ITV

Tag: Nischint Chawla

  • Alok Verma to head TV Today spl. projects

    Alok Verma to head TV Today spl. projects

    NEW DELHI: Changes are taking place in TV Today Network-run television channels as it looks at expanding its current level of business activities.

    One of the two executive producers in Aaj Tak channel, Alok Verma, has been shifted out of his present assignment last week only.

    Former Navbharat Times editor, Ram Kripal Singh, who joined over a fortnight ago, is now overlooking Verma’s responsibilities.

    Confirming the changes in the organisation, Aaj Tak news director QW Naqvi told indiantelevision.com, “Ram Kripal Singh is in charge of assignments, while Alok Verma has been made the head of special projects.”

    Naqvi, however, refused to give any details about the special project(s), which Verma would be heading as an executive producer.

    Aaj Tak, the country’s No. 1 news channel till now, is also in search of an executive producer (output), a post that had fallen vacant after Shazi Zaman quit the post to join Star News about a month back. It is not yet certain
    whether an internal candidate would be promoted to EP’s post, or somebody from outside would be brought in for this senior position.

    Verma, who has been made head of special projects, cut his teeth in journalism in the print medium like Ram Kripal Singh. He has worked in the past in the Lokmat group, Zee News and Star India in senior positions.

    Meanwhile, search is also on in TV Today Network, whose scrip was quoting at Rs. 90.90 on the Bombay Stock Exchange today at 1300 hours, for a person to head the company’s fledgling radio venture, Radio Today.

    Radio Today’s head, Nischint Chawla, quit last week and was also relieved on Friday by the company to pursue other assignments, which now turns out to be a stint with Rediff.com as the head of its US operations.

    Though India Today Group’s chief financial officer, Anil Mehra, has been entrusted to oversee the radio business, at present carried out under the Red FM brand name, company sources said this was an interim measure.

    “We are in the look out for a person to head Radio Today, but this may take some time as we do not want to hurry things through,” a company source said.

    Amongst his other assignments, Chawla has worked with the Rupert Murdoch-controlled Star and a KK Modi group company, Modi Entertainment Network.

  • Private FM players racing to launch in Mumbai by April-end

    Private FM players racing to launch in Mumbai by April-end

    Get set for the war of the FM airwaves in Mumbai. 

    As the deadline of 29 April draws near, all the players in the FM fray are scrambling to launch the city’s first private radio stations. Radio Today (from the Living Media group), Radio Mirchi (offspring of the Times of India Group) and Radio Mid Day (from the Mumbai eveninger’s stable) all expect to be up and beaming on or around that date.

    Radio Today, headed by G Krishnan (also CEO of top Hindi television news channel Aaj Tak) will take off by 29 April, official sources say. Nischint Chawla, till recently CEO of Radio Mid Day, is the COO. 

    Radio Mirchi, which has already spiced up the airwaves in Indore and Ahmedabad, is racing against time for a simultaneous launch in Mumbai and Pune by 1 May, says AP Parigi, managing director Entertainment Network, the Times Group company behind Radio Mirchi. Queried as to where the FM station had located its transmission tower, Parigi mentioned two sites – one at Sterling Buildings in Tardeo in central Mumbai and another in suburban Malad. 

    According to the information available, the first to get off the blocks in Mumbai may well be Radio Mid Day – likely to launch between 23 and 25 April.

    RADIO CITY HITS A ROADBLOCK:
    Radio City, the ambitious FM project from the Star stable, however, has come up against an unexpected hurdle. The company has still to get its tower and transmitter site clearance from the government. Music Broadcast Private Limited (MBPL), the company promoting Radio City, already has space earmarked for the radio tower atop the Shripati building at Nana Chowk, central Mumbai, but in the absence of government all clear, is caught in a bind. Says Sumantra Dutta, head of Star’s FM operations: “We are very keen to launch but only if the government gives us clearance on the tower and the transmitter site. We, after all, launched India’s first private FM station (in Bangalore on 3 July 2001) and were the first to demonstrate the true potential of FM in India.”

    Till date, FM operations have taken off in four centres – Radio City in Bangalore and Lucknow and Radio Mirchi in Indore and Ahmedabad. 

    Mumbai will, however, witness the first real case where multiple players will be fighting it out for the listener’s ear. Apart from Radio Mirchi, Radio Today, Radio Mid Day and Radio City, there is also Millennium Broadcast. It is not clear at this stage how far it has gone with its launch plans but it needs noting that Millennium Broadcast has experience behind it. It has already tasted a measure of FM success in Sri Lanka.

    In the metro cities of Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata, private players have some more time to start operations (August 29, 2002) and unlike in Mumbai they will be using All India Radio towers for broadcast. In Mumbai, where neither DD nor AIR have towers, private players have been exempted from the condition of co-location for a period of two years and have been allowed to make interim individual arrangements. Operators in Mumbai have till 29 February to start broadcast operations. After that, they will be required to start paying license fees, whether services start or not. 

    One thing that the Private FM players will not be allowed to do, which will certainly restrict growth prospects, is broadcast news and current affairs programmes.

  • Private FM players racing to launch in Mumbai by April-end

    Private FM players racing to launch in Mumbai by April-end

    Get set for the war of the FM airwaves in Mumbai.

     

    As the deadline of 29 April draws near, all the players in the FM fray are scrambling to launch the city’s first private radio stations. Radio Today (from the Living Media group), Radio Mirchi (offspring of the Times of India Group) and Radio Mid Day (from the Mumbai eveninger’s stable) all expect to be up and beaming on or around that date.

     

    Radio Today, headed by G Krishnan (also CEO of top Hindi television news channel Aaj Tak) will take off by 29 April, official sources say. Nischint Chawla, till recently CEO of Radio Mid Day, is the COO.

     

    Radio Mirchi, which has already spiced up the airwaves in Indore and Ahmedabad, is racing against time for a simultaneous launch in Mumbai and Pune by 1 May, says AP Parigi, managing director Entertainment Network, the Times Group company behind Radio Mirchi. Queried as to where the FM station had located its transmission tower, Parigi mentioned two sites – one at Sterling Buildings in Tardeo in central Mumbai and another in suburban Malad.

     

    According to the information available, the first to get off the blocks in Mumbai may well be Radio Mid Day – likely to launch between 23 and 25 April.

     

    RADIO CITY HITS A ROADBLOCK: Radio City, the ambitious FM project from the Star stable, however, has come up against an unexpected hurdle. The company has still to get its tower and transmitter site clearance from the government. Music Broadcast Private Limited (MBPL), the company promoting Radio City, already has space earmarked for the radio tower atop the Shripati building at Nana Chowk, central Mumbai, but in the absence of government all clear, is caught in a bind. Says Sumantra Dutta, head of Star’s FM operations: “We are very keen to launch but only if the government gives us clearance on the tower and the transmitter site. We, after all, launched India’s first private FM station (in Bangalore on 3 July 2001) and were the first to demonstrate the true potential of FM in India.”

     

    Till date, FM operations have taken off in four centres – Radio City in Bangalore and Lucknow and Radio Mirchi in Indore and Ahmedabad.

     

    Mumbai will, however, witness the first real case where multiple players will be fighting it out for the listener’s ear. Apart from Radio Mirchi, Radio Today, Radio Mid Day and Radio City, there is also Millennium Broadcast. It is not clear at this stage how far it has gone with its laun