, "Everything on air reflected that historic Saturday. Right from the day's news, weather updates, stock prices, traffic updates, gold prices, commodity prices, petrol prices -- at each location in Kochi, Trissur, Kozhikode and Kannur, everything had a touch of that day in 1983. We even played some hit numbers of that time. We re-created the sense of anticipation, as we approached 16.30 hrs (Indian Standard Time), the start of the India-West Indies Final."

Radio Mango's aim was to target the younger audience, which had not experienced the excitement of the 1983 World Cup.

Speaking about cooperation from the radio station's advertisers, Nair says, "We never thought that we would end up getting such a positive response even from our clients, as this was designed solely from the programming point of view, just to go back to the past."

Though the advertisements were contemporary, the radio station played movie trailers of Malayalam movies running during that time, as well as a promo of the Hindi film Mahaan, featuring Ashok Kumar, Waheeda Rehman, Amitabh Bachchan and Zeenat Aman.

Ex-mayors, ex-commissioners and ex-collectors were on air, speaking as if they still held those positions, wishing the Indian team good luck for the 1983 World Cup Final.

At 4:30 pm, the station started giving out regular updates from the television in the studio, revisiting the historic match, so that a new generation of listeners was able to feel the excitement of India's World Cup victory.

It is to be noted that very few homes in India had television in 1983, and over 90 per cent of the population had to depend on the radio. "This was one of the reasons behind this plan," explains Nair.