Some perspectives before horses aspire to get higher and tempers flare:
Remember the early days of satellite television in India say, mid to late 80s? There was Star Plus, Sony TV and Zee TV, and a sprinkling of other channels on the air like MTV (they actually used to play music, remember?). Those were the early days and every channel was a general entertainment channel (GEC), save for MTV. There was no differentiation or specialisation yet. If one wanted news, there was DD, and BBC or CNN if your cablewallah carried it. Lifestyle was not yet even a speck in the horizon.
Fast forward to now. Television has matured in terms of genres. There are about a million (or two) GECs in every language now. News channels too have really matured in terms of sheer number count. And there is no dearth of music channels, or movie channels, or of lifestyle channels. Name it, and it's there. Does the prolific growth (in numbers) and diversification into genres and sub-genres give the viewer more choices? Definitely. But does more number equate to better programming? You decide!
FM radio is now in the same stage of development and maturity as TV was in the late 80s.
Every FM station plays bollywood (or whatever 'wood is the flavour in that particular geography). So they are all "GECs" in a sense. There are rare exceptions - I can think of Chennai Live 104.8 (as mentioned by Capt Rajesh) who play only English-language music and their jocks also talk only in English. Another one used to be Meow 104.8 (now re-christened Oye) who were a talk show station. I guess it didn't work out for them so they are now playing music like any other FM station. Film music is king in India. Other genres like various flavours of classical, non-Filmy popular songs, etc are very, very niche and don't get airplay, unless it is being pushed by a big label with money to burn. Ask yourself when was the last time a non-filmy album released in your language?
There is one reason, and only one reason, why there are a limited number of FM stations in India - the policy of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. They have limited the number of FM licenses as per category of city (the four A+ metros are 8 or 9 stations, A are typically 5-6, etc). But seeing how poorly FM stations are performing in terms of commercial success and viability, it is probably a good thing that not too many licenses were issued per city. Will the recently announced Phase III of FM radio licensing change things for the listener? Not really, IMHO, because the only concession in Phase III is allowing one broadcaster to own two channels in the same city, provided the ownership of this broadcaster is below 40% of total number of broadcasters in that city. That rules out all B, C and D cities and leaves only A and A+ cities. Will a broadcaster owning two stations in a metro start diversifying content? I don't know and only time will tell.
FM licenses clearly state that the signal will be unencrypted and free to air, so the broadcaster has to get his sustenance from commercials. So expecting ad-free broadcast on commercial FM radio in India is asking for too much. A broadcaster has to make money, too.
Is the content on Indian FM stations, especially the radio jockey talks, pure and unadulterated crap as some members like to think? Well, that's something each listener has to decide for themselves and I will refrain from raking up more muck in an already messy field.
