Red FM, Big FM and Radio Mirchi have dominated the Indian Excellence in Radio Awards (ERA) 2016.
The winners were announced at the end of the annual India Radio Forum 2016 in Mumbai on Friday.
The Awards, which celebrate the best of Indian radio, had four categories- Programming, Talent, Promotion and Marketing & Advertising.
Red FM won 11 awards followed by BIG FM, which grabbed eight metals, and Radio Mirchi with six metals.
Best RJ of the year was won by Neelesh Misra for Big FM’s ‘Yaadon ka Idiot Box’.
Red FM won the Best Breakfast Programme for its show ‘Morning No. 1’ in Mumbai as well as the Best Radio Promo award.
Radio Mirchi, Delhi, was the Best Radio Station.
The Forum focused on the challenges that the Radio broadcast industry faces kick started with an opening speech by Rajat Uppal, National Marketing Head of Red FM and Ashwin Padmanabhan, COO, Big FM. This was followed by an interesting session on measuring ROI for Radio by Gaurav Mehta of OLX.
Speaking about radio’s relevance in the mobile world, Tarun Katial, CEO, RBNL, said: “FM has the availability to give music on mobile phones. As we bring in differentiation on music formats, people will have the options to choose from retro to contemporary to top 100 songs. No new media has killed any new media but it always evolves.”
Prashant Pandey, CEO of Radio Mirchi, said: “The one message, I would like to give to brands is explore online and digital mediums for business rather than sticking to only one platform. One needs to come out of the comfort zone and do what is best for the business rather than sticking to only one platform for the growth.”
Hari Krishnan, CEO of Zenith Optimedia, said: “2015 has been a great year for radio according to KPMG and FICCI. With phase 3, the industry finally saw the light day. The radio industry has evolved a lot, in terms of experimenting with the content but somehow advisers still see thin gap somewhere. There are five potential loopholes in realm of brand story telling through video. Being a medium with lots of limitations this year has not been as great for radio industry so far but with many new brands coming in with FDI, Radio industry will have a big opportunity to offer clutter breaking options. Radio is magical, powerful but under-leveraged medium.”
The complete list of winners is here.