Radio Roundup - April 2012

How days fly especially when you have a schedule to manage and you are born with lazy bones, if that’s too hard to picture then just imagine me, I am whole of it. :p  alright it’s time to come up with another post on the blog . So whole lot of happenings and prominently among them is the Shutting down of a Television Channel, yes the Indian entertainment channel. “Imagine” was launched by NDTV and later Turner Corp took it over and brought to us many of the “swamvars”, to be honest few of us use to look forward to them what if the latest one was that of Veena Malik we still were looking forward to it.

So all this while we have only heard about the Radio Channels shutting down their shops, the first of the private radio stations (back then they were more precisely only radio production houses) had to shut shops not because they had bad product or had financial trouble running it but thanks to the Supreme Court. Both Radio Midday and Times FM were asked to vacate the slots they owned on the state run FM channels and Government was asked to come up with a policy and hence came the auctioning of FM Radio Licenses. Then the stations started bleeding, Radio Mirchi shut shop in Pune, Win FM shut shop in Mumbai, Go 92.5 got ready to shut and numerous other small time players decided to give up their frequencies. Eventually only 21 out of total of auctioned 37 remained operational. This brought about a change in the licensing fee structure and with few other changes came the second round of FM License Auction. This time radio stations didn’t shut shop in fact Radio Mirchi re- launched their Pune station and by now Go FM turned into Radio One but they still didn’t stop bleeding.  In Phase 2 out of 338 auctioned only 230 got operational, though few were asked to return their licenses as they ended up successfully bidding more than 15% of the total licenses which was put up as a cap. With the third round just about nearby stations are hoping that there be some crisp guidelines on the Music royalty to be paid by the stations plus allowing stations to broadcast news and sports. Compare this state with that of TV Channels, they have no content restriction, you don’t have to go t through auctioning of the “Frequency” to start broadcasting TV programs, you have a better product with visuals, you have less operating cost per viewer and high potential income on the advertising revenue, unlimited viewership and if you want you can also have subscription fee to cover your distribution costs. And even then you shut shop! Wow Radio you surely rock the boat much better and in difficult waters.

Its IPL Season and like flies to the sweets, everyone is after to suck the nectar, as if there is some. Overnight Radio Jockeys are expected to become Cricket connoisseur cum soothsayers cum experts and few of them do become making me feel are they misplaced as RJs or damn cricket is in our blood and hence being “authority” on it comes so easy!. But then if it’s so common as in our blood then who is going to listen to them, for everyone including listeners have it in them. Sorry let me change IPL from being like sweets to like cleavage branding women, for whom men have to fall to. By the way happy belated world cleavage day, thanks to Poonam Pandey for letting us know. And yeah I guess I am looking forward to her picking a favorite this season from the IPL lot and the “gift” which she would send him across.

I happen to tune into radioone Mumbai breakfast show and immediately realized what’s it with stations having “distorted” mike settings, first it was prateeka @ Red FM Hyderabad and then just as I ended up preaching about that I realized my own settings were distorted on my next show and then came RJ Hrishi’s. Anyway like they say , s*** happens and I better agree to it since I wasn’t any better but dude at least Hrishi and me are veterans, Hrishi much more since his was the first voice that went on air on a privatized FM Stereo on 15^th Aug 1993 on 102.6 FM in delhi, mine was 4 years later becoming the first voice to go on air from Bangalore FM airwaves on 31^st December 1997 on 101.3 FM Metro (back then the station wasn’t even named and there were no regular shows, this being the only show it would air on an annual basis as there was a court litigation preventing us from broadcasting regularly), to be precise it was me and Anita Naidu who went on air together. Anita Naidu now happens to be the Head Programming of Radio One at Mumbai, the world seems so small! And if you still have doubts, let me tell you Hrishi and me studied together at Lucknow Army Public School, with he in the commerce section and me in sciences. Still think the world isn’t small, alright then me and Anita Naidu use to listen to the same radio show called “Heartbeat” done by Deepa Sreekumar at Radio Midday, where we also use to drool over Nikhil Chinnappa’s radio show, yeah back then he was a RJ, VJing hadn’t happen to him yet. Aah too much of trivia! time to return to present times.

Well I would call it IPL fever which has displaced Gold FM from being number 1 in Delhi, after all they don’t air IPL. So Fever FM is currently Number 1 and in my opinion should remain there until the end of IPL. Fever is now Number 1 in Delhi with 18.9 % (4^th in Mumbai, 5^th in Kolkata and 8^th in Bangalore)  of listeners in12+ Category, Gold FM is number 2 with 18.7% (number 3 in Mumbai and number 9 in Kolkata), Mirchi is number 3 with 15.7% (number 2 in Mumbai with 15%, also number 2 in Bangalore with 21.8% and number 1 in Kolkata with 23.2%) RadioCity is Number 4 with 12.4% (RC is number 1 in Mumbai with 15.4%, number 1 also in Bangalore with 25.8%), Red FM is number 5 with 12%, BigFM is number 6 with 7.8%(Number 3 in Bangalore with 18%, is number 2 in Kolkata with 17%) , Radioone is number 7 with 4.4%, OyeFM is number 8 with 4.2% , Rainbow FM is number 9 with 2.2% and Hits FM is number 10 with 1.9%. Gold FM’s show aired between 10-11AM is still the country’s number 1 show with maximum listeners tuning in, a total of 6 Lakhs 53 thousand! Massive figure.

More on Radio sometime soon, keep dropping by and enjoy my latest Hyperabad show in Enclosures :)

Look who is the new Number 1 FM Radio Station in Delhi

Radio is a very very very personal publicly available companion. A companion whom inspite of dating for the whole life without a formal legal marriage one doesn’t get threatened, or get to face the pangs of illness and thereby nurturing or get to have to take to shopping. Best is you don’t get those nasty looks from the society who think if you are not marrying the one whom you date, then you should be being shot in the public for propagating a culture devoid of moral values.

Also I am not getting into the details of the stupidity which our society displays by accusing you for those un-moralistic acts when the truth is that, its our innocent radio which probably might have been giving the winds to your oh so lovey dovey associations. Thanks to such stupidity else radio would have been dead long ago. The same radio which in India has grown from This is All India Radio, the news read by… to, AIR FM Stereo all the time in Shibani’s voice. The private stations well they started on a high except perhaps maybe Radio Midday and Times FM which technically being dead can be safely omitted for the sake of KISS(Keep it simple samjhe? )

Okay go ahead and loathe me for giving that extra respect to the set of radio stations (run by AIR) which appears to you in your imagination as the one with ragged clothes(not jeans else you would have drooled over it), dirt all over which needs a good wipe by you to figure out what is there really. And not to mention with voices which appear to you as those coming from the long dug and long covered graves , after all, the Jocks out there have to rotate themselves a good 270 degrees if not full 360 degrees to push all those buttons and levers and kick the butts of the analogue machines which include even the spool tape machines, all this, while they are happily chatting to glory with you. Mind you this is the real reason of why sometimes they appear to be sounding as if they are dying or rising from the death.

Okay so that’s not why I decided to write this today, I mean those reasons stick to being truth like that mole sticks to your skin, lifelong and even beyond and therefore even now, the real reason, the reason of now, has been the RAM rumblings of late. Aha let me enjoy the tease, yes I better after all that’s what one should do when you are the winner and had been called under dogs for ages.

I mean not long ago Mirchi came out with campaign of how everyone believes and understands that radio means them, and no one else, so you be at whatever position it doesn’t matter, and this was to counter the then rising threat from Fever FM. And this came out from the radio station which not only had the first mover advantage (as a Private player) but also remained an undisputed and unchallenged Number one for then 6 years and now for almost almost 8 years before they got displaced. Yes Mirchi this year got displaced by Fever FM in the Week 9 (ending 5th March 2011) which became the New Number One in Delhi.

Everyone said it had to have happened, notwithstanding Naved’s relentless raising the bar performance with the Drive down show called Sunset Samosa, unfortunately no statistics can capture his performance and so truly RAM could never do that. But since I am writing this article based on RAM ratings, I should stay away from critiquing RAM atleast in this very post :D.

Fever came with a calculated game plan , a plan atleast 4 years late. They had a worldwide reputation (Virgin Radio had) of rising to Number 1 in flat 90 days but here it took them years, but man they did it and was it not so obvious that they would? They worked hard towards their plan and finally got to Number 1. I personally don’t like their dual jock humour show (is it breakfast show or still a noon show? ) the reason being they too shamelessly copied (which I am told these days is the number 1 skill needed to be successful) our Hasto Ke Ghar Baste kind of humour but that aside they kept their focus on listeners and did it publicly and over a period of time. Their commitment was all out for everyone to see and I am glad it paid off. But then that’s not what I am trying to write this article for, so lets get on to what I want to write here.

What no one knew and anticipated was how the ICC World Cup will throw their plans and hard work out of the window. Hehehe O man hail the ICC World Cup, it threw Fever to Number 3 and took Mirchi to Number 2 and brought a Station at Number One which never had a plan to become Number one, never cared where it was on the charts and doesn’t even now care or appreciate that it is the Number one station of the National Capital Region and mind you NCR is not the national capital region just based on its classification by Government (for whatever reasons) but it leads the country as the city with maximum number of active listeners year after year. This city boasts of some really great Jocks and therefore its an achievement which should be toasted, cheered, displayed, flaunted and if I was at the helm of affairs at this station I would have ATLEAST got a promo made which would have subtly mocked at all the other radio stations(subtly coz okay because damn it’s a Public Broadcasting Station)

Yes FM Gold 104.6 in Delhi is the NEW NUMBER ONE station in the ALL 12+ TG Group. 2 Weeks back it jointly became Number 1 and as a gesture of being considerate, let Mirchi share that spot then and now its solo number one for the week ending 26th March 2011. Cricket fever will stay for one more week and then things should change but the fact is that at this moment a Public Broadcasting FM Station is Number one!. And in the world where we salute the rising sun(shining sun to be precise) I hail FM Gold and want to congratulate all the folks who are associated with this station and whoever ever worked or contributed to its success and achievement. I know the people at the helm of the station wouldn’t even note this achievement of the station and to them I want to tell, that by celebrating this success they will be celebrating their listeners participation, association and loyalty and so they better do else they will be failing in their commitment to the public of this nation (this is my opinion).

Mirchi and Fever I am hoping this will take you back to the drawing board and bring you back to the ground minus all the pride and perhaps false ego if there was one, and maybe maybe have you bring out some of the Natural programing in your offering.

And for all those who can’t take a new Number 1 especially the ones who were displaced and are going to say well Sports is something which they are NOT allowed to carry yet and therefore in a nation where Cricket is Religion this was bound to happen. To them I want to ask, well what do you have to say about 10-11am Slot of Gold FM which has the maximum number of listeners as per RAM? No cricket was aired between 10-11am, damn this slot has 7.33 Lakhs listeners as per last RAM Ratings and is the number one show at least for the past 3 weeks. All this when my memory fails me to recollect when in the past a show garnered more than 7 Lakh listeners in a RAM Report. So its better to just accept that there is some ‘Gold’ in FM Gold which is shining and its not just Cricket which is giving it that shine.

Cheers!

RAM Week 14, 2009

And it is Monday, time to discuss the new ratings released for the week gone by a fortnight ago. No Surprises or major movement this one week however some interesting turns do peep out and like I was mentioning the time ahead is interesting; Interesting because there is a major tussle with what listeners are going to chose among 2 of their all time favorite passions. And if you are wondering what are they well, politics and cricket they both are junoon and sometimes I wonder if we are really that passionate about them, then why don't we better them, why don't we participate, contribute. What is it about us that makes us so lazy?, when will we have a perfect Cricket team and the team of MPs. Well the good news is that of late more often I get to hear that India is just right there up, at the top on cricket and with the kind of 'Pappu' Campaign on voting I guess there is some shakeups and betterment which could be expected in the more than usual voter turnout this year.

Okay but lets come back to RAM, I do have a nasty habit of digressing as if I am the official spokesperson on every darn subject and matter (though how I wish I was ;) ) . Alright Mirchi continues to be on top and I often wonder isn't it so boring to just stay where you are? (what if it is the top where you are), especially when they say that, up at the top its so lonely and threatening. Anyway the kind of 6 years spent at the top I am sure they have gotten used to, well Private radio stations in Delhi are completing their 6 ( or 7 years ? ) and Mirchi has been on top all the way.
Fever continues to be Number 2 refusing to let Gold FM take away that position but man Gold is right there with the feet up in air only to land on that podium spot any moment. Fever is riding high thanks to Delhi Daredevils sponsorship (and as we see now Delhi Daredevils are registering wins, so it will continue to pay off well) and Gold FM is starting to get roaring, thanks to Elections getting into action time. Just for folks who love numbers, Fever registered 16.9% listenership and Gold FM registered, well 16.8% .
Radio City and Red FM are neck to neck and are yet again tied up at Number 4, and for some reason I would prefer Red over City, maybe maybe because i have old memories for Red or maybe because Jose(mumbai based jock) and Sachin and Swati, still manage to catch my attention.
Number 5 is Radio One with 6.6% listenership and is on the decline but still better than mumbai where it manages to get even lesser numbers, however Bangalore is their best bet where they last week got 13.3% and are at number 4 (and why they shouldn't, after all their PD is Anil Machado, someone with whom yours truly has spent hours at AIR studios planning radio shows and also the fact that their Programme Manager and Jock, Anjaan moving to the final round of 'worlds best job' and is off to Australia for the final round and getting good media coverage and spotlight)
Number 6 is BIG FM, nothing worthy to talk about, Number 7 is Meow and must be happy to hit that milestone of 5% this week. Like I mentioned last week none of the bottom 3 have ever managed to hit 5% and its quite an achievement for them. Playing 2 Hindi classics in an hour has hit HITS very badly as this is the first RAM ratings since they implemented that change and they are now plummeted to 2.6% where they are tied for the 8th position with Rainbow India FM. I can feel that this change at Hits is triggered by the recession and I mentioned to Sarthak the other day that we Jockeys are not any better than prostitutes where the larger part of society thinks we enjoy what we do however the truth is that its nothing less than a rape with every song that we play. Man when would we get to decide on what needs to go on air?

Man Radio Jockeys are often used as a titillation the way Movie producers use 'item numbers' to sell their awful movies and I hear every second radio listeners wants to be a Radio Jockey!! Bhagwan tum sabka bhala kare! see you next Monday :)

RAM WEEK 13, 2009

Recession has hit everywhere including radio and it has been months since most of the stations have filled their vacancies। I guess the recession has hit blogging as well because this blog was to have been written on a weekly basis and here it is now left to a mere quaterly। 2009 still has a lot left in it and with the Sensex soaring on the first bull run, the winds of recession might just die out।

Anyway the last quarter hasnt been much in terms of happening on the radio front except for whole lot of people moving out and for the first time one could say, not to greener pastures, infact the story has been sad as most of them are now left on their own without a radio job. Meow almost has revamped their RJ line up, Big lost a big chunk, Mirchi has some new voices and the list goes on. There are no salary increments in the radio industry and its a bliss to have your job intact. The last set of people who made the most just before the recession panic set in were Naved and Anant and Saurab, where Anant and Saurab, returned from BIG and Naved returned without even joining BIG ;) .

However keeping the focus of this blog to just RAM and radio programming, there have been some surprises during the last quarter. Mirchi still continues to be Number one and its a mystery, the only deserving show appears to be Sunset Samosa and Naved has really upped the ante by putting in real good 'sizzlers', if I may call them, in his show.

For once FM Gold has moved down the list and as far as I remmeber RAM has had fixed Number 1 and Number 2, however the week 12 sprung a surprise, for the first time shaking FM Gold and displacing it to the Number 3 position. Fever FM is the new number 2 and has maintained its position now for the second week running. It is going to be interesting to see how long Fever can occupy that position as with Elections round the corner Gold FM will see a surge with people wanting to know the latest political reviews and results which Gold is going to have an edge over. Fever though has already showed a drop of 4% in this week and now has 15.4% listeners listening to it as against FM Gold which currently has 14.4%; so the difference already has narrowed down. Interesting to note will be if and when the Number 1 position is shaken and by whom. My guess is, it will be Gold which could do it in near future and that could be a biased guess with me being a public broadcaster but just listen to any Gold presenter and Mirchi's Khoobsurat(Akriti I guess is her name) and you would understand where I am coming from.

Fever indeed has come a long way, In week 1 as you would recall Fever was on number 5 and was calling for suggestions from their listeners to make changes in their programming. Radio City which was Number 3 in Week1 after their programming revamp, and Red FM, which was number 4 in Week1, both are now jointly at Number 4.

Radio 1 which was Number 6 remains at the same position but due to the tie at Number 4 is cosmetically placed at Number 5. Big FM was number 7 and there is no change in its ranking. However the bottom 3 have had some shuffle. Between Week1 and now there have been major changes with Meow and Hits. Meow has increased their music air play and now airs 7 songs in an hour as against earlier of 3-4 and Hits is now playing 2 hindi classics in an hour. Its like dropping off their pants since Meow was a Talk station and with 7 songs its as good as a CHR and Hits was a niche Hits station and now they are a vanilla Hits station. This change has spiked up percentage points for Meow and Hits both, Meow is now breaking the 5% barrier which none of the bottom 3 have been able to do so far, Meow currently is at 4.5% and except for last week when it dropped, has been seeing a constant rise in percentage points. Hits is now teasingly displacing Rainbow from the Number 9 position, for this week Hits regained the number 9 position with 3.7% whereas Rainbow for the first time that I recall, has gone as low as 3%.

I have often asked this question and stated that revamp in programming the way we do currently is good to spike up your listenership but is not good to sustain that surge; for there is nothing left for your old, die hard true listeners who, once the change in programming is through, leave for other stations and they go away with a bad taste, a feeling of being cheated. There is a huge space for the 'transition' agencies who would smoothen the implementation of change in programming. City revamped and saw a spike but then is lossing its steam, Radio 1 is the biggest example where in Mumbai they use to have a die hard listenership of about 5% when they were niche (Go)and after all of the innovative changes and a decent CHR implementation they are now at 6.4 %; so is it worth to lose your listeners (P1) only to get the newer ones?, the rentention of which is going to be a new challenge and with every new entrant in the already crowded space of CHR, that pie is anyway going to be slashed further?

Isnt aa bull mujhe maar any different?

RAM - Week 1 2009

Radio is strange, it is very difficult for Program Directors to determine what kicks in for their audiences and then sell that to the advertisers. After all Radio is commercial entity no matter however we choose to defy it and say it loud that anything 'that' close to ME cant be something where number and figures and money matters, but buddy face it! the world has gone commercial aeons ago.

So there have been many different methods in the world of radio by which one gets independent figures however the one that has caught the fancy of commercial radio in India is RAM Ratings (Radio Audience Measurement) who release data every week for the week went by a fortnight ago.

There are few stations who argue against it and few who favour it depending on which side of their bread gets buttered. So there have been many stories of how stupid this whole method is but then isn't the same about the programming that each of these stations churn out in the name of being 'different'. Well if you are reading this with genuine interest than I believe you agree that the ratings are there to stay and one has to follow them to survive in the market. So niche stations don't follow it as sanctum-sanctorium and the CHR stations have no choice but to follow it for it offers a distinct differentiation in otherwise their 'run-of-the-mill' programming.

Alright I am going to present my own perspective on it starting from the first week of this year and see where we and these stations head.

Lets look first at Delhi where we have 8 private commercial stations which has 6 CHR and 2 Niche and then 2 Public FM stations one is CHR and the other has heady mix of Gold numbers and News and Sports.

For the year 2008 Mirchi remained as undisputed Number 1 followed by Gold FM. The other positions were all too volatile with the bottom 3 being almost fixed with Meow FM at Number 10, Hits FM at number 9 and Rainbow FM at Number 8.

In the year 2009 for the first week, Mirchi has remained as Number 1 followed by Gold FM. The third position is held by Radio City which has displaced Fever FM on the Number 3 position. We have a new number 4 as well in Red FM which was earlier the number 6. Fever FM has slipped 2 placed post their major campaign calling listeners to suggest changes, a clear indication that their Programming team has no clue what to do to gain market share. Remember Virgin radio which provides all programming and technical support to Fever,had in the past made their stations as Number 1s all over the world however India hasn't given them the similar treatment. Virgin in UK which is now under Times of India Management and changed their name too have lost a significant number of their listeners post the revamp there. Looks like revamp isn't the taste of the season, so advise to PDs stick to your guns and don't try to bring in change for change per se is welcome however I have rarely seen the execution of that change conducive of acceptance. And it is true for every field, all organisations bring in consultants to advise them of the changes but alas not as many to execute them. (By the way we are trying to develop that expertise at least in the radio sphere in India where we would execute changes for them).

Anyway Number 7 in Delhi is Radio One who for substantial part of 2008 had been number 3 with their Fatafat campaign, Big is Number 8 who also in the past had been number 3 now having badly lost out thanks to their aristocratic functioning where changes are pushed from the top without any thought to the local market and with their Prime time jocks having all departed. Rainbow is number 8, Hits Number 9 and Meow Number 10.

Meow is in for some change, they are trying to go niche with bilingual, having replaced their Noon Jock who use to bring out their 5th most heard hour at their station. Pity that they had to make that change, their noon listenership is bound to go down now. Hits and Rainbow are where they are, no changes in their approach or programming and are happy to be where they are.

If you have been a radio listener in Delhi or still listen to radio feel free to post in your comments on how close it matches with your perception of their ratings in terms of popularity. Remember the above ratings are overall that is all secs and all age.