94.3 Radio One goes International in Mumbai and Delhi

There is a new sound on the airways as the FM station has unveiled a brand new programming format in Mumbai and Delhi, catering to an English-speaking audience

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | January 31, 2012

Radio One had conducted a yearlong survey wherein it emerged that most listeners are bored of the unintelligent content aired on radio and no longer connect to the medium. The FM station aims to bridge the gap by delivering impactful matter wrapped in friendly, breezy music. In its new avatar, Radio One will be 'Intelligent, Involving and International'.

Vineet Singh Hukmani, Managing Director, Radio One, said, “Every radio station sounds the same. Everyone's catering to the lowest common denominator, and it's about time we got formatted and got out of generic mode.”

Hukmani added, “We're looking at catering to a universe of 4.5 million English-speaking Indians who read an English newspaper like the TOI, a news channel like Times Now, are regularly on Facebook and Twitter. These are people who look for intelligent content. We will engage and involve them with rich content in the area of national and local happenings, sport, Hollywood, business, held together by great music.”

On whether the market is ready for English, Hukmani said, “There is a huge misconception about English per se in radio circles. Famous speeches like 'Freedom at midnight' or 'Tryst with destiny' by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru were made in English on radio a very long time ago. Every parent wants his child to excel in English and it is this quality that has made us so competitive in global markets. Indians today 'thrive' globally because of their comfort with English compared with the Chinese or other non-English adopting countries. So, if English or an international feel can do well in infotainment in print, TV, Internet, cinema, outdoor, then why not in radio? The medium is lagging behind on this front and we aim to correct it. English/International beckons with open arms. The listener and advertiser have already embraced it in other media and they will do so in radio too.”

On how business will get affected because of the change, Rajeev Bhandari, COO, Radio One, said, “We are more confident than ever that business will go up from our current levels for three reasons. We have already experienced this in Bangalore, Pune and Ahmedabad. Firstly, every client we have spoken to wants a differentiated product in radio so that they can target better and engage better. They already do this in print, TV, Internet but not in radio. So this is not rocket science for them. Secondly, every client in local retail wants to shun the competitive herd in his local market and wants to cater to a higher value audience. We are already showing them how not to commoditise their local retail brands and move up, not down. Thirdly, the economic environment is demanding a much better ROI and a highly targeted on-air and on--ground engagement. We are poised much more superiorly on this than any other radio station.”

Anil Machado, National Programming Head of Radio One, said of the new format, “Our new hosts reflect our values of Different, Intelligent, International and Involving. They bring a maturity to the dialogue with a listener who has a global outlook as defined above. The programming will engage this listener repeatedly across different time bands and make our special listener feel totally at home on Radio One.”

Machado informed that the second change will be three prime shows in the day that are well segmented in their offering and offer a very strong 'engagement product' to the 'show presenter (advertiser)'. Non-music content will be of the highest quality and will stand on its own as will international and friendly music.

The third change is that weekends will not be treated as secondary as is done on most radio stations. Said Machado, “We have made considerable investment in talent and programming on weekends and even weeknights to ensure the profile of audience we are engaging is satisfied right across the week with the highest quality.”

Radio One is a joint venture between Next Mediaworks and BBC Worldwide. It  operates in seven metro cities, namely, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune and Ahmedabad.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com