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Tag: Shanta Bai

  • ‘Differentiated programming’ helps Radio City score in ORG Marg study

    ‘Differentiated programming’ helps Radio City score in ORG Marg study

    MUMBAI: Radio City has reason to feel satisfied with the latest wave of AC Nielsen ORG Marg study on radio listenership in Mumbai.

    The study, done every two months, has been putting Radio City on top of the heap since June 2003, approximately the time when the radio station started putting out what it terms ‘differentiated programming’. The first phase kicked off with eight vignette shows like Pareshan Hoon Main, Rollywood, Babbar Sher and Shanta Bai, all aimed at tickling the funny bone, all of which commenced airing on 2 June.

    In November, the channel followed up the act with the launch of 16 new shows, covering family drama, humour, action, mystery, suspense, horror and infotainment shows, besides regular broadcast of Hindi Bollywood music. These included radio adaptations of sibling Star Plus’s soaps like Saans and Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. The ploy has worked, according to Sumantra Dutta, who says the shows essentially tapped into the 28 to 30 per cent of total listenership which regularly tunes in during the forenoon and afternoon.

    Emboldened, Radio City now intends to launch shows in a new genre, details of which Dutta is loath to reveal, though he says, the station will stick to its agenda of producing new shows every quarter. While rivals have been insisting that differentiated programming may not work on FM stations, which are essentially music stations, Dutta begs to differ.

    The station has been trying its hand at broadcasting live events, beginning with the airing of the Indian Telly Awards 2003, the latest being the Grammys awards yesterday. The listener response has been tremendous, says Dutta, who is happy with the ‘slick and smart’ presentation of such awards for the first time on Indian radio.

    “Radio has made it to the media plan of most advertisers. It now needs to come to a stage where planners will use radio stations selectively, also bringing in an element of accountability.” Currently, Radio City has 220 brands in its kitty. FM radio listenership in Mumbai has shown an increasingly upward trend, with the latest study pegging it at 52,70,000, while average time spent listening to FM radio is 147 minutes.

  • Radio City to launch eight new shows next week

    MUMBAI: It could be the last desperate push before the curtains fall. Or it could prove to be the turning point private radio in the country is hoping for. The Star backed and Mittals’ MBPL promoted Radio City 91 FM today announced a clutch of eight new Hindi programming initiatives aimed at engaging the listener and wooing the advertiser.
    (Lto R) COO Sumantra Dutta, CEO John Catlett and MBPL director Ashok Khinvasara at the Radio City press briefing on Wednesday in Mumbai
    Beginning 2 June, the new shows, a mix of humour, satire and Bollywood, will be interspersed with the day’s programming, with the avowed objective of building a unique differentiator among radio stations and to pump in some high energy content, according to Star India’s radio division COO Sumantra Dutta. Needless to add, the shows also aim at making radio, thus far perceived as a music churner, into a respectable medium and to create a sense of high value at no cost.


    Shows like the weekly Pareshan Hoon Main will have a stereotypical moronic character speaking his heart out on the bothersome aspects of his life in his inimitable style, while Rollywood, a one hour show, will have spoofs on famous and hit Bollywood flicks representated through satire. The other humorous features to launch the same day include Public City (voices of the common Mumbaikar) at 8 am daily, Santa Banta Pvt Ltd (non stop jokes) at 8.30 am, Babbar Sher (verses that tickle, not necessarily edify) at 9 am and Kya Baat Kar Raha Hai (astounding facts coupled with public reactions) at 9.30 am. Also in the pipeline are Popat (a leg puller show) at 10 am every Wednesday and Shanta Bai (household tips), daily at 1 pm.
    The shows, to be rolled out in a phased manner in all four cities where Radio City operates and caters to an claimed 38 million listeners, will help create a large number of trials and offer a cost effective quality advertising opportunity for local businesses, says Dutta. A massive television, radio, press and outdoor campaign will roll out from 2 June to push the shows that will be repeated several times during the course of a day. 
    According to independent research conducted by Radio City, over 95 per cent of the radio listenership emanates at home and is not necessarily confined to the home bound housewife, says Dutta. While the Radio City inhouse team has been responsible for ideating on the new shows, all of them have been outsourced, he says. The ratio of music and non music programming however, is not likely to change much despite the new shows, says Dutta as most of them, apart from two shows, are of the vignette variety and will be interspersed with music.
    Star India’s Radio Division CEO John Catlett too, feels that the shows were a need of the times. “It was a need to create programming that we own, in between the music we play that is not our own,” he avers. While Catlett does not expect large numbers of listeners to tune in specifically for the new shows, the blocks do identify slots that advertisers can use to target specific kind of audiences.