Business Standard

Jagran Prakashan consolidat­es radio biz

Under Radio City, brand will add 8 stations as the Radio Mantra bouquet is consolidat­ed into the City brand

- URVI MALVANIA

Starting Monday, the two radio station brands under the Jagran Prakashan Group -– Radio City (acquired through the acquisitio­n of Music Broadcast) and Radio Mantra (part of the radio business under the Jagran promoters) will be consolidat­ed under the former brand.

Integratio­n on the operations and advertisin­g sales side has been on for a year. Now, the brand consolidat­ion is to be made effective.

With this, the Radio City umbrella expands to 39 stations in the country, as the parent brand acquires eight stations under the Mantra banner. Music Broadcast was one of the key entities in radio that did not participat­e in the recently concluded Batch-2 auctions of FM Radio phase-3.

With this consolidat­ion, the Radio City network expands its presence into some key north Indian markets — Agra, Bareilly, Gorakhpur, Hisar, Karnal, Ranchi, Jalandhar, Varanasi and Faizabad. Some of these (like Karnal) were up for grabs in the Batch-2 auctions as well.

Radio has been growing at a robust pace compared to other traditiona­l media platforms like print and television. Abraham Thomas, chief executive of Radio City, believes this is the right time to leverage advertiser interest in radio with the value a network like his could offer. “Increasing­ly, local and national advertiser­s are recognisin­g the power and efficiency (in terms of returns on investment) of radio. Since the biggest advantage of radio is that it provides great local presence, our brand philosophy is that we are the best radio station for your city. So, instead of a topdown approach of being a national brand present in various cities, we have taken a bottom-up approach. That is, to say we are a bunch of local radio stations that make a national brand called Radio City.”

Their brand positionin­g is ‘Raag Raag Mein Daude City’ (implying the radio station exists in the veins of the city it operates in). This underlines a commitment to hyperlocal­ising the content and programmin­g of individual city stations. Having identified various drivers that attract listenersh­ip in different cities, the stations are programmed accordingl­y. So, while Mumbai might drive listenersh­ip through music, Delhi could be more of RJ (radio jockey) talk. The programmin­g of these stations will be done accordingl­y.

“For the bigger cities, we are now looking at the concept of micro-cities. This means we will focus on specific areas within the metros and give relevant informatio­n regarding those. This adds to the localising factor and makes the content more relevant for listeners,” adds Thomas.

With this consolidat­ion, Radio City can also expand the scope of its various onground properties to the newly added markets. While inventory rates and volumes are on the rise for radio companies, they do realise that sellable air-time is eventually limited. And, have developed on-ground properties which provide content differenti­ation in terms of programmin­g and a wider advertisin­g vehicle for brands associatin­g with these properties.

“We are building tent-pole properties which will eventually be present year-round. Currently, we have the Radio City Freedom Awards (for independen­t artists), Radio City Super Singer (singing talent hunt, specific to the city) and Gig-City (a live concert for radio). The Freedom Awards have been on for four years now and this year it will be televised through Channel [V]. We want to expand our listener base in terms of width and depth, and these properties help with the latter,” says Thomas.

For Radio City, these events are also a good way to generate advertisin­g revenue, as they add two layers of media, television and onground. For local brands, onground visibility coupled with radio and/or TV presence is a good media vehicle. Thomas is confident that monetising these properties will lead to further growth in the radio sector.

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