Wake up with Jaggu and Tarana - Radio Show Review

Desi Rating: 4/5


If you live in Northern Emirates such as Sharjah, Ajman up to Ras Al Khaimah and travel to Dubai or Abu Dhabi for work then morning shows must be essential part of your daily routine. There are few Desi channels available and all have morning shows to make most of their business from the market that is people stuck in traffic and in return make seemingly cumbersome journey a bit pleasant.

My most favorite show is Wake Up with Jaggu and Tarana on station Josh 97.8. The show host Jaggu and Tarana have ruled Mumbai radio scene through morning show for 7 years almost. The show was quite popular, even Bollywood stars still remember them. Josh radio is a new station started only in 2012 and after many failed tries at morning shows decided to bring the tried and tested duo of Jaggu and Tarana to rock the morning of UAE.

The best thing about them is the chemistry and the history together. Chemistry makes the show fun and history adds substance to the show. Jaggu is like mad scientist with all his theories and Tarana is like the critic that gets basically annoyed by any thing jaggu has to say.They both sound like a married couple which they are not. Jaggu is married and Tarana is single. Other people who are regularly mentioned on the show are Jaggu’s wife Khurana and Tarana’s Mom; their numerous mentions make one feel as if they are also part of the show and should get paid for every mention.

This Show offers perfect balance of silly and serious stuff, something which is seriously missing in UAE desi radio world. From 6 to 10 apart from contests/games we get interesting news from around the world and Jaggu/Tarana’s reviews, financial market wrap including Indo-Pak Stock exchange-Dollar / Dirham rate vs. local currency etc, speaker’s corner is a segment where people call and record opinions on topics put forward by Jaggu/Tarana, humans of UAE- fairly new segment where one random person gets to tell his/her story for a minute, obscure world days are celebrated such accountants day, nurse day, (I am not sure from where they get these days from) etc.

There are 3 contests/games starting in first hour with School Run where you get to answer a 5^th standard question through sms and the selected answer gets a call back. There is no prize with School Run what you get is only appreciation (it is hilarious when a caller asks what do I win and Jaggu/Tarana reply with some random appreciation banter)

Second game is “Ao Guess Kerain (let’s Guess)” and is usually a question based on celebs birthday or the world days being celebrated. Here the sms and call back format is same and winner walks aways with open cinema ticket for 2.

Third and my most favorite game is speedy singh, where there is a weekly winner and the prize money is 500 dirham. Speedy singh I believe the name is inspired by Milkha singh. Here basically participant who is randomly selected based on sms has to guess as many songs in a minute by just listening to the intro of the song. The whole setup game and player reactions are super hilarious at times.

If you are lucky enough you get one of those days where the mic is left on during the song and you can enjoy candid Jaggu and Tarana (even more fun). Last time it happened we heard a very angry Tarana wiling to slap Jaggu for giving bad investment advice.

The only draw back, if I have to list one, is the play list, their song selection is very poor and some time makes you change station to get some better music, but this doesn’t mean that their whole playlist is horrible, there are some kool aspects as well e.g. we always get one strings (Pakistani band) song, one 90’s (mostly Indian bands) song and some random english chartbuster.

Overall a very well planned and executed show, with very up to date and entertaining content. My whole family is hooked to 97.8 only because of Jaggu/Tarana.

Let me know what you think about this review also if you want me to review some other radio show.