The radio industry is poised to make its next big leap as radio stations gear up to implement the Phase 2 licenses. The metros have been covered and it is now the turn of the smaller cities to experience FM magic. Radio City has been a pioneer in the FM boom with the first ever FM station in India- Radio City, Bangalore set up in 2001.
Five years on Radio City CEO Apurva Purohit details the changes in this dynamic industry and all the challenges it's yet to face in an interview with Sujatha Shreedharan from Indiantelevision.com
Excerpts:
The Phase 2 bidding has seen the major networks, including Radio City, expanding their footprints to cover mini metros. What are the unique challenges one would face when it comes to setting base in a small local setting? |
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What about the language and flavor of these upcoming FM stations? |
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What about a city like Pune? |
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With the setting up of stations in mini metros, Radio City will now look at dual competition - from existing network players who are also setting up their stations as well as from single city players. How will you tackle that? |
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What about advertising revenue accruing from mini metro stations? |
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A few years ago, differentiators were perhaps easy to identify within the few radio players. With the numbers growing how does one still hold on to or reinvent that differentiator? |
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Could you explain how you plan to do so? |
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Is there a sense that this overdependence on Bollywood by all FM stations is the real cause of similarity in programming? |
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How long do you think this process of evolution will take place? |
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Do you believe that there is bound to be a clutter with the number of radio stations coming in? |
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There is a huge debate over the tools used to measure listenership and advertising on radio. What does Radio City turn to? |
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Is the industry complaining about the FDI regulation in radio which allows for only 20 per cent foreign equity? |
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Is Radio City looking at multiple licenses and what kind of stations would you be interested in? |
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Is there a worry about lack of a sizeable talent pool to choose from? |
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What does the re entry of Star mean to Radio City? It is purely an investment decision at a shareholder level. At the operational level of the company it has zero impact. And besides we have alliances with most networks as clients or media partners - DNA, Zee, Sony and Star. So there won't be any special content tie ups with Star. So operationally nothing, it's purely an investment decision. |
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Can you give a comparative understanding of how radio looks - 2006 versus 2007? |
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What about the revenue and listenership growth at Radio City in the past year? Revenue wise we have clocked a 40 per cent growth last year. As for listenership, if I were to give a Bangalore example it has grown from 1.5 million to about 2.5 million listeners which is almost 60 per cent growth. |
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Radio City has also jumped on the bandwagon to have celebrity RJs on air? We are very clear that a celebrity won't work unless it's what the programme wants or what the brand wants. Using a celebrity just for the heck of it won't work. Taking a TV star and putting him on radio is just gimmicky. We concentrate on RJs in terms of their music understanding power. Sonu Nigam speaks about Mohammed Rafi, Roop Kumar Rathod talks about ghazal maestros. In so far as the celebrity enhances the music experience on our audience, we'll entertain the concept. And this is the case for all radio stations, not just Radio City. |
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What about the music industry and the high rate of fees it charges radio stations? Somewhere we will have to understand that radio will only help drive their CD and DVD sales.The cost of purchasing music must be justified. We as a large network may deal with it but what about smaller stations. |
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Radio City recently tied up with Vibgyor Brand Services for on ground activation? What kind of details have been discussed since the launch? We are in the process of client briefings with various advertisers. We are already offering one level of on ground activity. But our clients are asking us for more than just sales promotions. They want more exciting ways of integrating our client's needs. |
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What according to you would be the next fillip for radio? The next fillip is of course the launch of stations in 91 cities. After that, the sky is the limit. How we use radio with net, outdoors, events, with new age media will also come under sharp focus. Look at radio and mobile. Radio used mobile much better than television. We receive 2-3 million text messages from one city, while television sees that number nationally. As for us, currently we are in the process of setting up our stations in Gujarat - Surat and Ahmedabad - and are in the process of employing people. |