India’s Big FM network has set up Thwink Big – a short-form video and audio talent incubator and marquee content studio to cater to growing consumer and advertiser needs and changing media trends.

According to the network, it encapsulates three core aspects of its strategy - music, story-telling and social experiments.

Thwink will also produce all the national shows like Suhaana Safar With Annu Kapoor and The 90s Show With Anu Malik. 

Spearheaded by Manish Karnatak, the studio consists of top talent in both audio and video like Aditya Parwatkar who heads national programming with diverse career experiences in the media industry and Vanshika Sharma who is a passionate storyteller with over 12 years of extensive programming experience with media outfits such as Voot.

Commenting on the launch, Tarun Katial, CEO, BIG FM says: “Thwink will be a strong pillar to our content marketing offering for consumers and advertisers. We have put together a team of experts who will curate marquee cutting-edge content across mediums - audio and video deployed on Radio and Digital and work closely with talent across genres. It will also serve as a go-to partner for advertisers for creating clutter breaking content, spikes and solutions. It will enable strategic innovation and creation of quality content with increased efficiency. Thwink is our vision for the future of content in the industry.”

Speaking on the studio launch, Manish Karnatak, National Creative Director Big FM & Head, Thwink Big says: “It is really important to have a strong understanding of the consumers’ needs in the uncertain digital domain. At the same time, it is key to possess capabilities to deliver on those fronts. Thwink BIG acts as a one-stop-shop in accelerating production of innovative content to further expand our repertoire of offerings and cater to higher volumes of media consumption in today’s times. We thrive on digital content and our aim is to empower content creators to take their offering to the next level. We have already produced and delivered differentiated content and will continue to offer this for our customers and consumers.”

India’s Big FM network will celebrate March as the festive month of the women with an initiative titled #AbMeriBaari (It’s My Turn Now).

The activity will promote woman empowerment with 12 original stories of women achievers narrated by music director and singer Shekhar Ravjiani.

It will acknowledge and celebrate womanhood by appealing to listeners to thank the most important and inspiring women in their lives.

Three best stories will also be released in a video format. The first video will be released on the occasion of Women’s Day on March 8 across the network’s digital and social media platforms.

Speaking about the activity, Manish Karnatak, Head, Thwink BIG said: “Every year around Women’s Day, the key subject remains women empowerment. However, we didn’t want to just talk about it but also consciously embed it in the minds of the consumers by encouraging them to take initiative.”

Shekhar Ravjiani said: “#AbMeriBaari encourages citizens to thank women for everything they do, and create awareness about acknowledging and reciprocating that, not just on Women’s Day, but each day of the year.”

India’s international music station Indigo 91.9 FM has announced the launch of a new show - Mind.Fit.

The show aims at helping listeners rediscover inner peace, put minds at ease and build a positive work environment, through exclusively curated content for mind and body wellness.

Hosted by mental wellness and meditation expert Dr. Shyam Bhat, it integrates a classical style of Hatha yoga with mindfulness and breath work.

The show airs every Thursday from 9 pm onwards.

Indian network Radio City has announced the shortlisted nominees for the fifth edition of its Freedom Awards, the search for country’s best independent music artistes.

Listeners can vote for their favourite artist at http://www.radiocity.in/rcfa/ till March 18.

The shortlisted entries in each genre include some big-name artists and bands such as:

·         Best Hip-Hop Artist - Emiway, Babu Haabi, Brodha V

·         Best Pop Artist - Alobo Naga, Prateek Kuhad, Ankur & The Ghalat Family

·         Best Rock Artist - Parvaaz, Junkyard Groove

·         Best Metal Artist - Demonic Resurrection, Chaos

·         Best Electronic Artist - Grain & Komorebi, Bandish Projekt

The theme for this year’s awards is ‘Sounds of the Soil’ which will be an ode to local sounds, heroes, stories and music.

Shortlisted finalists, who were chosen from 862 entries across the country, will face off in the Grand Finale in Mumbai on March 22.

This year's jury includes renowned industry stalwarts like Luke Kenny, Vijay Basrur, Atul Churamani, Ritnika Nayan and Anirban Chakraborty.

Apart from the awards, the jury will also choose winners in non-music categories such as Best Video, Best Album Art, and new categories such as Best Young Indie Artist/Band, Best Indie Collaboration of the Year, and Indie Genius Person of the year.

Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and the Association of Radio Operators for India (AROI) signed a Memorandum of Association (MoU) last week.

Both associations were represented by their respective Presidents - Nakul Chopra for AAAI and Anurradha Prasad Shukla for AROI.

With the signing of this agreement, they will develop a mechanism to create a joint credit control mechanism for radio advertising.

The MoU envisages a close working relationship between AROI and AAAI through joint committees and standard procedures for the following purposes:

• To make joint efforts for promoting advertising business on radio.
• To develop and implement a credit control and collection mechanism with standard operating procedures to ensure best credit terms and timely collections.

Currently, there are 310 commercial FM radio stations in the country and the government is expected to auction another 700 over the next one year.

Indian network Big FM has announced the launch of the country’s first audio and video series on radio as well as digital.

The theme-based series called ‘Duck se Dude’ will consist of nine original webisodes which will air on weekdays on Big Originals throughout the upcoming cricket season.

The series is the story of an introvert boy (Manjeet) who doesn’t have any friends and lacks the courage to speak to the girl he loves.

He decides to seek help from the host of a late-night radio show, who offers the game of cricket as a solution for all his problems and transforms him from being a ‘duck’ to a ‘dude’.

On the soon to be launched web series, Manish Karnatak, Head, Thwink BIG says: "Cricket has become a part and parcel of our lives today and it is easy to strike a conversation and connect with a fellow cricketing enthusiast, even if she / he is a stranger. We used this insight for Duck Se Dude where although we are talking about real issues that typically a teenager may face, we've given it a 'slice of life' treatment where cricket is the backdrop."

India Radio Forum (IRF), to be held on May 18 at Gurugram, Delhi NCR has announced ‘Local Brain’ as its theme for this year.

The annual event brings together radio and media industry players to discuss and learn on how to revitalize and create a significant impact in listenership, discuss new developments, strategize on revenue and research options.

The theme of the year intends to capture the country's local essence and its various creative forms. The direction of the Forum this year would be creative inspiration and ideas and what's next for Radio.

The day will also witness the popular Excellence in Radio Awards (ERA) to celebrate and award the very best of Indian radio, honouring outstanding programming, on-air personalities, marketing & promotions and creativity within the industry.

Rajika Mittra, Special Projects Director said: "Local Brain - is a very interesting theme. The essence of this powerful medium lends its uniqueness and projects new creativity and ideas in the Radio industry. Radio is the most engaging medium with a lot more potential to explore."

Nisha Narayanan, COO of Red FM Network believes: "The present edition's theme is 'Local Brain' and is based on capturing the local essence of India in various creative forms. The power of vernacular, the power of local content is clearly the way forward. The strength lies in localization and regional flavours. As I often say, ours is a fight with technology not between FM players, hence innovation and disruptive content will continue to be the key focus areas. Going forward, aim should be integrating radio effectively across all media plans without pulling down the power of any other mediums."

B.Surendar Chief Operating Officer of Red FM network is bullish in his views: "With India's growth story spreading beyond metros and mini metros now, the objective of radio industry should be to re-imagine and re-draw boundaries of creativity, content and its overall business model. Not surprisingly, IRF has chosen 'Local Brain' as the theme for this year's event."

India’s Radio City network held the grand finale of the fifth edition of its ‘Freedom Awards’  to celebrate independent music.

The event, which was held on Thursday, saw established and new Indie musicians walk away with top honours.

The theme for this year was ‘Sounds of the Soil’ and the run up to the event saw 13 live gigs in 10 languages across 8 cities. 

The finale saw performances by prominent artists such as SIFAR, Khasi Bloodz, Maati Baani and Paranox and Friends.

Outstanding artistes were awarded across categories including Best Hip Hop/ Rap Artist, Best Folk Fusion Artist, Best Pop Artist, Best Rock Artist, Best Metal Artist and Best Electronica Artist.

Abraham Thomas, CEO, Radio City said: "With over 864 nominations, over 16000 votes, 13 gigs across 8 cities in 10 languages, RCFA 5.0 truly embodied its theme of Sounds of the Soil."

‘Get some Sun’ - the longest running travel show on Indian Radio entered its fifth year on Radio One. 

The show has had Bollywood star Ranveer Singh as host through the years and he gives travel advice in the seven cities that Radio One operates and encourages people to ‘chase the sun’ all over the world.

Hosts also enable special ‘adventure’ stories of local destinations that listeners have visited.

The previous editions of the show through the last 5 years have enabled listener engagement not only to fabulous destinations like all the ‘global wonders of the world’ but also partnered with tourism boards of many countries to help Indians better understand global destinations they must visit as part of their global travel calendar.

Anil Machado, Chief Content officer at 94.3 Radio One said:  “We realized the opportunity five years ago to engage our tribe of upscale listeners with superlative content that interfaces with their real lives. This is a ‘higher travel exposure’ listener as compared to the listeners of mass radio stations.”

Popular Indian DJ Nucleya will soon host a show on BBC Asian Network.

The 38-year old music producer, whose real name is Udayan Sagar, started playing around and experimenting with abstract music at the age of 16, and co-founded a band called Bandish Projekt.

In 2007 he stepped out of the band and started working on solo projects.

He will be hosting a Sunday evening show from 7 to 9 pm on BBC Asia Network where he will showcase the best of new electronic music from across South-Asia.

He will also share his experience from Indian dance music scene and talk about tours with international artists like Skrillex, Major Lazer, Diplo and DJ Snake in India.

“From having my music played on the BBC Asian Network to being able to host a show is an honour. I hope to use this platform to shed light on some of the incredible young producers making music in India and across the South Asian diaspora," said Nucleya to BBC Asian Network.

This year’s India Radio Forum – the annual one-day industry conference will host a session titled ‘Power of Radio’.

The conference is set to be held on May 18 at Gurugram, Delhi NCR.

The panel discussion, moderated by Abraham Thomas, Chief Executive Officer - Radio City 91.1FM, aims to create awareness about radio as a powerful medium for both consumers and advertisers.

Panelists will discuss the findings of a recent report by Nielsen commissioned by Music Broadcast Limited, to understand the media consumption habits of audiences across Metros & Non-Metros.

The study highlights the growth potential of the industry, the Indian radio industry beating global trend and much more. The survey also answers most of the questions like:

• ​Which medium is favoured by the audience as the most trusted and credible source of information?
• Which sector gets the most ROI from which medium?

Which is the most used platform to hear music? 

Indian network Big FM has announced Season 2 of its popular show 'Lamhe', which will be hosted by actor Zain Khan Durrani. 

Titled 'Lamhe with Zain', this fiction based thematic drama show will feature stories revolving around relationships and emotions along with songs weaved into the narrative.

The show will launch on April 16 and will air on weekdays on the station.

A Big FM spokesperson said: “The show is a perfect blend of storytelling and music."

 On his debut as an RJ, show host and actor Zain Khan Durrani said: "Storytelling has always fascinated me and when I heard the concept of Season 2 of Lamhe, it was an instant nod at my end. It has been one of the most compelling radio shows and I hope I can take its popularity a notch higher since this season is bringing some of the most engaging stories around relationships and emotions for listeners. I've already played an RJ in my recent movie and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience."

Asian Consumer Events Forum (ACEF) Awards held its seventh edition last weekend in Mumbai, where Indian stations were among the big winners.

Founded in 2012-13, the ACEF program is organized by a team of professionals from India, Sri Lanka and UAE and is guided by the Advisory Members from Branding, Marketing and Creative Agencies based in India, US, Australia, Singapore, UAE and Sri Lanka.

ACEF Awards honour the best creative work as well as innovative customer engagement programs and BTL execution by brands. 

RED FM network was the top winner with 7 Gold, 6 Silver and 3 Bronze medals. 

Radio City was second with 6 Gold, 3 Silver, 2 Bronze and Most Admired Network of the Year awards; and Radio Mirchi bagged 1 Gold, 3 Silver and 5 Bronze awards.

Here is the complete list of winners:

Indian station 93.5 Red FM, Kolkata, has revamped its evening show U-Turn with two young radio jockeys Rashmi and Sharique.

The show, which airs every day from 5 pm to 9 pm, aims to be more interactive and features innovative content with a renewed format.

Nisha Narayanan, COO, RED FM, says: “Kolkata is undoubtedly the cultural capital of India where the whole city is soaked in music, art, literature and theatre. Conventions co-exists with contemporary; spontaneous charm blends well with profound wisdom; and divergent worldviews are often order of the day. Rashmi and Sharique are the voices of the millennials. Together as two sides of the same coin, they will bring alive that paradoxical nature of the city, engaging listeners with refreshing dose of entertainment daily.”

Indian network Big FM has emerged as the number one private FM broadcaster nationally, as per the recently released Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2017 data.

The network leads with the highest listenership base of 17 million in the country, with 59 stations covering 1200+ towns and 50,000+ villages.

According to the IRS report, BIG FM enjoys a 5%, 12% and 20% higher listenership pie in the North, South and East region compared to its closest competitors and is in a leadership position in 80% of the markets that it operates in. 

Commenting on this, a company spokesperson said: "The IRS 2017 data is indicative of all the hard-work that goes in delivering the best content to our audience on-air as well as digitally. We also ensure that our efforts are an extension of the quality experience that our radio and digital audience expect from us.  We consciously endeavour to deliver value to all our key stakeholders across regions and we hope to continue the leadership position in the market with unmatched content."

Indian network Radio City’s Delhi station emerged as the new number two station as per the RAM (Radio Audience Measurement) ratings for week 12-15 with a share of 12.4 percent over the past four weeks. 

Radio City has also been ranked the top player as per the latest RAM ratings in Bangalore with 25.4% share and in Mumbai with 16.5% share.

Commenting on the performance, Abraham Thomas, CEO, Radio City said: "We are very excited to see growth in reach for Radio City in Delhi over the past few weeks. These ratings reinforce the loyalty conferred by our listeners in the city and encourages us to continue our effort in providing them with enriching content. Our innovation first approach has truly paid off as we can see that our station has emerged No.2 in Delhi amongst listeners and advertiser."

Note: Not all stations participate in all ratings surveys, so care should be taken to consider the whole market before making decisions based on current data. 

Excellence in Radio Awards (ERA) at the India Radio Forum 2018 recognised and celebrated the best of Indian radio industry on Friday.

The show was opened by B. Surendar, COO of RED FM Network, followed by an interesting discussion by Abraham Thomas of Radio City, who shared his vision along with speakers like Divya Karani, CEO – Dentsu India and Rohit Upadhyay, MD & CEO, iBroad 7 Communication in their session titled, the 'Power of Radio', offering some relevant pointers, discussing its reach, impact, depth and application.

This was followed by an engaging session moderated by Naresh Gupta from Bang in the Middle who used his experience of over two decades to shed light on the role of Radio, as a medium, in building brands which included speakers like Mausumi Kar, MD, GroupM India and Priti Murthy, CEO, OMD India.

The most engaging session of the day – a conversation between Radio expert, Elliot Stechman of the AVC Group and Tapas Sen, Chief Programming Officer of Radio Mirchi. The enthralling conversation, led to their opinions and strategic insights shedding light on the need for a robust infrastructure to further build up the Indian Radio industry along with investments on the right talent at the right time.

The last session of the day, moderated by Rajat Uppal, National Marketing Head of RED FM Network, titled 'Creating Brands and Sub-Brands in a Cluttered Space', revolved around how good products need and variety in offerings to consumers help build a brand. Joining him on stage was the popular RJ Malishka, Swaroop Banerjee of Tribe Asia, Joy Chouhan of JWT Delhi and Saahil Kumar of Sennheiser.

Speaking about the radio industry and the platform, Nisha Narayanan, COO of Red FM Network said: "The industry is coming together under one umbrella to conduct a research which has been long over-due for the industry like ours. It's fair that we need to have data to support where we stand and the impact of the medium considering Radio is the 2nd largest growing industry in the media & entertainment sector.”

Speaking about radio as a medium, Tapas Sen, Chief Programming Officer of Radio Mirchi, said: "Radio Programmers now need to view themselves not just as Radio Jocks or Producers, but as "Content-Creators". And therefore, become platform agnostic. The way to take Radio to the next level is to transgress its boundaries and view all other media as a seamless continuity for Content proliferation and distribution."

93.5 Red FM won the Best FM Network award and RJ Chaitu from its Hyderabad station won the newly introduced People Choice Awards – a Facebook voting poll.

The Jury Gold award for the RJ of the Year (Hindi) was awarded to Annu Kapoor of 92.7 BIG FM and Radio City 91.1 FM won the Gold award for the Best Breakfast Programme (Hindi). Ishq 104.8FM won the Gold for Most Creative campaign for 'Calling Karan' while Best Interactive Idea went to RED FM Network for 'Bajao for a Cause'.

See the complete list of winners here.

The number of cars with line-fit DRM Digital Radio enabled radio sets on the Indian roads is quickly nearing a million.

All India Radio, the public broadcaster, has engaged in the past few years in the largest radio digitisation roll-out in the world.  With 39 powerful DRM transmitters installed and operational today, AIR is already covering a large part of the subcontinent and an estimated 600 million people with digital DRM radio services.

Digital radio is driven by listening in cars and is paramount for the success of India’s digital roll-out programme. The receiver industry is already on board and has invested millions of dollars in the development of DRM digital radio capable receivers and the roll-out of DRM equipped cars is growing quickly by the month.

In 2017, this number was estimated to be about 500,000 cars, while as of the beginning of May 2018 the volume has already passed 800,000.

Listeners benefit particularly from India’s car industry’s joint effort to provide the in-car DRM functionality as a line-fit option for new models without any extra cost for the consumers.

The increase has been spectacular in comparison with similar rollouts in several other established markets in the world.

Radio Indigo, India’s International radio station has announced a partnership with a Bangalore mall to launch exclusive radio services at the mall.

RAAS or ‘Radio As A Service’ is a premium service offered by Radio Indigo to bring music and engaging content to music enthusiasts at premium locations across the country.

Indigo had earlier launched radio services at airports in Chandigarh and Goa, entertaining travellers flying in and out of the airport.

With the objective of enhancing customers’ shopping experience, the mall radio will play music that is mood mapped to the time of the day.

Speaking on the occasion, Satyanaryana Murthy, CEO of Radio Indigo said: “Having launched Radio As A Service across airports in the country, we were keen to enhance shopper experiences too.”

Indian network Radio City’s web platform Radiocity.in has launched its 52nd web radio station – ‘Love Guru Bhojpuri’.

It’s a dedicated web radio station that doles out love advice in Bhojpuri – a language spoken by almost 40 million people in the Northern-Eastern part of India and the Terai region of Nepal.

It is chiefly spoken in eastern Uttar Pradesh, western Bihar, and in extreme northwestern part of Jharkhand in India.

The core idea behind the station, which was launched by Bhojpuri superstar Ravi Kishan, was to provide Love advice to the Bhojpuri audience across the globe.

Radio City Love Guru has been a marquee property of Radio City, since the station's inception.

The channel would feature a Bhojpuri Love Guru sharing Love Stories, tips and Bhojpuri and Hindi love songs from the 80s and 90s.

Daily episodes on the station will also be available as podcasts on the Radio City app which can be downloaded from Apple App Store and Google Play Store.