India’s most awarded FM network, 93.5 RED FM is known as the ‘Station for Expression’ to the common man and its famous tag line ‘Bajaate Raho!’ is already part of common parlance.
The 50-station network is now about to launch ‘Asli Rockstars’ – the latest concert as a part of its live property ‘Red LiVE’, which will bring together singers Atif Aslam and Mohit Chauhan together for the first time.
Asia Radio Today speaks with Nisha Narayanan, COO, 93.5 RED FM.
Red FM is one of the most awarded brands In India’s radio industry. Your network boasts of over 105 awards including the award for the BEST FM BRAND, BEST FM STATION, BEST RJs etc. How has Red FM become so successful?
We have consistent messaging across the network. ‘Bajate Raho’ is an attitude, a way of life which is ingrained in the DNA of RED. Be it RJ Mallishka in Mumbai or RJ Ashish & Panky in Delhi or RJ Anadi in Bhopal, they all are known for their irreverence and the ability to take up issues without getting into activist zone. This unique tonality on air makes us salient with the consumers and clients, thus making us successful.
How many stations do you have now and how many more do you plan to acquire in the next phase of licence roll outs?
Currently we are a 50 station radio network including Suryan network in South and Amar & Power in East. It’s too early to comment on future expansion.
Who thought of the slogan Bajaate Raho? How does that slogan characterize the network?
‘Bajaate Raho’ was conceptualized jointly by the creative agency and the RED FM marketing team. ‘Bajate Raho’ epitomizes the fact that as a radio station we would always take a stand on various relevant issues affecting the social fabric of the country, however in a very tongue in cheek manner.
With all those stations, you offer national presence to advertisers, but how to you keep national advertisers satisfied while satisfying the demand from listeners for local content?
Told the core remains the same of taking up issues and we have a tongue in cheek take on that. Stations pick up local content but the tonality, the treatment of presentation remains the same. This also helps us break the clutter which the advertisers take advantage of nationally.
What share of audience and advertising do you have nationally?
We do not subscribe to IRS or RAM and hence would not comment on that.
Is advertising revenue growing? Give us some insight into your company’s commercial success.
Radio has been growing a healthy 12 to 15 percent year-on-year. The momentum started with a 12 minute ad cap, after which advertisers started looking at other avenues of advertising and the blending of Radio with TV and Print became more effective. Almost simultaneously two other factors like the use of radio in Assembly and General elections, followed by a stable government and long festive period gave boost to radio advertising spends – these factors gave boost to other mediums also but radio we feel benefitted the most. Overall as a network we grew by 22 percent including south. Almost all markets saw a very good volume growth over last year, barring few in terms of volume also.
Your Red Live brand of music events is also becoming successful. How important are events to the network, and the company’s bottom line?
It epitomizes the spirit of RED which relates with the youth, humour & superhit music. Under the banner we have done many successful live concerts with an array of artists like Mika, Honey Singh, Kapil Sharma and many more. We plan to make RED LiVE even bigger and derive synergies on joint marketing initiatives for radio and the event vertical. Each concert has a separate P&L and with each one we add to the bottom line.
The next big Red Live event is Asli Rockstars in Delhi on 22 Feb. What do you have lined up for that event?
Atif Aslam and Mohit are performing together for the first time in a concert. There is great excitement within the team and the marketing campaign is going on in full swing. Promotion on media across radio promos, outdoors, television, captive media, cinema, digital including social media is going on in full swing.
How many staff do you employ across the country?
We have close to about 285 employees across India.
People, both on air and off air staff are essential to the success of any network. How do you find and recruit your staff? What do you look for when you are hiring staff, is it ability, attitude, or something else?
Since the radio industry is evolving, there is a need for trained professionals at various levels. Be it programming, production, broadcasting, marketing or jockeying there are different job profiles which has ample growth opportunities. You get to work on various assignments which require creative mind for innovative ideas. Depending on your interests, skills and personality traits you can take up the job profile of your choice. Radio programming requires individuals to be multi-tasking as they have to deal between different activities at one time. We closely work with a lot of HR consultancy firms to place our job ads. Asia Radio Today is one of them.