Media Radio News
BBC has increased its radio presence with two more of its programmes going on air on Radio One from last week. The two weekly programmes – ‘BBC Take One’, a film preview programme, and ‘BBC Fun and Games’, a 15-minute sports magazine programme – will be aired on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.
In keeping with its aim of ‘consumer empowerment’, Kolkata-based FM station Friends 91.9 FM has come up with an innovative concept wherein listeners can host their own show from home.
TRAI has released a consultation paper on ‘Issues relating to third phase of private FM radio broadcasting’. Among other issues, the paper deals with whether to allow news and current affairs programme on FM radio.
Radio One Chennai is turning one on January 10. In order to celebrate the first anniversary, the station has lined up some interesting and entertaining activities for its listeners. The first anniversary celebrations will conclude in early February with an on-ground event titled ‘Radio One Nite’.
Adlabs-owned Big FM has announced the first radio launch of 2008 in Jodhpur. This is the 42nd station of the Reliance ADAG-controlled station.
Three new radio stations have gone on-air during the last week of 2007. While Hello FM and Big FM announced the launch of their stations in Puducherry, S FM launched its station in Vijayawada.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has postponed the FM radio auctions for the fourth time in a row. The Ministry has now intimated January 14 and January 24, 2008 as the new dates for auction instead of December 29, 2007 and January 10, 2008, which were the earlier dates.
Meow 104.8 FM has developed new ways to reach out to its listeners. It has tied up with Icomm Central to develop mebeingmyself.com, an online shopping website targeted solely at women. Additionally, the radio station, which currently has its presence in Delhi and Kolkata, has designed an on-ground live studio, and has christened it ‘Hum Tum’. The two properties were launched in the Capital on December 28.
The FICCI Radio Forum has stressed on the need to release additional frequencies in all markets and allow broadcasters to operate multiple frequencies in the city. The Forum has chalked out 6-7 issues that need attention from the Government for the betterment of the radio medium and has also given some suggestions for resolving them.
Much like it has done in the TV space with Future TV, Future Media is now all set to have a presence in the radio medium as well with Future Radio. It is learnt that Future Media has floated certain models where it has invited radio players to bid, subsequent to which, it would decide on the format of Future Radio.
Mathrubhumi Group’s Club FM and Bhaskar Group’s My FM announced the launch of their stations in Thrissur and Jodhpur, respectively, over the last week. While this is the first radio station for Club FM, it is the 14th launch for My FM.
Taking stock of the FM radio scene in the country, the FICCI Radio Forum has noted that lack of diversity in content in FM channels is leading to disenchantment among listeners. In a memorandum to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the Forum has pointed out that while the radio industry has witnessed rapid growth, there has not been significant growth in listenership numbers.
Five FM radio stations were launched in the week just gone by. While Sun TV’s S FM started its stations in Indore and Kozhikode, Big FM was launched in Jamshedpur. Radio Mirchi and Radio Mango also went on air last week in Vijayawada and Thrissur, respectively.
S Keerthivasan, Business Head, HT Music & Entertainment, who has been instrumental in the launch of Fever 104 FM, firmly believes that everybody seems to be talking from the advertisers’ point of view, whereas FM radio has to look at making people comfortable with a particular station. He argues that because of this reason big retailers are still not coming to advertise on radio.
Reliance ADAG-owned Big FM began operations in Mangalore, while Sun TV’s S FM started its Pondicherry station through its subsidiary Kal Radio. With these launches, S FM and Big FM have 14 and 39 operational stations across the country, respectively.
Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM is sporting a contemporary new avatar with a brand new jingle that has been specially composed by music director duo Vishal-Shekhar. The new jingle includes an unmistakable whistle that will figure in the station’s packaging. The radio player’s Mumbai station was the first to get this new identity on November 26, while the Delhi station adopted the new avatar from December 5.
Till recently, people never took radio as a medium of communication seriously. Print and electronic mediums have always dominated the scene. But the scenario is changing and people are now waking up to the importance of radio. The medium has unparalleled reach and its complete potential is still to be tapped. The radio industry is on the rise, and things are looking bright for the industry.
Even though Radio Mirchi still maintains that RAM is “83 per cent inaccurate”, the station is in talks with TAM Media Research to look at the data closely with the intention to subscribing to it. Radio Mirchi has stated that a decision on whether they would subscribe to RAM or not would be taken in a couple of weeks.
Last week, Kerala woke up to its first private FM radio station with Radio Mango launching in Kozhikode. This was the only station to begin its operations in the previous week across the country.
RJ Vasanthi, who hosts ‘Breakfast Show’ on Radio City’s Bangalore station, has been chosen to represent India at the Salzburg Global Seminar Young Leader’s Summit in Schloss Leopoldskron, Austria. Vasanthi was nominated by Narayan Murthy, Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies Ltd.
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