Radio City 91.1FM was India’s first private radio station.  Launched in Bangalore in 2001, it now operates in 20 cities and plans to expand further during Phase III of private FM licensing, which is due anytime. In addition to its terrestrial output, the station runs six online-only stations through it’s digital platform planetradiocity.com.

Asia Radio Today caught up with Rachna Kanwar, Senior Vice President & Business Head of Digital Media & New Business to find out about the company’s digital strategy.

How did you know the time was right in 2008 to ramp up your internet portal when internet usage was still pretty low in India?

PlanetRadiocity was the first web radio station in the country, replicating the format of terrestrial radio on the web. It went beyond putting up a simple playlist to RJ based shows with interactive content, just like a terrestrial station. The scenario was quite different when we launched our first Web Radio station – Radio City Fun ka Antenna – three years back. The concept of web radio was just catching on. Today, we can proudly say that we have been one of the pioneers in establishing the concept of web radio in the country. The growth of PlanetRadiocity was aptly complemented by the growth of internet in the country. With advances in the digital space, people started opening up to the concept of internet radio. With PlanetRadiocity, we made sure that we offer something special to listeners going beyond a simple playlist.

Planetradiocity is a portal that encompasses many services, including promoting your FM stations to music news, an online shop and the web stations.  Has this been more successful than just running station only websites (like some competitors)?

All-round entertainment is our endeavour at PlanetRadiocity. The multiple web radio format encompassing the different genres of music, ensures that we reach a broad audience base. The aim has always been to provide a wholesome experience that looks at increasing stickiness. That is why, apart from Web Radio, you will also find videos, songs, shopping and everything from the world of music on the website. I think we have appropriately evolved ourselves with the passage of time into a destination that brings the latest of music from round the world, to the ardent music lover. We have managed to create a loyal fan-base. This has been complemented by our robust presence in the social media (@planetradiocity, facebook.com/planetradiocity). Today, we are in a position to leverage our fan base for social initiatives like ‘Deep Jyoti’ a crowd funded initiative facilitated by Planetradiocity.

How important is the launch of the internet radio stations to your web strategy?  Why a devotional channel for example and how important is the move towards regional web stations?

The strategy has been to identify need gaps and provide listeners with what is missing from the scene. Also, we look at reaching out to maximum audiences through specialised streams. Substantial research goes into before launching these streams and on the type of content. We have launched about 5 streams in the past year. The streams cover all genres Radio City Freedom (Indie music) to Radio City Smaran (devotional music). The premise for launching a dedicated devotional web radio station was from the observation that devotional music forms a substantial volume of search and consumption on the web, as also on our website. This has been validated by the fact that Radio City Smaran has, in a short span, emerged as one of our strongest offerings. We also delved into the regional music space with the launch of Radio City Tamil. This was again a result of the fact that users do not have many good regional Web Radio stations to tune in to. Plans to launch more streams are on the anvil. Multiple streams give us, the opportunity to tap different parts of the audience with content that is not only specialized and exclusive, but also superlative.

How soon will you be able to stream your city-based stations?  You mentioned you would launch more web only channels?  When are they due?

Our new stations would be launched in H2 and you will definitely hear about it soon. Just to elaborate we are looking at regional languages, as we want to provide content that is not easily available, despite the demand. Right now our approach is more genre and language driven. To take our city based stations online, we hope that certain regulations are relaxed and licences need to be more conducive than they are right now.

Do you see the opportunity to offer music streaming services more akin to Spotify than radio per se?

I believe we go beyond Spotify, which is more about streaming music. We are a full-fledged web radio station complete with interactive and innovative content. The content is replete with jock talks and goes beyond assorting a simple playlist. With innovative programming like Boss’ Top 5 (a collections of songs favored by top corporate honchos) and initiatives like Listening Parties (breaking unplugged music), we go much beyond music streaming.

Who are your biggest internet threats?

The country is slowly opening up to the concept of web radio. Advertisers are opening up to the concept of investing in internet radio; however, some inhibitions are still there. The volume of advertisements surely needs to go up to accelarate the growth of web radio in the country. Also, music licensing is a big challenge. We are in the process of consoliodating the music on Planetradiocity, in collaboration with music labels.

What are your plans to extend your service to mobile and tablet versions?

We have already ventured into the mobile space with the ‘Planetradiocity’ app for iOS and Android. The app features our web stream ‘Radio City Freedom’ along with Radio City humour capsules like ‘Babber Sher’, exclusive videos and interviews. The app aims to reach out to the multitudes of music lovers who are always on the move. The app archives all the popular features from Radio City including the hilarious comedy series Babber Sher, which has a nationwide following.  City-centric features like the famous ‘Punch Patela’ (Bangalore) and ‘Hunter’ (Ahmedabad) can also be enjoyed through the app. Rare and exclusive videos of celebrity visits to the Radio City studios, along with Bollywood news, are added attractions. No other radio station in India currently has a dedicated app that users can tune in to on the go. As pioneers in the Indian internet radio space, PlanetRadiocity.com’s endeavor is to bring the best in class user experience to millions of listeners all over the world. We are known as innovators in the industry, be it launching web radio in India or launching new properties for Indian independent music.

How does your web strategy fit into plans for Phase III?

Phase III is supposed to bring in an expansion for terrestrial radio. It is supposed to increase the scope for terrestrial radio going beyond the present reach. The web strategy will not be affected; the digital medium will only complement terrestrial radio by bringing in additional reach across geographies with listeners tuning in across time bands.